How soon can i put my baby in a bed?

Question

Hi there, i have 2 children who are 4 and 6 months, both girls. They are sharing a room as we can't move at the moment and as my youngest is still in her cot, space is tight to say the least! I am planning to get bunk beds for them but would like to get them sooner rather than later.

Could i put my 6 month old in the bottom bunk with bed rails on? The bed will be up against the wall on 1 side too. Or is it too young and shall we just put up with the lack of space for a bit longer?

Thanks for the advice.

Answer 1

i say yes.  you can definately put your 6 month old on the bottom bunk with rails.  i had my daughter sleeping in a bed when she was 4 months old.  no problems

Answer 2

six months is  too young not so much falling out but most matresses are to soft for them and the bedding and such they could get smothered

Answer 3

Thats what I'm going to do cos I have a four year old and a 4 month old. The advice I've heard is that they are ready for a bed when they can easily get in and out of it themselves.  

Answer 4

They recommend that children be no younger than 5 years old to sleep in bunk-beds.  My boys have bunk-beds but neither will sleep on the top (they are 3 years and 6 years now) because they both move around to much when they sleep. With bunk-beds there is no way a 6 month old would be safe because she could climb the ladder and get hurt.  You need to wait until she is atleast 2 years old before she can try sleeping on that bottom bunk.  

Answer 5

I live with my parents, (20 years old) with my baby girl and I have to share my room, it is very tight space! I am willing to put up with it until she is at least 2 or 3 years old. There are safety risk and I'd rather be safe then sorry. My opinion keep the crib and put up with the space issue.  

Answer 6

You can get a loft bed and put the crib underneath.  Then when baby is older set up the second bed and put that underneath.

Its really hard to baby proof a child's bed.  Also there is the tendency to fall out even with a rail.  You could put just the crib mattress on the floor so falling isn't an issue but then you really have to baby proof the room.

The benefit of a loft bed is you can put anything under it.  A crib, a toddler bed, a desk, bookshelves, etc.  So it can be used even if your eventually move to a larger house its still useful and you don't have to purchase one or two new beds.

I was going to link to an ikea bed so you could get an idea but apparently I need to update my flash player *groan*

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Ok since no one else said loft bed I thought I'd expand my answer.

There are basically two kinds of loft beds.  There are ones where its basically just a bed on stilts and you can put a second twin (or often even a queen) either directly underneath the upper bed, or 90 degrees from the upper bed.  Or put anything at all under neath.

Then there are loft beds that have permanently attached features.  Like a permanently attached second bed, permanently attached desk, whatever.  Some have built-in shelves, tables, etc.  But the second bed is not permanently attached so a crib can be put under or a small desk.  Usually these beds only fit a twin at 90 degrees from the upper bed.  But its variable.  In some ways an well designed loft bed with lots of features can save space, however a simple bed on stilts is more versatile and can grow with the child.

These are some very neat ones with built-in features:

http://www.bunk-beds-and-loft-beds.com/R...

http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/bab/79...

It looks like the shelving under this one is separate:

http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/my-getaw...

Something like this might be useful because while the steps make it bigger they look like you could almost use a standard baby gate to block them:

http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/free-s**+...

I can't even imagine using this as a loft but I guess for a very small child that didn't mind not using half the lower bunk it would make the top bunk less of a fall.  Then you could convert it to a trundle once they are old enough to "put their bed away" before playing:

http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping.com...

This again has a trundle and a whole built in desk.  Its really space saving:

http://www.bunkbedoutlet.com/ALL%20In%20...

Ok and the dollhouse and castle beds (very bottom) are just too cute:

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=ht...

Twin over full:

http://www.bunkbedoutlet.com/Twin%20over...

And the most basic of loft beds:

http://mstack.onlyic.org/agencies/furnis...

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=ht...

Answer 7

OMG!!  NOOOOO!!  I can not believe some people said yes!  I would not put them in a bed until they are walking...