PurFlo Cot and Cotbed Mattress Review

As an ambassador for PurFlo, we were asked to try out the PurFlo breathable mattress on Holly's cotbed to see how it compared to her more traditional mattress.  The PurFlo mattress really is something different - it isn't a solid mattress but instead a breathable sleep surface stretched around a frame.

Our first challenge was to assemble the PurFlo mattress.  The frame of the mattress is made fro lightweight metal tubes which slot together using plastic corner pieces.  It was simple enough, and when constructed, seemed very stable.  Then we had to slip the frame into the PurFlo SleepSurface which was definitely a two-person job!  To make the surface taught you pull a series of belts tight - both myself and Mr. B found this a bit of a struggle and it was hard to tell when the surface was taught enough to provide support when the mattress was in use.  The belts tuck away nicely under a cushioned end-piece.

Once the mattress was assembled, we could really see the potential benefits.  Because the mattress is hollow it allows air to pass between the holes - this helps reduce the chance that your baby might overheat and reduces the pooling of CO2 around them as they breathe out during the night.  The hollow mattress also means that there is no foam centre which can house dust-mites and can therefore reduce the chances of asthma and is kinder to the skin - Holly and Lara have both suffered with irritated skin over the years so this is very appealing to us.

The PurFlo SleepSurface can be removed for washing and can go into your washing machine - this is great for accidents and I think it will work well as we approach potty training.  The PurFlo mattress also would work well when travelling because you can take off the cover, collapse the frame and place it into it's own travel carry bag.  This compact nature means it is an attractive option for if you are planning more children - most parents will consider saving their child's cot mattress even though the current recommendations are that, to reduce the risks of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) you should buy a new mattress for each child; with the PurFlo mattress I would be able to store the frame for future children and then by a new SleepSurface when needed rather than replacing the entire mattress.

Holly seemed very taken by the new mattress and we noticed no difference in her sleeping patterns.  I have had to tighten the SleepSurface once since we started using it but I think that may be from her standing and jumping up and down on her bed!

The PurFlo mattress does differ a bit from other cot and cotbed mattresses and there are a number of required warnings printed on the label which took me by surprise when I first saw the scale of them; however, most of the warnings are largely common sense.  The mattress is noticeably taller around the edges compared to Holly's old mattress and this can mean that your child might be more able to climb from their cot if they stand at the edge, but, to be honest, once your baby has made up their mind that they want to get out of their cot, they will find ingenious ways to do so such as standing on toys (or shouting for their big sisters!)

I think the PurFlo mattress will serve us well.  The cotbed mattress is recommended for a maximum child weight of 22kg which is well above what I expect Holly to be by the time she outgrows her cotbed.

  

Magicbed Portable Travel Cot Review

We have just got back from a weekend away in a hotel - the first of many hotel stays in the coming weeks. This weekend we put our new Magicbed travel cot to its first real test and I'm so glad we have it for the weeks ahead. At nearly 18 months old, Holly can be pretty active in her cot which can often be a bit hair-raising in a rickety traditional travel cot which is why, a couple of months ago, we tried a hotel visit without a cot... we regretted our decision immediately and spent most of the night trying to convince her to lie down and go to sleep in a bed. I think it will be some time before Holly is ready for a bed, which is why I am quite so pleased to have come across the Magicbed.



Magicbed lightweight travel cot in a hotel room

The Magicbed is a pop-up travel cot which takes a matter of seconds (and I mean less than 5 seconds) to put up and to collapse. It comes in its own zip-up travel case which has handles and a shoulder strap to make it easier to carry it along with your luggage. I have owned a popup travel cot in the past but this is something quite different. The Magicbed is the same size as a traditional travel cot (100cm x 60cm) but it rests on the floor. It is a one-piece cot so doesn't require any assembling other than placing the foldable mattress inside it.

When Lara was tiny, we owned a compact pop-up travel cot which I will admit was lighter and more compact than the Magicbed but which simply wasn't practical - we couldn't use it at all with Holly because she was always too mobile to sleep on the floor. The Magicbed works so much better because it is a traditional cot shape, size and height so your baby can't roll over in it or climb out. Holly tried her best to shake it and tip the Magicbed over this weekend but she simply couldn't budge it!

