# Help! Baby keeps crawling off the bed!



## txmommy83

Our bed is REALLY high off the ground. It's almost up to my waist, and I always anticipated that the day would come when she could crawl off of it, but I didn't realize it would be so soon! My DD is 8 months old, and has never rolled in her sleep so we don't have rails or anything and we've never had issues, but in the last week she's crawled off twice! I feel like such a bad mommy. The first time was during her nap, I always hear her wake up but I guess she didn't make any noise this time, and decided to crawl off...all I heard was her crying. The next time was this morning, I am really sick right now and we had a long night and she woke up before i was ready to get up, so I turned on sesame street and let her sit in the bed while I laid there...well stupid me, fell asleep of course and she ended up crawling off again. Both times she's been fine, some tears, but no bumps or bruises...BUT I need to do something about this! A rail wouldn't do anything but make it MORE dangerous because she'd jsut pull to stand up on it and then fall even further. The only thing I can think of is to put mattress and box spring on the ground, but it would still be too high I think. If we put mattress directly on the ground it will ruin it (so I've been told), but I guess if that's the only answer then it's what I have to do. Please tell me there's another way!


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## fallriverfox

Don't feel too bad, both my kids have fallen off my bed and lived to tell the tale. But, yeah, I'd either put your matress and box spring on the floor, or find somewhere else for her to nap. That's what we've done, Anna sleeps with us at night, but for naps, she either sleeps in the bouncy chair or a crib. If you don't have a crib, would she just sleep on the floor? My first did.


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## Mama Mko

Why would putting your mattress directly on the floor ruin it? We've had our mattress on the floor for 4 years and it's not ruined.


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## Santosha Mama

I dont have any magic answers for you, but just hear to say I know where you are coming from and are with you in the worry. When DS1 was little, we had just box springs and mattress on the floor and I didnt worry about him falling off. He was actually very late to roll/crawl and content to just let me come get him when he woke up without me.







We moved our bed onto a frame and now DS2 is getting older and he is VERY active. At 5 months he is rolling and pivoting everywhere when awake. I place him in the middle of our kingsize bed and barracade all around him with large couch sized pillows when he goes down for a nap or asleep before me. The kid will not sleep more than 15 minutes anywhere besides in our bed. I just know in the next few weeks he will start scooting and soon be able to crawl right over those pillows. I will probably move our bed off the frame and put the couch sized pillows on the ground next to the bed (with 2 sides against the wall) so that if he does wake and crawl off, there is some cushioning to break is short fall. Good luck!


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## ssh

Put your mattress and box springs on the floor and then put the bed in a corner so there are only 2 sides she can fall off of. You can teach your DD how to back off the bed and land on her feet and then her butt. Also put something soft on the floor by the sides of the bed. Another option is a baby bed mattress on the floor.


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## claddaghmom

we are using the crib mattress. just put it on the floor on the side where she sleeps.


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## 4Marmalade

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ssh* 
Put your mattress and box springs on the floor and then put the bed in a corner so there are only 2 sides she can fall off of. You can teach your DD how to back off the bed and land on her feet and then her butt. Also put something soft on the floor by the sides of the bed. Another option is a baby bed mattress on the floor.

This is what we do. We've been working on teaching them the whole "feet first" thing but they still prefer to attempt headers off the bed. It's not too high and there's carpet on the floor but sometimes I throw a body pillow or comforter on the floor for some extra cushioning. Each baby has fallen off once. As well as my older dc's when they were younger







.


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## jaylily

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001LL0M78/...0&linkCode=asn

This is what we got for my little guy! He sleeps there for naps now. I can lie down next to him for a bit, on the floor. We're reluctant to put our mattress on the floor, too...haven't done it yet. Not b/c we're afraid it would get ruined but because we like the frame and don't want to feel like it was wasted. lol Maybe we'll get over that feeling someday, haha.

And uh, it wasn't $239.99. (Weird!) It was about $45 at Toys-R-Us.


