Some advice needed from you experienced mummies please! My preschooler has one of those toddler start-up beds from ikea (measures ca. 75cm wide) and I'm not sure if it's time to upgrade (and to what?!) because:
-he pushes bed away from the wall as though he needs more space (one side of bed on wall, open side uses guard rail).
-constantly wants to sleep with legs dangling over sides and facing across rather than sleeping lengthwise.
Some of this could be just silly bedtime antics of shifting the bed to make noise, but it might also be discomfort. He's not overly tall at nearly a meter, but all legs as boys can be . And asking a preschooler for answers on how the bed feels is as consistent as fall time weather!
Do you have some practical solutions which worked for you? Has anyone tried having a mattress on the floor until the growth/age steadied itself? Doesn't a larger bed just fill out play space (for those with smaller rooms)?
I would not put a mattress on the floor that can`t be good for his little back . I would upgrade and buy a single bed for him, my son still uses the space under his bed, he hides under it when he as been naughty kidding . He puts his cars under his bed.
My 3 year old graduated from a cot to a proper standard single bed at the beginning of the year. She's a fidget and I often find her with something handing out of the bed, but she's never fallen out.
Her room isn't huge, but I dont want to buy another bed either, so opted for the standard single bed size as she will grow in to it and I wont have to change it.
It just came to mind that you pay alot of money for expensize frames that go under the mattress (we all have electric ones) and i would not fancy sleeping on a mattress on the floor .
When my daughter was 1.5 years old we changed her crib (was open on one side) to a single bed. She showed some sign of discomfort so we decided to buy the bigger version straight away and she learned really fast to sleep in it with a protection side.
Went to a single bed around 2-3 years for the oldest, initially with guard rails as moved around a lot, then took the guard rails off. This was very easy. We made the decision based on how much moved around and the size of the crib and when she seemed ready, all of this of course can vary a lot by child/circumstance.
All three of ours have normal single beds and got them aged 2.5-3 yrs.
Our youngest, now (2 yr 7 mo) just switched to a proper bed - the cot was useless as he's been able to climb out it for the past 6 months anyway.
All three of them slept any-old how in the beds, dangling over the edge, across it, wrong way round. As they got bigger they learnt to sleep the "right way round", as it were.
Have you considered getting a raised bed to create play space under it?
Don't waste money on a single bed if your son finds a 70cm wide bed too small - singles are only 20cm wider. Go straight to a double with at least 1.25cm-1.4cm wide if you have the space. A kindergarten aged kid won't be playing on the floor for much longer. They can use the bed throughout their teens too. My son went from a cot/junior bed to a double bed. I already had the bed as a guest bed.
As for raised beds -they take a lot more effort to make the bed every single week. High beds can't be used as a sofa either, so you'll need some other seating in the room somewhere else, especially for you when you read the bedtime story.
Now, when you say "proper" bed, do you mean like a twin size, the one a teenager could fit on (albeit uncomfortably)?
Yes actually I did consider a raised bed. Holding off because at the mo I'm not sure what arrangements would be best when (if) the younger sibling joins the same room. My son seems to be smitten with bunk beds (typical of a boy who wants to speed up his dreams of being a ladder climbing fireman).
Yes they do, although it does depend on how "raised" it is. You can get different heights, and depending on access levels, it can actually be less difficult to change a sheet, e.g. think raised flower beds & lower back pain from bending over.
On the flip side, it is great fun to get in there with him and read him his story.
EDIT: re normal: 90 x 200 cm. I know Marie commented that there isn't much difference, but in a small room, 20 cm will make a lot of difference, and actually 90 cm wide is very different to 70 cm to sleep in, especially for a pre-schooler. IMHO a bed that wide should last to at least mid-teenagehood, unless your child is particular tall or *ahem* wide.
Ikea used to make 80 (?) cm wide beds for adults. Maybe it was 70 cm, but either way they were narrower than "normal" width and felt tight for a normal adult, yet that extra 10 cm to 90 cm wide seems to make all the difference. Funnily enough, they've stopped this now and all their beds are "standard" sizes.
We have a raised bed from Flexa - big hit with my son, especially if you get the one with the slide / or decorate it as a castle. Is not that difficult to make as the bed is about the same height as me (1.65m). We made a 'kuschel ecke' underneath with another matress and nice lighting. Makes reading time cosy and adds another dimension to play.
My son was in one of those toddler beds from just shy of 2 yrs until almost 5 years old (not tall for his age). I think he is 110cm now and is in a double bunk bed, double below, single above. (He was 5 back in July) He changes as to which he like to sleep in, currently the top bunk, and plays on the bottom bed. My daughter (three next week) is now in the toddler bed. I forsee her in it for at least a year or even two! She pushes it away from the wall but I think that it is just larking around!
Btw, I fully agree that changing the top bunk bed is a mare! But he loves it so!
My grandson nagged and nagged for one of those raised beds, his parents bought it ............. he slept in it for about a week .... and never again..... Reason?...... he was too near the ceiling, and gave him a feeling of claustrophobia!
Could not sit on the bed, head hit the ceiling. Plus.... the ceiling began to get dirty ...... rented flat ......needed painting before we moved out.
AND ... changing the bedlinen or even just trying to get the duvet into a semi-decent shape is NOT easy!
We were lucky .... another sucker bought it off us thru eBay.
My brothers had bunk beds. My sister and I had bunk beds. Our children had bunk beds which we still have and use as spares (we keep them partly because we use them as support to get started when riding the bike on the roller !) These days, to put on a fresh fitted sheet I lift the top mattress down onto the lower one and then throw it back up when I have finished. The duvet and pillows are no problem - I just stand on the edge of the bottom bed. I suppose having long arms helps - Darwin would have had no difficulty working out my ancestry.