We placed our Magicbed in our car boot underneath all of our other luggage because it can lie flat. The bed folds flat by squishing each side of the cot down to the ground. You slot the mattress and the non-slip mattress cover into the bag and off you go. I was really pleased with the Magicbed mattress - most travel cot mattresses are lumpy, thin or uncomfortable where the folds are but this is nice and padded and the folds doesn't seem to be noticeable, due mainly to the fact that your baby doesn't sleep directly on it - the mattress fits into a pocket underneath the cot. The Magicbed is particularly cosy when you top it off with the super-soft cotton fleece sheet which sticks in place at the corners.

I think the Magicbed is a great balance between convenience and practicality.  Because it rests on the floor I think it is actually more stable than traditional chunky travel cots but I might worry about using it on a cold hard floor even with a nice thick mattress.  I think that ease of use is the factor which appeals to me most so, despite finding it a little bit bulky when carrying it (large but certainly not heavy!) I think the Magicbed is an awesome travel cot.

The Magicbed comes in a range of different colours, weighs just 3.4kg and I even available in a mini version for babies from 0-6 months (although I'd be happy to use the larger Magicbed for this age too).

 

The Bedding Company Silentnight Anti-Allergy Cotbed Bedding Review

We are fast approaching the point at which Holly will move our of a cot. In fact, Lara was already out of a cot by the age that Holly is now and sleeping in a cot bed. Every morning and evening Holly rattles the bars on her cot and she is attempting to escape so this time I am prepared and ready for the move from cot to cot bed and I have on stand-by this Silentnight Anti-Allergy Cot Bed Set from The Bedding Company.

The Bedding Company have a range of Pillow and Duvet Sets so they asked us to review this Anti-Allergy set designed specifically for toddlers. The set includes a 4.0 tog cotbed sized duvet and a slightly smaller-than-normal pillow to match.

I've tried Holly out with the pillow in her cot on nights a week or so ago when she had been snotty from teething and I've felt that the little extra height would benefit her breathing. This ingenious plan seemed to go very well because the Silentnight pillow is very thin so it doesn't come as too much of a shock in terms of posture when sleeping for a toddler who is used to sleeping on a flat cot.

all dora'd up and ready for action

The Silentnight Anti-Allergy cotbed duvet is made from a hollowfibre breathable filling and a polycotton covering which have been treated to reduce allergens such as dust-mites. It is washable in a washing machine which is a BIG must-have when it comes to toddler bedding. It is good to be prepared for potty training! The 4.0 togs means that for us it will be a good all-year duvet for use on the cotbed - it feels very light and very soft and combined with the pillow I think it makes a great first bedding set for a toddler (a duvet is suitable after 12 months... and closer to 2 years if possible as by then your children are able to regulate their own temperatures).

Part of me is really looking forward to when Holly graduates from the cot. I know, from experience, that it will be hard but I think the move is a turning point.

The Silentnight Anti-Allergy Cot Bed Set costs just £12.99 at The Bedding Company.  My top tip - buy two sets (you'll need them when it comes to bedtime potty training!)

Fisher Price Discover 'n Grow Twinkling Lights Projection Cot Mobile Review

Way back in May when Holly was born, Fisher Price sent us a Discover 'n Grow Twinkling Lights Projection Cot Mobile for Holly's cot. It has taken me a while to write up the review because Holly was in a moses basket and then a crib where the mobile wasn't suitable for use, but at about 5 months old we moved Holly into her own room and into a big cotbed where the Fisher Price mobile took pride of place.

The mobile looks like a WHOLE lot of fun and I knew Holly would enjoy it. It was just a bit frustrating that we couldn't use it on the crib (the instructions stated that there had to be a minimum height between the top of the cot and the place where you were to fix the mobile).