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## mckennasmomma

sorry i didn't read the other responses, so this may be redundant, but here is what we do:
-put the mattress directly on the floor (I have no idea why that would ruin it?). We don't have storage space so we use the box spring as a headboard and put a sheet over it
-surround the bed with pillows on the floor, just in case
-when she falls asleep, make a U shape of pillows around her (I don't always do this but it is a good deterrant and would slow her down from crawling off)
*-but this is the best thing we do: place the monitor directly on the bed, right by her feet. That way, I can hear literally every sound she makes and could be there as soon as she wakes up and she doesn't have time to crawl anywhere. Then be super vigilant and check on her with every sound until the crawling off the bed stops (which it has pretty much for us. now she wakes up and just sits up rather than immediately trying to crawl off). This is really what has saved my sanity from worrying about her crawling off.

HTH


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## SeekingSerenity

I don't really have any suggestions either. My Lil'Man decided he wanted to crawl off the bed, too, and I ended up setting up the crib beside the bed (one rail off). He still wakes up and crawls straight across the bed, heading for the edge. My box spring and mattress are on the floor (no frame) but it's a pillow-top, so it's still pretty high. I usually just try very hard to get to him before he goes off the edge. If it's morning, we're good because he has to crawl over me and DD to get to the edge, or me and DS to get to the end (DS has been getting up in the middle of the night to crash on the end of my bed again) and he doesn't make it without waking someone up. Naptimes, I try to barricade him into the crib with pillows and carry the monitor with me in case he wakes up and tries to crawl out before making any noise. I've only had him go off the edge twice, both times landing on a folded up blanket (thankfully).


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## pantrygirl

Quote:


Originally Posted by *4Marmalade* 
This is what we do. We've been working on teaching them the whole "feet first" thing but they still prefer to attempt headers off the bed. It's not too high and there's carpet on the floor but sometimes I throw a body pillow or comforter on the floor for some extra cushioning. Each baby has fallen off once. As well as my older dc's when they were younger







.

This is exactly what we do. It's weird, they just love to go head first for some reason.

The first night we took apart our bed, our baby decided that she'd much rather stay in the middle of the bed. Why couldn't she prefer this before?

Now, she loves to explore so we place pillows on the sides of the mattress, even though it's on the floor. Our dog likes to sleep on a pillow next to the bed and in the morning, she wakes up and usually crawls to the side and pets our dog. She once brought her stuffed animal to the dog to 'share'.
It was very cute.

Good luck and keep us posted.


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## xixstar

I'm a little late in commenting, but we have a highish bed and still hadn't managed to get it just on the floor. We've had a side rail since the beginning because she sleeps on the side (I'm in the middle).. once she learned to crawl she did manage to fall off one day. And then, she did it the next day too... man I felt bad.

But that was the end of crawling off the bed. I was super diligent about getting right up to here as soon as she wakes up. But she also now gets to the edge and just looks down. She's fallen off once since then but that was because she was crawling and sat up right on the edge and fell off that way.

It's been about 5 months and we're still careful about getting to her right away, but she's also very careful about the edge too. Also, she fell off the couch and we encourage her to test her limits on the furniture where it's not a big fall if she slips and that seems to really help. Now on the bed she'll sometimes lean to see if she can reach the floor and then give up and go crawl - the only big risk is if she sits up too close to the edge but she's even catching herself when doing that too now since falling off the couch that way a couple times (we have very low couches).

hopefully it doesn't sound like m child is just falling all over the place, she's not really, just has a chance to test her self at times.


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## riverside knitter

We ended up putting our mattress directly on the floor after DD crawled off the second time. Nothing quite like DH rearranging furniture at 2am!


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## Dreamy

We put our mattress directly on the floor - it used to be waist high on me too.

One night of DS practically jumping over me, headfirst straight for the edge, was enough.

