? for those who use/used floor beds

[chekhovgirl]

Hi, I've never posted on this board, but I was Montessori raised and I work in a Montessori school, so I lurk here sometimes For those of you who have used floor beds, can you share your general experience?

What did you use?

Were they in your room? Their own room? Combo of the two?

What do you think about it in general and how did it affect your child's sleeping habits?

I became very interested in this after reading about it in one of the Michael Olaf catalogues but couldn't find much information about it. I saw there was a thread not too long ago where people said they had used them. Any information would be helpful. Thanks!

[Lillianna]

Hello! My daughter slept with us about the first 4 months, then I would put her down for the night in her crib (sort of nastalgic because it was from my mom and all of my brothers and sisters had used it) I moved her to her own bed (matress on floor) about 1 year. She loved being able to get in and out on her own. Next time I am definitely starting out with the floor bed from the beginning. I have talked to a coteacher and many parents at our M school who have used it and it sounds like they all had good experiences.

[Drummer's Wife]

The Montessori daycare I used to work for used floor bed's in the nido and IC environments. Children as young as 6 weeks would sleep on them with no problem. The mobile infants would simply crawl off and come around the corner when they woke up. No crying waiting for someone to come let them out. Of course there the staff stayed awake so it is different than in a home environment but I would just baby-proof the area and use a baby gate if necessary. A wonderful book I read 6+ yrs ago was Understanding the Human Being by Silvana Montanaro. If I remember correctly she compared newborns on a floor bed to lizards on a leaf. She said they sense the edge and tend to stay more in the middle. They eventually figure out how to safely move off it when they are mobile. Of course we've all heard about or seen a baby fall off a bed or similiar but then they probably aren't used to sleeping on it from the beginning so they don't have this concept yet. And I believe one or two times rolling off a floor bed allows them to figure out how to stay on it if desired. It's not a big drop anyways so I wouldn't worry about injuries.

I'm trained in Montessori from 0-3 so when I had my first baby I had great intentions of using a floor bed. I bought a crib sized futon mattress and had wanted to buy the frame from michael olaf just to make it look nicer but I couldn't quite justify the cost. After my dd was born I had some well meaning family friends give me their crib and said they'd be honored if my dd slept in it. They even put it together when they brought it over and were very excited about it. I have to say it made her "nursery" look nice but it was hard to get over the whole cage/container thing I had in my mind. I ended up leaving it as we had a wild dog and I thought well it can be used as a place to put her in when I'm showering to keep her safe. Honestly she slept in the crib on occasion but ended up sleeping with us a lot as well. She started walking at 8 1/2 months and we soon took down the crib and got her a toddler bed for the mattress.

I think it's great that you are considering using a floor bed, there are many advantages for you and the child if they are allowed this freedom and are not waking up looking at their world thru wooden crib slats.

[chekhovgirl]

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Do people usually have the bed in their room or a separate room? If it's a separate room, do you have toys and things available to the baby, I'm wary of having the baby getting out of bed alone and playing with things that seem safe, but there's always a slight chance of something going wrong- am I being paranoid?

[pinkmilk]

Make sure the plug sockets are covered, no lamps in the room, nothing on shelves that can fall off and hurt baby. You can even decorate the room really low so the floor looks like an inviting place to be. Set all the stuffed animals up around the room on the floor, paint pictures on the walls of kid stuff(you can even use kids poster paint...it washes right off). If your child is in their own room you could use a gate on the door so you can hear him and so he doesn't feel shut-in if he wakes up, but can't go crawling around the house if you're sleeping.
I'm a cosleeper so I recomend a family sleep arrangement but that's up to you to decide. It would be nice to have a mattress on the floor right beside our bed ...this way maybe dh and I could meet up on the bed sometime for a private rondevous!!

[delfuego]

my baby is almost six months and i just moved him from our bed to a floor bed in his own room last week.

the first night he was exhausted and didn't wake through the entire night but the second night he rolled off the bed twice. i had put blankets and pillows all around the bed in case that happened so he wasn't hurt but he was plenty mad!

since then he hasn't rolled off once! if he starts to wake up at night i get out of bed and go feed him but then i go back to bed and leave him in his room. he actually seems to like having his own room and his own space. sometimes in the morning i bring him back to bed with us so that we can cuddle and all wake up together.

i'm not really worried about him when he starts to crawl, i'll put everything dangerous out of reach... but the experience with him learning not to roll off the bed so quickly tells me that he understands and can be responsible for not hurting himself!

[Lillianna]

Yeah Delfuego, thanks for sharing your experience.

[chekhovgirl]

Thanks!