The first thing we noticed when we fitted the cot mobile was that it was chunky and heavy. There is a big metal bar that rises up from the musical box, over the cot and then from a box at the top dangles three little coloured animal lanterns and some fabric bees. There is a motor in the top box which causes the animals and bees to rotate. All this means that the mobile is heavy and requires some very good fastenings on the side of the cot. Even then, it does tip ever so slightly due to the weight but because of the security of the fastenings I wasn't worried in any way.

I absolutely love the music on the Twinkling Lights Projection Music. It is good quality, has a good range of tracks and is suitably tinkly to bring peace to the nursery. The music lasts for upto 15 minutes which is a good long period - quite often I find music toys to play such a short amount of music that you end up having to go back and disturb your baby to start the music up again! The music almost always does its job in helping Holly fall asleep.

Although the red, blue and yellow lantern toys were fun, I think they were just a bit too engaging for Holly. When I used the mobile on the setting that caused them to light up, she would spend her time smiling and watching them rather than falling asleep!

As it is, the top arm of the mobile has to be removed at around 5 months old as soon as your baby starts getting mobile and may be able to reach up and grab the pieces - you wouldn't want them dragging that heavy thing down on to them! This meant that the mobile part of the projector didn't get very many weeks of use in our house.

Now we just use the music box which contains the projector. There are a number of different settings which play music with or without the blue stars projecting onto the ceiling. The music box has a little button on the side so that your baby can switch it on and off too. So far Holly has never pressed it by accident in her sleep (I wonder if the music would wake her up?) but she often starts it up in the morning and I go through to see her smiling!

The mobile also comes with a 'remote control' which allows you to turn the music and projector on and off without having to fiddle around with the buttons and disturb your child. I thought this would be a piece of genius and it is, but would be far better if it worked even more remotely - currently it only works if you are in direct line of sight with the mobile which means I can't just switch it on from our bedroom if she stirs during the night. Shame!

Holly's Own Bedroom

The day that Holly moved into her own bedroom was one of mixed emotions.  It felt like the end of an era.

Holly slept in a crib next to my side of the bed from the day she was born until she was nearly 5 months old. As we did when Lara reached about the same age, we moved Holly into her own cot at the point when her arms and legs were bashing against the sides of the crib.  Despite using Bumpsters to protect her little arms and legs, Holly seemed able to reach an arm out and poke me in the leg each morning!

I had been hoping to delay Holly's move into the cot until Lara was ready to move out of her cotbed.  There was no way that I was going to invest in a new bed and mattress for Lara until she was successfully sleeping through the night without accidents.  We are close (we only have to wake her up once now) but not close enough that we could offer Holly the cotbed to sleep in.  Thankfully the MIL and SIL came to the rescue with a hand-me-down cot which, quite spookily, matches the changing unit in Holly's nursery!  Then all I had to do was fork out for one of our biggest nursery expenses... a mattress.  I have been so impressed with Lara's Mothercare waterproof mattress with Spacetec and Coolmax (they sound scientific, don't they!) that I wanted to buy Holly exactly the same mattress but with a price tag of £140 this involved me selling my own soul on ebay (along with newborn baby products we bought and never used and a fine selection of baby clothes).

After a few weekends putting off the inevitable, we finally got around to preparing the nursery.  Mr. B. suddenly discovered an eagerness to construct the cot when it occurred to him that moving Holly out of our bedroom might re-ignite my interest in him at bedtimes rather than Holly! It is a bit cramped in the nursery now with barely any room to stand but it isn't a long term thing - I would like both girls to share a bedroom eventually and I won't need a comfy breastfeeding chair in the nursery for ever (I hope).

And so the day finally came.  Holly quite obediently fell asleep about an hour earlier than normal and we popped her into her cot.  It was the first time we had taken her up to bed before going to bed ourselves and when Mr. B came back downstairs we both felt at a bit of a loss as to what we should do next.  A strong drink and CSI Miami did the trick nicely!

It felt weird and quiet without Holly in our room that night but my, it felt good.  The big space in our room where the crib had been now felt huge and airy - I even did a little dance just to prove how spacious it was!  I've slept really soundly since Holly moved out of our room but I still wake the instant that Holly wakes up and I'm up like a flash into her room to feed her.  Holly sleeps brilliantly too and we haven't had any problems getting her to settle in her new room.

