Experience with Montessori floor beds?

[Amalee]

Has anyone used a floor bed for their baby? If so, I'm hoping you could tell me about your experience - if you used it from birth or introduced it later, how you began using it with your baby, any issues you encountered... and whatever else you think might be useful for a soon to be first time mom!

Thanks in advanced

 

[daddiesgift]

No idea what a floor bed is but we have our two boys sharing a room sort of based on Montessori. We have two twin beds, both just mattresses on the floor no frame or box spring. One on one side of the room the other on the other side. I would not recommend putting a child younger than one in anything but a crib, bassinet, your bed.. Pretty much anything but their own bed with no rails because of the risk of SIDS or suffocation.

Our oldest co slept till two years old, our youngest co slept with us and big brother till 9 months old. We then moved both to a shared room. 9 month old in a crib and 2 year old in twin on floor. When baby turned a year he went into a twin bed on the floor. They both had no issue going from co sleeping to their own beds. We have no issue with them not wanting to stay in bed in their room except sometimes our oldest will crawl into bed with us in the morning. Oldest never rolls off bed, our youngest is wild and just sleeps all over that thing lol and a few times we've found him half on bed half on floor, that's why I say no to a baby in one alone.

 

[kayaker]

We started my baby on a mattress on the floor at 5 months when he outgrew the elevated sleeper next to our bed. The mattress is now next to our bed. I love it, and our pediatrician recommended it at any age we wanted to start. Part of the benefit is that I can lay down with him, but still have my own bed for me alone if I want that (asI do not always sleep well with him in my bed). Sometimes he rolls off the bed, but then I just have to put him back in. The mattress us low, there is a rug, and he does not hurt himself.

 

[MindUtopia]

I've never heard of these before either, but I think they look pretty great. We bedshare now and have used a co-sleeping cot in the past (albeit one that is bed height) and one of the challenges was after our daughter became mobile at 8 months, we had to move her to a cot for the evening (when we aren't in bed) because she nearly fell off the bed a few times. I would definitely recommend a co-sleeper cot still in the early days as it's best to sleep as close to baby as you can (unless you plan to sleep on floor level too), but these look great for when they're a bit older and you're ready to move onto the next step.

They will obviously be able to get in and out of it, potentially as soon as rolling begins, which could be as early as 3-4 months, so you'll have to account for that. Especially once they're older, you'll have to baby proof the room very well to prevent them getting into anything once they can get out of bed. Babies do often go through a phase of wanting to play and get out of bed, which might be a bit more frustrating. But it's equally challenging when you co-sleep as well (without the benefit of cot sides to contain them) and most people manage just fine. That said, our nursery uses mattresses and cushions on the floor instead of cots as they employ a lot of Montessori approaches and it seems to work great. I don't think you necessarily need a 'bed' but a mattress on the ground would work fine. We've used just a mattress on the floor a few times when traveling. It did necessitate a lot of running after her when she would get out, but still better than a cot.

 

[special_kala]

I like the idea of this but i dont think you can just have a mattress on a floor, you need it slightly elevated for air circulation.

 

[Amalee]

Thanks everyone. Daddiesgift, what you're doing is pretty much exactly what the bed is, except that they recommend completely baby-proofing all areas of the room and starting it when baby is very young. Parents make sure that clothes, blankets, soft toys, etc are inaccessible to the baby to lower the risk of SIDS. Generally parents will leave a few safe toys at the child's level so that he or she can wake up and play when he/she is ready to.

The only thing DH and I have planned for sure right now is to use a co-sleeper or pack and play for the first few months so breastfeeding and night changes will be more convenient. We're still exploring our options for sleeping in the nursery, a floor bed being one of those options. I think if we go that way, we'll either build a low platform frame to allow for some airflow or buy a toddler bed frame and cut down the legs so the mattress is only raised a couples inches from the floor. I'm not interested in the floor bed because it's a Montessori recommendation (I didn't even realize it was a Montessori recommendation until I really started researching it. I only included that in the title so that other people searching on the subject wouldn't miss everyone's advice in the thread! ), so I'd be happy to made some adjustments to the idea, even if they are "anti-Montessori." For instance, I think buying and cutting down a toddler bed would be a great option because I'd also be able to use the side rails to help prevent accidental rolling off.

