"Porta" cots

Okay possibly a stupid question... but, does anyone actually use this to put your baby to sleep in?

I have just set one up at my MILs house for my baby, and discover that:

a) the "mattress" and i use this term loosely, because its essentially a plank of wood with a centimetre of padding - is extremely hard!

and

b) It says inside not to leave your baby unattended.... (well pointless if my idea was to put him asleep in another room)

So i'm wondering if its just supposed to be a playpen of some sort? It also says not to add padding or another mattress, which i was going to do so i could let him sleep in it. Am now wondering if i should just buy another normal cot as he'd be using it at least once a week.

we have steelcraft enigma, have only used it 2 nights far and jacob slept well in it.

Doesnt look most comfortable place to sleep but friends have had no issues with there kids.

I bought a quilted fitted sheet to give it a bit of padding. They are not ment for full time sleeping just more occasional used eg at grandparents or friends etc.

We will use ours again ocer christmas as my parents will be in Jacobs room.

Yeah i just intended it for when he naps over there as i can't leave him in a bed as they have a dog who might get in the bed with him. Where did you buy the sheet from?

Baby bunting about $20

I used the bassinet part full time with my first because I had no room for a huge cot! He was fine in it :) Second time around it was at Grandmas house so only got used rarely. This time I don't even have one anymore lol
I did put blanket folded over a few times then a sheet over the top to add padding... I was naughty!

we had a piece of foam cut from clark rubber for it and mum made some fitted sheets for it!! the matresses they come with are horrible

I use one with a foam mattress that fits snuggly inside of it. You can buy a padded, quilted sheet though. I have one on my website under the "Travel" section if you want to see what they look like.

As for leaving your child unattended, what a weird warning! It is no less safe than a cot, there is no way my DS2 could climb out of it and I'm not sure what kind of trouble he could get into in there! It's probably just a disclaimer to protect themselves.

We have one, we couldn't fit in a cot and change table so we have one with a changetable attached and the basseniet part. It works for us!

I was looking in a baby shop yesterday and saw a woolen underlay for a porta cot

I bought a smaller mattress to fit the inside of ours as we were using it for up to 2-3 weeks at a time when we were commuting from Karratha to Perth. I am pretty sure I also got mine from Clark Rubber...I know of a number of people who have done similar things too.

we actually own 4 :lol: one for our holiday place, one at IL's one at my mums and one for travel...

anyway up till begining of nov jack slept in his at our holiday place no problem the one we have has a slight bit more padding than the other 3

he still sleeps in the ones at the grandparents houses no problem he is 26 1/2 mth old I would say we average 4-5 nights a month where he is in one

yep, Will was in a portacot for about a year. We bought a mattress that fit perfectly and didn't worry about it at all - funny it says not to leave them unattnded on yours! Will was in our room the whole time as there wasn't another room for him to go in but i left him alone in it when he slept in the day and didn't think anything of it.

Julie x

You aren't supposed to add an extra mattress on top because the baby could become trapped between the mattress & the side of the postacot & smother. There was a discussion about this a while back: here

I think some brands have softer mattresses than others. Our steelcraft one is much softer than our "baby club" (cheap) one.

DD has slept in her portacot permanently since 8 months old (she is now 18months)
we were moving and living between family for 3 months so had no choice as had no furniture

we bought a breathable mattress about 2 inches thick that was designed for a portacot from the baby store (about $60).

and when we finally moved into our house she stayed in it as i was 5 months pregnant and she was comfy there.

i am not worried at all.