Goodbye Cot, Hello Bed

We have reached another momentous parenting milestone. Lara has quit the cot! I know, it seems really early. Lara is just 16 months but it had to be done.



Ever since the devilish incident last month Lara has been a total monster in her cot. She hasn't learned to climb out of it but, when she wakes (or when you put her to sleep in it and she doesn't want to go) she screams, rattles the bars REALLY violently and sometimes even bangs her head repeatedly against the bars.

In the mornings it was worse. If we didn't get up to tend to her immediately after waking, she would get REALLY angry. We decided that the best way to go was to give LAra her independence. Last weekend we expended a little effort making sure that her room was safe for her to run riot in. We invested in a radiator cover, a new door handle that actually works, and some socket covers. We moved all of her board books into her room and several of her toys and teddies so that she would have something to entertain her when she woke.

On Sunday we turned the cotbed from cot to bed and placed a folded up duvet on the floor next to the bed. Bedtime on night 1 was extremely stressful. Lara would normally settle herself to sleep in the cot eventually but in the bed there were just too many exciting things to distract her. She screamed and screamed each time we tried to lie her down and every time we thought we'd cracked it, we'd tiptoe to the door but the second it shut, she'd rush out of bed and open the door. Eventually she worked herself up into a frenzy so great that the effort obviously wore her out. Eventually, at about 10.40, after over 2 hours of trying, she fell asleep.

On Night 2 we deliberately kept Lara up late to make sure she was totally exhausted when it came to bedtime and she settled almost instantly. Nights 3 and 4 required maybe 15 minutes of settling but were generally a success. Since then it has been a mixed bag. I think the thing she really struggles with is the distraction, knowing that she can just get up and play with stuff she can't resist when really she is tired and in need of rest.

We have no bed guard on the cotbed. Each night she has fallen out of bed on about 2 or 3 occasions. It hasn't been the fall that has woken her, but the fact that she eventually gets cold. On almost all occasions, when one of us has woken to her screams or whimpers, we've found her pretty much asleep on the folded up duvet. I think I will try and buy a bedguard if she doesn't quickly stop rolling out of bed. I have also taken this opportunity to fit a B-Sensible cot sheet - it is supposed to help regulate temperature, to protect against bed wetting, protect against mites and bacteria and to be more suitable for Lara's sensitive skin than other mattress protectors. I'll be reviewing it shortly.

In terms of solving the problems... well, I think she is still learning. She certainly seems a lot more relaxed when she wakes but after a little bit of chattering to her bears, her first action of the day is to open the door and come through to our room. Doh. I think this might have quite a lot to do with the blackout curtains in her room which are great for ensuring a sound sleep and a late wake-up time but mean that the room is too dark for her to play or read. She does have some nightlights but she's not really old enough to know how (and more importantly, when) to work them.

It has also meant that I have given up all attempts to get Lara to have an afternoon sleep when we are at home - there is NO chance she would settle.

I'll keep you updated on our progress. I'm reliably told it will take 2-3 weeks for her to get used to the Big Girl's Bed.

Travel Cots: What Type and When?

I remember when I first bought a travel cot. Lara was just a few weeks old and I discussed the options at length with my Mummy friends. These days there are so may options and unless you have unlimited funds, it is hard to decide which one to buy that will cover as many of your different requirements as possible.

I thought I would share my experiences with you and introduce you to the three main options you have and the age ranges and journeys to which they are most suited.

Traditional Fold-Up Travel Cot

Your first thoughts may be for a traditional fold-up travel cot with a collapsible metal frame. Yes, they can be bulky and heavy, yes they can be awkward to travel with but they are incredibly good value.

We recently trialled the Kiddicare Traveller Travel Cot. I was pleasantly surprised at how non-bulky and non-heavy it was! At only 7kg is is not as heavy as some of the bigger named brands. It has its own carry case and I can genuinely picture myself carrying it around an airport. Most airlines will take a travel cot in addition to your luggage allowance but check before you travel.

