DD not in cot but friends and family who have their children in beds recommended a rail to start, one on special this week in target. We started looking at mattresses last week, (thinking of moving DD 22 months into bed in 3-4 months) and guy at mattress shop reccomended mid range matress with good support but not the most expensive,which i was suprised to hear that he didnt want to sell me the dearest one?? cos he said there's bound to be wee accidents and children tend to use matresses as tramps and jump on them. good luck with move from cot to bed...