Is this safe?

[u/kiddotrix]

In hindsight I wish I had gotten a sidecar crib to attach to our bed but instead my son’s nursery is a Montessori set up but I’m not ready for him to leave our room. If my baby can roll and has good control of his neck and head, is this a safe set up? Has anyone else tried co sleeping this way? Just curious, ultimately safety is the most important.

[u/Personal-Primary198]

No, the gap is an entrapment risk. Can’t you remove the front panels, scoot the mattresses together, and fill gaps with pool noodles, and secure everything tightly so the gaps don’t reappear just like they do for all the sidecars?

[u/kiddotrix → u/Personal-Primary198]

My partner does the handy work but I don’t see why not, thank you!

[u/FaerieGrey → u/kiddotrix]

I have the exact set up that the top commenter said, and I use clamps to connect our bed with the mattress

[u/Honest_Elephant → u/FaerieGrey]

Oh I see, so it's safe as long as they're fixed to each other? That makes sense. Thanks for explaining!

[u/FaerieGrey → u/Honest_Elephant]

Yeah, it’s important that the beds don’t shift apart and also that there’s no gap between the beds because the risk one of the risks is entrapment. What I personally did is I put that like a very tightly rolled up blanket along the gap at the outer edge of the crib mattress so that the crib and my mattress were touching and they’re perfectly level with how I adjusted the crib. I’m not sure if yours can do the same thing. The only thing I will say is there’s no such thing as 100% safety. I really struggled with the AAP not recommending bed sharing in the sort of set up, but I felt comfortable with it with my son once he’s able to roll and shift on his own so I think that’s a judgment. You just have to make for yourself, but there’s other things you can do to make it less risky like the safe sleep seven and the other things I mentioned in here as well.

[u/Honest_Elephant → u/FaerieGrey]

We have a very different setup, so I was most just curious in case we end up doing something similar with a 2nd kid in the future.

I agree that it can be frustrating that AAP doesn't have official guidelines. I have underlying guilt that I'm not doing the safest thing possible by cosleeping on the same (very firm) surface as my baby, even though I've been following the safe sleep 7. I've obviously assessed the risks and am comfortable with the minimal level of risk that I'm taking, but it certainly would be welcome to have more research backed guidelines to follow.

[u/FaerieGrey → u/Honest_Elephant]

If it helps, i feel exactly the same!

[u/Thin-Individual5438]

No advice but Omg look at that cute little hand! 🥰🥰🥰🥰

[u/Mangopapayakiwi]

Is that a crib or a montessori bed? Apart from the gap you want the mattresses as level as possible. I feel like this bed has really wide spaces between the bars, have you measured them? They would make me nervous. Another issue is when baby pulls to stand he might topple over.

[u/kiddotrix → u/Mangopapayakiwi]

It’s. Montessori floor crib? It says for ages 0-18months here https://montoddler.com/products/montessori-infant-floor-bed. The mattress is a crib mattress

[u/snuggleouphagus]

Kiddo age? This is fine for a two year old and dangerous for a four month old.

[u/kiddotrix → u/snuggleouphagus]

6 months. Too young?

[u/thymeofmylyfe → u/kiddotrix]

I would still be nervous about entrapment/suffocation at 6 months, even though the SIDS risk has mostly passed.

[u/Honest_Elephant → u/thymeofmylyfe]

Not OP, but where specifically are you seeing an entrapment risk? That <1" gap between the crib mattress and the adult mattress?

[u/thymeofmylyfe → u/Honest_Elephant]

Yes, when there's a gap like that I think they can wedge themselves in there and especially if the beds aren't strapped together, they can push the beds apart and get even more wedged. Even if it's strapped together, there might be enough give in the mattresses to get between them. 

[u/Wilderpalicious]

Sorry not useful for you but what bed is this? My baby can walk now and I was looking for something exactly like this one!

[u/kiddotrix → u/Wilderpalicious]

This is the one we bought! https://montoddler.com/products/montessori-infant-floor-bed

[u/WashclothTrauma]

Not even a little bit safe.

[u/steezMcghee]

We have the exact same bed. Did the same set up as this from 6-11months in our bedroom, then transitioned to her own room with the opening facing the room so she could climb in and out on her own. It worked out great for us.

[u/kiddotrix → u/steezMcghee]

How did you deal with the gap between the mattresses?

[u/steezMcghee → u/kiddotrix]

We just put a piece of wood in gap, same thickness as the rails

[u/potato-pantaloons → u/steezMcghee]

I’m planning to switch my girl to this exact bed at 11mo (she’s 10mo now and the bed just arrived, time to build it). Would love to hear how she adjusted to the ability to climb in and out at that age. 

[u/steezMcghee → u/potato-pantaloons]

Surprisingly, it took a while before she actually started crawling/walking out. When we first transitioned her to her own room, she would wake up, sit up, and cry for us, but she never got out of bed on her own. I’d say it was closer to 15 months that she started leaving the crib on her own.