As a
certified Montessori teacher, I have truly fallen in love with Montessori's philosophy and attitudes towards young children. Hubby went to a Montessori school when he was young, and I am convinced it is part of what made him the intelligent, amazing person he is. Thus, it is perhaps one of my biggest parenting goals to use a Montessori-based approach to childrearing.
Before even getting pregnant I started looking into books about using Montessori for infants. I knew lots about how it applied to 3-6 year olds, the age group I used to work with, but little about the younger years. One of the ideas that intrigued me the most was that of using a
floor bed instead of a crib.
The idea is that a low mattress on the floor provides the child with a better view of his room and surroundings and more freedom to move about, which in turn makes for a calmer and happier child. Often a rug or pillows will be placed around the edges of the mattress, so if the baby rolls off he won't be harmed. It is of course important that the entire room be completely safe for the child to crawl around in, essentially turning it into a giant playpen for him.
I was conflicted for a while about whether I wanted to make this leap-- I knew it would probably raise lots of eyebrows, as it's pretty far from the "standard" way of doing things with babies. But as I read and researched, I didn't need to read too many stories of babies whose arms or legs had gotten caught between the crib slats, or of climbing over the rail and falling several feet down onto the floor, to decide that I did not want to use a crib. This feeling was reinforced by talking to friends who had used a floor bed for their babies years ago, and had nothing but good things to say about their experiences.
For the most part his room is set up to be safe, but there's still some more baby-proofing we definitely need to do. He sleeps on a small mattress that's just 2-3 inches thick, but otherwise about the same measurements as a twin-sized mattress. I worried that he wouldn't sleep well there after being used to sleeping in his cozy moses basket for the first 3 months of life, but he adjusted just fine. I put some pictures up on the wall next to his bed that he can look at as he falls asleep or wakes up. And I love that when I go in to feed him in the middle of the night, I can just sit on his bed, resting my back against the wall, and nurse him, and when he's done and has drifted off to sleep I just have to gently move him barely a few feet away to lay him back down.
It's a working experiment. So far, so good. Maybe I'll change my mind when he starts crawling and getting into things, as I'm sure no matter how well I try to prepare his room he'll probably find something to get into that I hadn't thought of. And if at some point it becomes clear that it's not working anymore, then we'll figure out something new. But for now, I'm liking this set-up.
Doing tummy time on his bed after waking from a nap.
Comments (25)
We are in a small apartment, and while we have a crib, it's been useful only for holding laundry. All of my little ones slept next to me to nurse. It's one of those "don't tell the pediatrician" things. :)
That's a really neat idea. I love our crib though. It's been quite nice for our son to sleep in...but as he gets older...that is definately an idea to use. We'll need a bigger place than where we're at though...if he were to get into things, it would be our computer equipment as he shares his room with our office things.
How old is your little guy? He looks to be about he same age as my son!
@samiannie - He's 4.5 months. Yeah, that is one downside that you have to be so careful about what else is in the room. We wound up making one of our biggest bedrooms into his nursery, for a few different reasons, and before it held a bunch of our extra crap which is now shoved into a smaller room elsewhere....
Your son is adorable.
I've done that with my older two to a point. Around 11 months, I would put the crib mattress on the floor to give them more freedom without the worry of falling out of a toddler bed.
We were co sleeping up until recently so my baby has only been sleeping in a crib a few weeks and he's 7 1/2 months old. I wonder if he would wake up in a better mood if he was on the mattress on the floor rather then the crib. I may do a little experiment tonight.
I have been working this method hard, my baby has been sleeping on her child bed since 1 month of age. She is not 11 mos old. Im not sure what my options are, but since crawling just a month ago, bedtime has become quite the challenge.
Some days a flawless. Other nights, like tonight (yawn!) she wakes up and crawls out of her bed and gets into her work on the low shelf. The first night she crawled right out of her room, which hs since been remedied with a gate, but I was wondering if anyone has made it through this point and has any tips to share. Shes is never in harms way because her room is baby-proofed all the way around, but it has been quite exhausting some nights to repeatedly return her to her bed. At first she smiles and thinks its a game, but by the 3rd round shes pissy about it! lol, Advice, suggestions wecomed!@gigimom - The theory I've always read about this is that baby can go and play a bit in her room if she wants, and then falls back asleep when she feels like it... I assume without the parents needing to get involved? I don't know how that actually works in real life though. We're just now getting to the point where he's rolling himself off the mat, which is only 2 inches high so it's not a fall or anything, but then he'll be half on the rug and upset because he can't get himself back on! I'll go in and put him back on the mat and say "goodnight" again and then leave the room. Good luck, and let me know how things work out... we'll be in your shoes soon enough!