 

[daddiesgift]

Thats how our room is set up but I would seriously caution putting a baby in a bed by itself. Especially a non sitter or crawler. If they do roll off onto the floor you will have to make sure you can hear them in order to get up and go move them, or they can stay asleep and have their face towards the bed while laying on the floor. IDK but that whole idea freaks me out. If a child is mobile, walking about and stuff its much easier for them to protect themselves. No matter if the room is baby proofed or not. Thats why we kept our youngest in a crib from 9 months to a year, he was walking at 10 months but I just felt more comfortable that way. I need to find some photos of ways Ive found him sleeping and upload them so you can see what im talking about. I think its cute because he can easily move himself but an infant or baby can not. Babies will roll early, even by accident at only a few weeks old.

 

[Nela]

I had no idea it was a Montessori philosophy myself. Kinda funny actually since I was looking at schools recently and it seemed to click with Montessori I have and will probably consider doing something similar as a transition between a crib and a child bed myself. I mean, babies learn to climb out of those dang cribs early and it becomes a safety issue. I don't see why not? I love the idea and would probably do similar in my own room if there were no back issues to deal with.

 

[WantsALittle1]

We have a nearly 18 mo DD and we are trying desperately to transition to a floor bed but so far we have failed. We've heard about the air circulation thing, and needing to have the mattress elevated, but can't say we see the necessity of that. Our mattress is waterproof anyway…

But that aside, our major concern with transitioning to a Montessori bed is the safety of it. In our case, it would be extremely unsafe, which is why we haven't done it. We were told by DD's Montessori teacher to "turn the bedroom into a big crib" but frankly that's difficult to do when you live in an apartment. DD has been walking for a few of months now and she still randomly falls with no warning. One time she randomly fell while in her bedroom (which is totally baby proofed with exception of the walls being padded) and banged her forehead on a corner near her bedroom door. Our apartment has dimensional bedrooms--not four flat walls, but walls with alcoves and pop-ins, and she cracked her forehead right on one of those. She had a huge goose egg and a big black bruise that took a month to heal. Frankly we cannot conceive of a way that it would be safe to leave our DD out in the open, in a dark room, in the middle of the night, when she has managed to injure herself on WALLS in broad daylight. That is just my two cents. I suppose one could line the bottom perimeter of the entire room with pillows, but in our case DD would just grab the pillows and throw them about, leaving portions of the wall exposed, which again would be a danger to her. If you cannot actually turn the bedroom into a crib, I really don't see how it's safe to have a floor bed at a very young age.

Stalking this thread for any advice on making the transition, as we are very curious too!

 

[daddiesgift]

I couldn't find any pictures of him sleeping crazy but next time I'll be sure to take one

I think you just have to access the situation with your own baby/toddler. I'm more concerned with an infant in a bed then I am a toddler. And every child is different of course, my 14 month old never gets out of his bed at night. My 2.5 year old does to go potty or come see me, they've never gotten out of bed at nap or bedtime to play. Just stick to a bed time routine. All children get hurt, some worse than others, no matter how baby proof a room is a toddler will find a way to hurt themselves, that's how they learn. My 14 month old is a climber so we have to sit the chairs on top of table when done or he'll push them about the house to climb on to something. But I can't baby proof the couch he's going to climb on it and sometimes he's going to fall. He cries a bit, a bruise may show up but he lives. The other day at a function he was running around with other kids and tripped on his own feet and face planted, causing a huge concrete scratch on his nose, lip and cheek, his nose bled but within minutes he was done being held and wanted right back down where he went right back to running around! You can't be afraid they'll hurt themselves, that's inevitable. Just baby proof the best you can and that will reduce the risk.

I think of you get started into a routine it's much easier to transition. My boys did great and have never hurt themselves in their room.

