This is how I made a low-profile bed frame cheaply from wood slats.
We want our mattress low to the ground so if our daughter ever falls out of bed, she doesn't have far to go. We learned the trick of putting the family bed on the ground from Christy's parents, and wanted to give it a try. However, the floor in our bedroom is uninsulated, and putting a mattress directly against a cold floor is a great way to grow mold. This frame raises the mattress 1.5 inches; just enough to ensure airflow.
We want our mattress low to the ground so if our daughter ever falls out of bed, she doesn't have far to go. We learned the trick of putting the family bed on the ground from Christy's parents, and wanted to give it a try. However, the floor in our bedroom is uninsulated, and putting a mattress directly against a cold floor is a great way to grow mold. This frame raises the mattress 1.5 inches; just enough to ensure airflow.
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Signing UpStep 1: Build the Framing with Furring Strips
My local Home Depot had 1x3 8 ft pine furring strips (0.75 inches x 2.5 inches actual) for $1.22 each. These things aren't particularly straight or high-quality, but they're perfect for my purpose. I bought 23 of them and a box of 1 1/4 inch nails for a total cost just under $30.
I measured my mattress, then cut all the furring strips to the proper length with a chop saw.
I measured my mattress, then cut all the furring strips to the proper length with a chop saw.
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It could cause overheating which is linked to SID.
Myself, I also had the fear of putting the blanked over our daughters head while I'm moving in my sleep.
From www.dhr.state.ga.us/portal/site/DHS/menuitem.3d43c0fad7b3111b50c8798dd03036a0/
"Avoid putting your baby to sleep in the family bed with parents and siblings. Adult bedding increases the risk of overheating, and suffocation - therefore increasing the risk of SIDS."
We put a crib in the parents bedroom for the first 3/4 year and now she sleeps in her own room next to ours.
But in the morning we take her often for half an hour cuddling when shes awake :-)
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/10/t102200.asp
i guess what i'm saying is that it's safe if you are careful. :)
I did extensive research, and took this issue very seriously. My brief conclusions:
1. Infants don't regulate their breathing or temperature very well, and tend to sync both to an adult's by being in physical contact. From a SIDS perspective, having an infant regulate her own breathing and temperature all night might be pretty risky.
2. If you're not inebriated, there's little to no chance you'll rollover and suffocate an infant while asleep or ignore their cries if they get too hot. You are well-tuned to your baby's needs even while asleep (from personal experience, this applies to fathers, too). Do you think the folks that passed out drunk in bed with their infants would admit to doing so? Consider a manslaughter charge versus an un-disprovable SIDS claim that only goes into the records of state.ga.us and the like -- you have to consider the incentives of the people from which data is collected.
3. We've slept with our young for millions of years, and much of the world continues to do so. Anyone who suggests that sleeping with your child is dangerous is defying logic and lots of evidence to the contrary.
I still haven't gotten to the bottom of the motivation behind people who continue to make these claims. I suppose it's just part of the "childhood should be completely sterilized" thinking that's currently in fashion. It's ok to raise your child however you like, and to sleep with them or not; but, don't suggest that my doing so is dangerous, because it's not. Do your own research and question the reasons behind ideas that don't make sense and don't feel right.
All your young child has is instinct, and if she wakes up to find herself alone, something might be terribly wrong -- she might have been left behind --, so she cries like crazy to get your attention and make sure everything is OK. Why would you want to squash that instinct?
Finally, to end on a positive note, because Corvidae was in the same bed as mom, neither party had to be fully awake for feeding, and all three of us have gotten a full, normal night's sleep every night since she was born.
From my travels in other countries I would say co-bedding can't be too dangerous else there wouldn't be nearly 7 billion people on this planet (by that I mean- there is no central heating out there to keep babies warm folks!).
As the author says- Let's think for ourselves and learn for ourselves!
In fact, there are many known benefits to sleeping with your baby. Newborn infants have poor control of body temperature and breathing, so can benefit by being in close physical contact with a parent. Apnea decreases when an infant has an evenly-breathing adult to pattern off of, and direct skin contact helps normalize body temperature - a mother's bloodflow patterns actually adjust to help regulate a newborn infant's temperature. Sleeping together makes for easier night feedings (especially if the baby is nursing) - I actually got MORE sleep after having a baby, and she was extremely well-fed and rested.
Evolution is also on the side of cosleeping - you come from a long line of people dating back millions who didn't die while sleeping with their parents! (You're still pretty smart while you're asleep; how often you roll out of bed?) In a pre-agricultural society, any child that awoke alone risked abandonment, so frantic screaming was a sensible survival strategy! If your parent is there every time you wake, it's safe - stay calm. There's a reason Western-style "sleep training" is so hard - you're bucking instincts developed over millenia.
So, with a few common-sense precautions, sleeping in the same bed turns out to be a major improvement in mental and physical health for both parents and baby!
I suspect, btw, that you could cannibalize a broken futon frame of the right size to do the same sort of thing if you do need to raise the bed off the floor a bit.
Beyond the inherent risks that come with traditional cribs (fingers getting caught, climbing out and falling), there's a psychological angle to consider as well.
By putting the bed on the floor, you give your child the opportunity to develop a consistent mental image of his room, long before he's actually mobile. So by the time he IS mobile, he's more readily equipped to understand where his bed is in relation to the rest of the room - compared with a child who is kept in a cage two feet off of the ground, who will one day find himself crawling on an unfamiliar floor. Think of it as kind of the reverse of the Dead Poets Society standing on chairs to gain a new perspective. Babies don't need any more new perspectives - EVERYTHING is new. They need consistency.
Also, since the floor bed gives the child the independence to get in and out of bed safely on his own, he's less likely to develop patterns of helpless behavior that are common in toddlers and disruptive to the sleep-cycle of the entire household.
Nice job.
Thank you for sharing!
- the guy ahead of me even got a bargain for taking wheather'd sections