I don't see how having the mattress on the floor will ruin it, but I'd rather sleep on a "ruined" mattress for a few years than have my kids needlessly hurt themselves over and over. The frame and box spring now live in the basement, and when the kids are older we'll just get a new mattress and set it all up again.

ETA: Since putting it on the floor (it's still a foot off the ground) I have my yoga mat on my side to cushion any falls. He's fallen off DH's side once, but it was just a little thump and now he's much more careful.


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## blind_otter

We started sleeping on mattress on boxsprings on the floor before DS was born. The height is perfect, actually. He tumbled off the bedthree times total, I think, (in the space of 3 months) before he learned about what an "edge" was. Then he learned how to back off things and he was backing off of everything.

Now he can get off any higher surface (bed, sofa, armchair) by himself easily, and he will often wake up from naps, get off the bed, open the door and come down the hallway and find me. Usually screaming out "MUMUM!MAAA!" as he goes.

Now he is tall enough that he can nearly climb ONTO the bed by himself as well.


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## seaheroine

We sidecarred the crib when she started to become mobile.

Our bed is high up, too, and I was really worried about her falling -- right now the floors are concrete as we're tiling the bedroom (in an ongoing project) and I couldn't risk her doing a header onto the concrete, whether there was a buffer rug or not.

The crib really worked. She had plenty of room to roll, crawl and sleep and three solid wood rails around her. We also bought some Bed Bug Bumpers for along the foot and remainder side of the bed. Not completely fail-proof but she hasn't fallen off yet...I'm hoping to make to her being confident enough to climb on/off herself.

There was no way DH would put the mattress on the floor, I tried. He was sore after work, said he'd spent his twenties on a mattress on the floor and that he wasn't going to do it again.







I also didn't want DD sleeping on the concrete floor...if only we had carpet!

I'm thinking about getting a toddler bed to put alongside DH's side for DD, now that #2 is on the way. She's at the point now where she is almost too tall for the crib where it is adjusted at. I think a sidecarred toddler bed might be our best option for the future...


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## SeekingSerenity

My Lil' Man fell off the bed again yesterday. I was at a dental appointment with DD, and apparently DH put him down for a nap. He woke up and didn't cry, just tried to crawl off the bed. He was in his crib, and crawled all the way across and tried to get down, poor thing.







No lasting damage, but it scared the s*** out of DH. Maybe DH won't put him down for a nap with A) the baby monitor on and B) checking him every ten minutes or so, just in case.

I keep hoping that the little guy will learn not to get so close to the edge... he's fallen completely off three times now, and I have literally caught him mid-air twice.


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## To-Fu

You could side-car a crib and line the un-railed side with big pillows. You could put your mattress on the floor (we did this for a long time!)... as others have said, I'm not sure why it would harm the mattress. You could get a really low bed frame (this is what we're doing now that our son is a little older). Do you have the kind of bed frame now where you could ditch the box springs?

A last option would be to have your little one sleep somewhere other than the bed during the times you aren't there, too.


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## SeekingSerenity

Quote:


Originally Posted by *To-Fu* 
You could side-car a crib and line the un-railed side with big pillows. You could put your mattress on the floor (we did this for a long time!)... as others have said, I'm not sure why it would harm the mattress. You could get a really low bed frame (this is what we're doing now that our son is a little older). Do you have the kind of bed frame now where you could ditch the box springs?

A last option would be to have your little one sleep somewhere other than the bed during the times you aren't there, too.

My crib is side-carred already. The frame is off the bed, and it's just box springs and mattress on the floor (it's still pretty high, being a pillow-top). I dug out the rail that I have, even though it's pretty messed up (inherited it from someone else, apparently they didn't take care of it and the locking tabs are broken, so I have to use zip-ties and pencils wedged into the sliding rails to keep it from constantly collapsing). That will keep him from falling off in the vicinity of the nightstand, and I will keep thick folded blankets and pillows on the end. That should help until he figures out how to get off by himself, safely (which is probably still awhile off).


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