 

[Amalee]

I don't personally see a bigger risk with a baby alone in the room we have for a nursery than a crib, to be honest. We have two built in corner hutches that we'll be using for clothing and storage, and the edge on each side of both hutches has a rounded sort of molding... Kind of hard to explain how it looks, but it means we wouldn't have any chests or bureaus in the room with sharp edges (if/when we need one, it'll be in the closet until our kiddo is a bit older ) We really lucked out there, as I probably wouldn't consider a floor bed for someone who isn't a confident walker if there were sharp furniture edges throughout the room.

Once babies can pull themselves up on the sides of a crib, they're prone to fall quite a bit anyway - and I don't plan on following baby with a pillow when he/she is learning to stand and walk, so I assume bumps and bruises will happen regardless.

Nela, the point you brought up is the one that actually got me thinking about this in the first place! Those "baby crib escape" videos on Youtube are soooo cute. I pulled a few up for my husband last week, and all the children looked like they were over a year old, most closer to 18-24 months, and then one popped up where the baby couldn't have been more than 10 months! I firmly believe in letting kids climb, run, and fall as a learning experience, but falling from 3 feet up is different than falling from less than a foot. I know that not all toddlers are prone to climb like that, and I certainly don't think everyone should stop using cribs just because their child COULD climb out, but it just got me thinking about this, so I figured I should look into it

I'm really curious to hear what sort of problems parents who did this at an early age encountered. This probably sounds really stupid of me, but I hadn't seen any concerns about a child being alone in a dark room when I was reading up on this, and I hadn't even considered how that would affect the baby. I wonder if they are less likely to get out of bed if it's that dark? As I mentioned, the room probably won't have much they could bang into, so it doesn't seem like bedroom falls would be any more or less harmful than falls in a crib - but I imagine it would still be pretty scary to get out of bed, then get lost in the darkness

Regardless, I assure you all that if this is something we decide is right for us, we would never leave our child alone in an environment we hadn't seen him or her hanging out in independently. Hopefully we'd be able to see potential hazards and make adjustments accordingly!

Thank you all again for all your input

 

[MummyMana]

I base a lot of my parenting styles on some of the Montessori theory (but probably altered quite a lot), however I'm not sure the floor bed would work for us... Imogen has her toys in 2 flatish plastic boxes (so she can pick toys out herself) so she'd just get out of bed and play... Plus once she got into her bedroom and rolled in front of the door so I couldn't get in :/ I don't fancy dealing with that every day by the time she's old enough to not do those things she'll be able to get in and out of a normal bed...

 

[WantsALittle1]

Amalee, just to be clear I totally wasn't trying to say that I thought it would be unsafe for you or any other parent to let their kiddo have a floor bed at infant/toddler stage. In fact, I am super jealous of all who can because I think it is a GREAT move to make, and we are doing everything we can to be a Montessori family in other ways. I was just trying to say that in our case, DD is a danger to herself with nothing more than walls… Even when we clear out all furniture and baby proof window sills and outlets, she'll still find a way to injure herself on a flat wall :/ That's just our girl for ya, and from the sounds of it other moms don't have this problem. You all are so lucky!

I am really interested to hear if anyone has comments on that. I, too, think that falls and cuts and bruises are a necessary part of childhood, but I fear that DD would fracture something if she didn't have the crib bars keeping her in place. She is very clumsy

 

[Amalee]

Oh, I didn't think you were saying that, but safety is obviously a concern with any decisions to make! I was just trying to describe my specific situation and why I'm thinking/wondering if it will work for us. We happen to be turning a room into a nursery that has qualities that seem like it will eliminate some of the issues that I think most people would worry about with a floor bed, so I wanted to make sure it doesn't sound like I'm brushing safety off with no worries or something

But then I was worried I sounded like I think cribs are unsafe, and I don't think that either - since I can't use inflection over the internet, I tend to over-explain to avoid accidentally offending people.

 

[WantsALittle1]

Haha, I do the same! I am always worried that I come across with the wrong tone. I try to use lots of smileys and exclamation points to convey my demeanor, but that doesn't always work!

And PS… I could actually argue that cribs ARE unsafe. There have been two instances where DD has gotten a pretty bad injury from her legs getting stuck in crib bars. Bumpers do nothing in our case--she just pulls them down and sticks her arms and legs through, then somehow twists in her sleep and wakes up screaming…

 

[Amalee]

Ohhh, poor thing

I guess a better way to put it would be that everything is unsafe at one point or another, but I get that it's about finding what works best for your own family. Even being held by a parent has some risks - we've all fallen or tripped at one time or another!

