Safe co-sleeping for crawling babies

[starsunshine]

My son is 9m old and a confident crawler/climber. The cot is side onto our bed and when it's evening time, he's sleeping and I'm having adult time he's alone in our bed. When he wakes up, he crawls off the bed to try to come to me. He sometimes didn't cry until he's at the edge of the bed. I race upstairs but one day he's going to fall off if I don't do something. I currently put pillows and thick duvets folded at the edge of the bed but it's only a matter of time before he climbs over them. So I'm after advice on how to make the bed after for him. I don't have another cot and he'd never go in it so I can't out him there.

 

[BunnyN]

It's a hard age that way. Our youngest cosleeps. I did similar using a rolled up duvet that it was hard for him to pass etc. To be honest in the end once I realised he wasn't going to be stopped I decided to concentrate on teaching him how to get out of bed safely. I showed him how to turn around and climb down backwards. To start with I put something soft on the floor beside the bed incase he did fall. He never did fall off the bed amazinginly. I thought about switching him to a cot but decided against it because cosleeping was working and DS1 wasn't much older when he learned to climb out of his cot anyway. It's a bit easier for us though because our apartment isn't very big and there is no upstairs so he can just come toddling through and find me.

 

[SarahBear]

When my kids were at that stage, the mattress was directly on the floor to prevent falls.

 

[Teri7489]

I agree with teaching him to get down safely. Putting a bed rail will only encourage him to climb higher over it or try to go further down the bed to get around it. He will have bumps but having something soft on the floor and moving bedside tables that he could bump onto for a little while until he gets it is probably the best thing to do. X

 

[tobywells]

When my daughter was 1 year old, my wife and I were all over the place to keep her away from falling. It was the most useful to put blankets, pillows and matrasse on the floor near bed. In 2 months there was her first fall in the pillows. Everything was fine and she wasn't hurt, so my wife was really glad and after the icident my girl started putting a pillow herself to get from the bed.

 

[veganmammy]

I have a bed guard on one side of my bed and an open sided cot on the other side so my baby has protection each side, at the top. He does crawl and walk now and he does climb out of bed so as a previous lady said, I focused on teaching him how to get out of the bed properly and to be honest, it has saved so much worry. I make sure the door is shut when he is in there as we dont have a baby gate on the bedroom, and I have a baby monitor in there. I make sure there is nothing around that he can hurt himself with if he wakes and I dont hear him. It is a hard age for sure but teaching him how to get out safely will save so much worry.

 

[Bevziibubble]

When my first was a baby we had the mattress on the floor so that if she crawled off she would be on the floor already.

 

[love.peace]

We have the mattress on the floor and it's great.
I have simple toys low down my daughter can access so If I'm still quite sleepy I can take my time getting up.
I co sleep with our girls ages 4 and 1.
Hubby co sleeps with the boys aged 6 and 11 (their choice) in the other room and our eldest sleeps in her room. Soon we'll have a family bed with 2 mattresses side by side on the floor.
It's still important to learn how to safely get off the bed but this can be done with the sofa too. And stairs