Cot to bed - what did you do for bedding?

[Miss.September]

Hi all,

Just wondering when you moved your LO to a bed for the first time what you did about bedding - did you give them a doona and a pillow or something else?

DD is 18 months old and has become very anti towards her cot. We've had sleeping issues for a while so we're converting her cot into a bed. She's been sleeping in her own room in the cot since she was 8 months old, coming into our bed maybe once or twice a week. Now she won't go into her cot at all and will only stay in her portacot (which has been set up in our bedroom) for about an hour or so after DH and I go to bed and then she's in our bed with us.

She has slept on a flat cot pillow for a while but she isn't liking that now either. Last night she fell asleep on my v pillow and slept more soundly than I've seen her in ages. I took it away from her, not wanting her to have it while I was asleep and not being able to check her, gave her back her flat pillow and 10 minutes later, she totally cracked it. I brought her into bed with us and she wriggled until her head was on DH's pillow and off she went to sleep again.

I've had a hunt on SIDS site to see what they recommend for pillows, but there are no age guidelines or suggestions (that I can see anyway).

Looking forward to reading what you did for this. TIA.

[feeb]

DS1 went into a bed at 25 months, we bought him a kids doona and kids pillow, and a wiggles doona cover!!

He starts off under doona but every night when we check him before we go to bed we need to cover him as out from under doona and never keeps head on pillow generally sleeps across bed (he has a king single).

We put him still in an all in 1 fleece suit to go to bed due to fact that when we dont he wakes over night and comes to us obvioulsy cold if just in flanneltte pj's.

[thepixie]

DD went into a bed at 15 months, was also a shocking cot sleeper. She has a little toddler pillow and a doona and is pretty good at staying under it.

[Miss.September]

Thanks girls. Pixie - is the toddler pillow you're talking about one of those really flat ones?

[appletree]

We picked up a toddler pillow at kmart, and then got a kids bed pack from Ikea that went with her extendable bed. The toddler pillow is just like an adult pillow but smaller and flatter.

[Miss.September]

Yeah, that's the same as the one that we already have appletree.

[feeb]

Ours is called Junior pillow, bed people chucked it in for free with bed.

[appletree]

i am sure that i asked this same question before getting the toddler pillow, but i can't for the life of me remember the answer sorry! I have a feeling it was considered safe from 12 months?

[melsa31]

I looked into this. According to the SIDS and kids website, the risk for OLDER babies using a pillow in a cot is that they may use it as a step to climb up and fall out of the cot. The website doesn't give an age it just says that you should wait until they're in a bed not a cot before introducing a pillow.

[OceanPrincess]

We bought a Sheridan brand "my first" pillow and doona. The pillow us standard size, I'd say just a little flatter than a normal pillow.

[Miss.September]

Thanks everyone for the tips. Fingers crossed she transitions easily. I'll go to a bed place to get her a suitable pillow.

[sloane]

good luck! hope it goes well. will be interested to see how she goes - i'd like to transition DS to his own bed (rather than sharing with me!) soonish!

[Miss.September]

Well we converted the cot yesterday and she was in the thick of it, naturally. As soon as I finished, she jumped on and started to bounce :S .

Last night, she didn't go to sleep until bloody midnight....she fell asleep beside me on the couch and I put her into her bed where she stayed until 3.45am! So after weeks and weeks of late nights (whole other thread) and then up within an hour of going to sleep, this is a big bonus sleep for me. Yay! So this morning I got her out of bed an hour and a half earlier than she normally gets up (her body clock is waaaay out - into bed late, up late) and she's only had a brief nap today, so we'll see how she goes tonight. I just gave her the cot pillow last night.