Afraid 13 month old may fall out of bed - should I get bed rails?

[HeatherRD]

We co-sleep, and 13 month old ds naps in our queen bed during the day as well.  We never worried about it because he usually cries when he wakes up and doesn't move from his sleeping spot.  But now , he's getting so much more mobile, and he doesn't seem to have any fears about crawling near the edge of the bed.  I'm thinking of getting a bed rail, but then he could just pull himself up into a standing position and flip right over the rail, couldn't he?  I'm not sure what to do.  Should I try putting him in a crib?  I don't know how well that would work, since I nurse him to sleep.  Should I stop that too?

Thanks ladies!!!

[beebalmmama]

I would work on trying to teach him how to get off the bed himself to start. Is your bed at a level where that is possible? We have our bed off of the frame and so ds can reach the floor if he goes feet first. Ds 2 actually sleeps in PnP for naps but in the morning I have him scoot himself out of bed and keep teaching him "feet first"

You could try a crib if you have one, but at this point I wouldn't consider buying a crib or a pack n play if you don't already have one.

Another idea would be to put a mattress on the floor. With my first ds we had a futon mattress on the floor where he slept. He also needed to be nursed to sleep and this worked well for us and I didn't have to worry about him falling anywhere.

[CI Mama]

We started training DD to go "belly down, feet first" to get down from anywhere (beds, couches, chairs, etc) from the time she was crawling. I would show her how to scootch onto her belly and then slide down with feet first, providing a lot of assistance of course. Then as she got more agile, it become more of a verbal cue and only providing physical assistance if she wasn't getting it or needed help. And now that she's 2, she'll tell herself "belly down, feet first" to get herself down!

We have our beds on the floor, so there's never been much distance for her to fall there. But it's been helpful with couches, chairs, playground equipment, etc. for her to have "belly down, feet first is the safe way to get down" in her head.