Cot Bumpers

Karnam

i have a cot gallery from lamaze given to me as a present. stops my girl hitting the bars with her hands on one side but lets me see her from my bed through one side.

funky-footprints

i used mine at the other end of the cot from babies head, as we left our sons & daughters bedroom door open at night, and it was a bit if a draft excluder around them. the suffocation rule also applies to duvets on new borns doesnt it ? ?

donna-j_2

We use them, purely because on the first night we moved T to the crib he kept getting his arms stuck between the bars. It made his crib feel more comfy and cosy like his carrycot too.

My HV said that they are not good because the baby can shift up to the top of the cot and get overheated if their head is up against the bumper.

santana-mx3

We bought cot bedding sets for our twin nephews. The sets included cot bumpers which seemed like a good idea. However, my brother in law read that cot bumpers should not be used - they were one of the many suspected contributors to cot deaths in various articles. We/my in-laws didn't know if there was any truth in the suspicions but decided not to take the risk so they just stored them. Now that the boys are older the bumpers have come out of storage but more for ornamental use (since they match the theme of the room) than functional use.

Lillibet_2

Haven't used mine to date as Spud is still in his crib & the bumper fits the much bigger cot bed, however, as Spud still can't roll over & is in no danger of getting tangled up in it I am seriously thinking of getting it out tonight & tie-ing it around the OUTSIDE of the crib to keep out draughts....brrrrrrr.

jane130

if you sleep your baby in the cot they way you are supposed to feet to foot. then these don't even do the job they are designed to do .

SammyD_2

We use our bumper on the cot to keep drafts out as the cot is near our door and has bars on all four sides. Given our 3 month old cannot move an inch I think the concept of her getting tangled in it is ludicrous. And feet to foot is not relevant if you use a sleeping bag for your baby as we do as there are no covers to move under.

We did remove the bumper with baby no. 1 once he started to be able to move around.

Alleycat

We didn't buy a bumper for our dd at first, but eventually got one when she was about 5 months as she was (and still is!) such a little wriggler even in a growbag.

She was in our room in her cot with one side removed until she was about sevenish months and we put it around the three barred sides to prevent her getting her arms stuck and it can be rather drafty where her cot was placed.

She still uses it in her nursery as she gets into all sorts of amusing positions whilst asleep. Its not very tall and easily squidges down when any pressure is put on it, so even though she can stand up in her cot whilst in her growbag I don't think there is any risk of her using it as a foot hold to climb out. We'll probably keep using it until she is in a proper bed as we have no central heating and our house can be pretty drafty especially in the winter.

jellyhead

never mind wriggling down under the covers, my baby pulls them up over his head. we use growbags because he would suffocate himself with blankets if given the opportunity. i suppose cellular blankets have less of a risk but there's still overheating to consider.

i'm not sure of the dangers of bumpers - can they be any worse than my body? my baby snuggles in really close and puts his face to tightly against me i'm surprised he can breathe - he loves falling alseep that way and has never suffocated but i won't be buyinbg a bumper - even if they're completely harmless imagine how awful you'd feel if the worst happened and you were told it was because of the bumper?

Alleycat

I think any risk of suffocation is pretty much removed when they are more mobile as they can move away from anything likely to smother them similar the back to sleep advice for younger babies. The experts say that once they are old enough to get themselves onto their fronts, they are fine to sleep this way as they have the strength to turn their heads to the side if need be.