For those who put their mattress on the floor for safety -- what is the height?

[Ginger Bean]

This may be a strange question, but I'm wondering how high your mattress on the floor is.

I have a low bed frame, no boxspring, not a thick mattress.

I'm not keen to put my mattress on the floor because we have a disgusting old carpet we haven't been able to pull up yet. But I'm wondering if maybe my bed is already very low.

If you put your mattress on the floor, is it on top of a boxspring too? Or is it the mattress alone? What is the height?

Thanks so much!

[HappyMonkey]

When our baby was little we put the mattress right on the floor. It was probably about a foot thick. We had the Humanity Co Sleeper... but I stopped using it when our daughter started on purpose rolling off the mattress to explore and was just fine. She didn't do it often, and slept between us. It was at night when getting ready for bed or in the morning she would.

When she got old enough to slid safely off sofas and things like that we put the box springs back (I'm also pregnant and thought it would help me get out of bed when my belly gets larger). So it's probably 2 feet high now. She always goes for the edge feet first and slides off. She's just recently starting going forwards off sofas sometimes.. but she's 15 months old and tall enough to do that safely.

I have to watch her when we are on higher beds though because she assumes she can go ff feet first safely (belly to the bed) and it doesn't work so well if the floor is not where she thinks it is (she would fall backwards if I wasn't there to catch her).

Hope this helps!

Sheryl

[Ginger Bean]

Thanks a lot! Yes, that helps!

My bed is around 19" high. I just can't imagine sleeping on a mattress on the floor at this point in my life. It would kill my back getting in and out of bed, especially since this mattress is thin, and there is no boxspring. I guess that sounds selfish. :(

I'll see how my son develops. Right now, he's almost 7 months old and doesn't crawl. Sometimes he rolls around the room (slowly), and scoots a little backwards on his belly. He usually waits for me to come to him after naps, i.e. just lies there looking around. We'll see.

He's got a Snug Tuck on his side. Sounds silly, but I'm thinking of getting some inflatable pool mats that can be stored under the bed, and then pulled out to cushion any possible falls. From a height of 19in, I would think he would be OK with something soft to land on.

Sometimes I wonder if co-sleepers agonize over this too much. We're keenly aware of the safety issues -- maybe because the mainstream media keeps harping on how dangerous co-sleeping is? And yet if you search "baby fell" there are a ton of parents asking about falls from climbing out of cribs and from couches and adult beds (not family beds) after babies were placed there just a second.