Traditional travel cots were, in the past, notoriously complicated to set up. These days they are generally pretty easy. The Kiddicare Traveller is one piece with sides which unfold and click easily into place. Within 2 minutes of receiving it, we had it up and in use in our living room.

One of the benefits of buying a traditional travel cot is that, in most cases, their mattresses are standard sizes. Additionally, they are all pretty sturdy and can take babies and toddlers upto around 15-18kg. However, you do have to search hard for a cot with a mattress which is comfortable – I have used travel cots in hotels before where the folds in the mattress have been firm and lumpy.

A traditional travel cot is useful for when you are staying away from home for a while (perhaps your main summer holiday) and for holidays where you have plenty of luggage space. At home it is convenient to put one up in your living room as a safe place to plop your baby while you nip to the toilet, or answer the door.

The more you pay for a traditional travel cot, the more bells and whistles you get. For travelling abroad, you can get handy wheels for ease in the airports. For small babies, you can find hanging bassinettes. You can spend a lot of money on one but you don't need to . The Kiddicare Traveller costs just £36.99.

Pop-Up Tent Cot

A pop-up tent-style cot is a great option for young babies who are too big to sleep in a moses basket or travel bassinette. A pop-up cot is incredibly light and compact, so light in fact that you can pop it inside your suitcase rather than messing about with an extra piece of luggage. They are quick and easy to set up and collapse.

Many pop-up cots are multi-purpose. Some, such as the Samsonite pop-up bubble (£55), come with a built in mosquito net for holidays to warmer climes. Others such as the new Samsonite Sun & Sleep tent (£74.99) can be used as sun-shades on the beach with their built-in or zip-on UPF covers.

In my experience, a pop-up tent has its limitations. I have stayed in places with hard floors where I have felt guilty about leaving Lara's travel cot resting directly on the cold, hard floor. You tend to also find that the mattresses are non-standard sizes and are often integral to the cot meaning that you are limited to the manufacturer's brand when buying sheets and covers.


I've blogged about my Samsonite Pop-Up Bubble Travel Cot before (read it here). We have found it indispensable during Lara's first 12 months and it has travelled the globe with us both inside our case, and as a separate, lightweight piece of luggage. You can buy them from several online retailers, including JoJo Maman Bebe.

Unfortunately, Lara is now mobile. She twists and turns in her sleep and then, when she wakes, she crawls out of the cot. Even if I zip her in (using the built in mosquito net), my little monkey will rock and roll the pop-up cot until it tips up and rolls with her. My pop-up cot claims to be suitable up to around 18 months (some are only suitable to 6 months, so check before buying); I think their usable lifetime comes to an end once your child is mobile.

Inflatable Bed Guards

My final option is something I only recently discovered. The Dream Tubes are a great travel solution when you have slightly older toddlers who are too big for a travel cot (I must admit that Lara is getting worryingly heavy for the max. 15kg cots and she is only 13 months old).

The Dream Tubes by Dusky Moon comprise a high-quality cotton fitted sheet (for either a cot bed or a single bed) which has two zip-up slots into which you insert inflatable tubes. The tubes sit either side of your child and prevent them from rolling on to the floor – an integral bed guard if you like!

I can see the Dream Tubes being a great way of ensuring that when you go on holiday or away from home, that you have a means of converting a hotel or guest bed into a safe place for your toddler to sleep. The Dream Tubes are compact when deflated and weigh considerably less than a travel cot.

Currently, I feel that Lara is a little too young for me to place my trust in the Dream Tubes over night. When she wakes, she wriggles and squirms and can, with a little effort, haul herself over the tubes. She has not yet learned about the dangers of falling out of bed. The Dream Tubes are really designed for children who have already moved out of a cot.



I believe that you can also buy foldable, collapsible bed guards that are more like the traditional bed guards you would attach to the side of your child's bed at home.

Drop me an email or leave me a comment if you would like to know more about travel cots – I have plenty of resources to draw on.

Kiddicare and Dream Tube images courtesy of threepipe
Samsonite images courtesy of Weybury-Hildreth