 

[Feronia]

We've been doing this from before I even read about Montessori floor beds, and I started doing it when DD learned how to roll (before then she'd just sleep on our bed). We have a mattress coming out from under our bed and I lie on it to nurse her to sleep for naps and at night. When she wakes up in the night, she climbs into our bed and we bedshare for most of the night (which we have done since she was a newborn), but as she's gotten older she has sometimes preferred to climb out of bed and sleep on the mattress.

For naps, she has always liked getting herself up and crawling/ walking out of the bedroom on her own without assistance. She's always been really independent though!

 

[kayaker]

Like I said before, I am still in process with this, as my baby is 8.5 months old. However, I have been doing it for about 3.5 months, and also have talked with my pediatrician about it - he was the one that recommended it to me. I started pre-crawling and pre-consistent rolling, although he had occasionally rolled over.

I asked the pediatrician what prevents the babies from constantly getting out of bed as my sister scoffed at the idea and told me he would be all over the place and refuse to sleep on the mattress. He feels that the vast majority of them choose to try to stay on the mattress because they actually are, in fact, afraid of the dark and that they feel that the bed is their "safe place", so typically they do not try to get out. He recommends that the room be kept dark specifically for this reason - if there were too many night lights they would be more likely to try to wander around.

Since I would go to my baby if he were crying significantly I do not feel that this "fear of the dark" is any more of a negative experience than it would be if he were to be in a crib. So far my baby is still on a mattress in our room, but will be moving into his own room in a few weeks probably. But, since he goes to bed before we do, I still have an understanding of what it would be like to not be in the same room when he is sleeping. I can usually tell if he has rolled off the bed as there is a different vocalization than his typical wake-up vocalization. If he has rolled off, I lay him back on the mattress and he usually falls back to sleep. He does not fall out every night, but some nights he is more active than others which is when he seems to roll more. I worried about whether he would land in a way that caused trouble for breathing, but I only started it after he had some neck control so I felt OK about it. Even if he has landed on his front, he can at least turn his head, make some noise, and I hear him as he is right next to me. One important factor that the pediatrician told me is to not have the mattress up against a wall (or furniture). I believe the risk is low for a problem with rolling off onto a non-deep carpet, but if they rolled into a hole between the mattress and the wall, or onto a pillow, or onto a big comforter, etc that would be a bigger problem.

One benefit that the pediatrician discussed is that once the babies start crawling or walking they can be more actively involved in the bedtime process by climbing into bed themselves. He used this approach for his 3 kids and was happy with it. My understanding is that he used the "family bed" Montessori approach from birth on, which sounds (to my un-researched self) like co-sleeping on a mattress close to the floor to make it safer so they will not roll off. He used a double mattress rather than a smaller one and he and his wife slept there as well as the baby. I use a child mattress - larger than a crib mattress, smaller and less high than a twin - and it works great because it is easy to move around, can be pushed under my bed during the day when not in use, was inexpensive, and yet is big enough to let me sleep on it with him if I choose to.

I am not familiar with the need for ventilation under the mattress, and therefore would not refute it. However, many mattresses are enclosed in waterproof/dust-mite proof covers that I believe do not have ventilation. If it is a concern about moisture over time developing under the mattress, how about you just tilt it on its side at times during the day?

 

[WantsALittle1]

kayaker, you have an awesome Pediatrician. I wish ours were like yours, offering all the helpful tips and pro-floor bed stuff! That is really awesome.

 

[kayaker]

I agree. We lucked into him, as he just happened to be on at the maternity center when my baby was born. He gives really good information base don his own experiences as well as medical knowledge.

I find it fun to try out certain ways of managing the baby. I felt like there was no harm in trying this. He will need a mattress larger than a crib mattress at some point no matter what. If in the future using this as his main mechanism for sleeping is not working, we could always change to a crib then. I would recommend to anyone to give it a try if it appealed to them - you are not stuck with it if it doe snot work for you.