percival: (Default)
Percival ([personal profile] percival) wrote2006-05-26 04:02 am

accident with bedside cot

We're using the Global Bedside Cot to co-sleep. Basically, it's a sidecar crib where the mattress is adjustable. The legs are on wheels, which can be fixed. I believe that some other people on here have a similar arrangement.

The floor of our bedroom is laminate, and for reasons of room layout, we can't wedge the cot between a wall and our bed. We'd noticed that the cot had a tendency to wander away from the bed, so we kept pulling it back. Every night, we checked again that the fit is safe and snug.

Anyway, this night, our worst fears came true. As our DD (9.5 months, very mobile) crawled and wriggled towards me to breastfeed, the cot slipped apart from the bed and she fell through the crack.

According to DH, I had her fished out and up like lightning. She fell onto her feet, fortunately, and after 30 seconds of crying, she fell asleep on my tummy.

DH immediately fixed the cot to our bed using adjustable braces. He's berating himself for not fixing this earlier. I can understand his point, but on the other hand, the cot manufacturer should provide braces if the immobilisation of the wheels is not sufficient to prevent slippage, no?

We're completely sold on the idea of bedside cots, and we'll continue to use ours until DD is too big for a cot. It's just that the execution is ... lacking.

I notice that the make we have doesn't really seem to be sold in Britain anymore - the newer bedside cots have fixed legs and are not on wheels.

Thanks for listening ....

[identity profile] sidheag.livejournal.com 2006-05-26 06:51 am (UTC)(link)
We had exactly the same one, and used velcro straps (ready made from John Lewis haberdashery department) to fasten the side bars of the cot to the side bar of our bed in two places. Maybe something similar would work for you? If your bed doesn't have useful bars, maybe sticky-backed velcro stuck on the side? I think it probably doesn't have to be anything very sophisticated to keep them together enough, but I agree, *something* is necessary!

[identity profile] perceval.livejournal.com 2006-05-27 04:38 pm (UTC)(link)
We've now got adjustable braces in place. Luckily, we have a bedstead, not a divan ...
loup_noir: (Default)

[personal profile] loup_noir 2006-05-26 04:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Could you use something like bungee cords to attach the cot to your bed?

[identity profile] perceval.livejournal.com 2006-05-27 04:38 pm (UTC)(link)
we have adjustable braces, which my husband installed like five minutes after that accident.