Hi! We put our daughter on to a floor mattress when she was 9 months old, for the mere reason that she kept on banging around in her crib, waking herself up even more often than before (she insisted on breast feeding till she was 13 months...). Our experience with it was, that taking her to bed took (and sometimes still takes - she is now one and three quarters) quite a bit longer. But her dad sometimes just doesn't want to wait for ever and leaves her awake in her room, playing away with the door closed. We listen on the baby phone and usually after around half an hour latest, she'll go to sleep. She has been able to take herself back to bed since she was a year old :). Even though it does take quite a lot of energy and trust to leave the little ones being alone in their room, I feel quite happy that ours can get up in the morning, have a play or just turn up and our bed to demand attention.
Just got my 4 month old sleeping comfortably in his floor bed. It is convenient, fun, and comfy for him. I am wondering how it will be when he is crawling, yet, keeping a baby happy and asleep in a crib can't be that much easier than this, I imagine. I love having a room that is designed for him and not for us. Would love to talk more about this if anyone wants to get in touch with me. Need camaraderie since it seems strange to many people!!
@Ali - Hello i am 35 weeks pregnant and a trained montessori teacher for 2.5 - 6 year olds. I have two older children whom i have to admit wasnt brave enough to use a child bed with but with this 3rd baby i am determined to pluck up the courage. what type of mattress did you use. I know the idea is to have one that isnt very thick but i just windered which type you used. The other big problem is that this baby will have to share with me and my husband. This is only a 3 bedroom house. my daughter, nearly 3 has one room, my son nearly 5 has his own so there is no room for the next baby to have his own room. Will it work when he is able to get out and about as our bed and set of drawers will be in the way..have visions of a crawling baby getting stuck under our bed!
@Charlotte09 - I bought the florvag mattress from Ikea. It works nicely. At 6.5 months, my son has mastered wiggling off without getting stuck. I'm so proud. But now I'm having trouble keeping him in bed all night since he just learned how to move. Need help! He rolls on his tummy and wiggles out all the time leaving me wondering if I'm nuts or this is just a learning stage.
Ali
I am finding this really interesting. I am going to look into getting this book. We have recently moved my older son 25.5 months to a toddler bed, just before he turned 2 and he did awesome. He would walk right to bed and sleep all night. I was thrilled because he wasn't sleeping well in his crib. For the last month he has not wanted to go in his bed and now wakes in the middle of the night screaming until I take him in bed with us. My husband doesn't like this since he is afraid of hurting him and I won't let him scream for 2 hours which is what he did one night. I also have 15 month old twins and would love to know when to know they are ready to move out of their cribs. I wonder if my older son would do better with the mattress on the floor?
We used a floor bed for our older child (now 2.5). She did great and had no problem transitioning to a "big" bed. My son is now four months old and is becoming very mobile on the bed- he frequently rolls off and wakes up screaming or will be screaming balancing with his head hanging off the edge. We have padding on the floor so he can't get hurt, but he gets very upset- and I am exhausted! I am wondering if anyone has any advice. I don't want to give up on the floor bed and think he may wake himself up in a crib by hitting the sides, but my husband thinks we need to put him in a crib.
@gigimom - I guess your baby is like 2 now, but if others are reading. i have also used this since my son was born and he is 10 months. he crawls out and plays around for a while some nights and I just let him. that's the idea. he puts himself to bed a little while later and you dont have to keep putting him there. as he gets more and more mobile, he will end up crawling into bed for a nap; something not possible with a crib.
@Ellen - My son had a rough spot at that age and I was getting suspicious of this method. (he's 10 months now) it was right when he could get off but not back on. the fear of falling out or after falling out is short lived and a little cuddle and then back in bed is what i did. after talking to some very experienced mom/montessori teachers, they all said, you can put him back in bed or let him sleep on the floor. a few weeks later, he was putting himself back in bed. but every once in a while, i find him curled up with his blankie on the floor. he seems happy, so i no longer move him. the thing about the montessori method is that you have to trust in the development of the child...which is especially hard when he's crying. the floor bed has so many benefits, only one of which is that he will make a seemless transition to a real bed one day. also, he has the freedom of movement to crawl around and learn his environment, which helps him trust himself and gain confidence in his abilities.
good luck
dakota
I 'fell' over this blog by accident! Thought I would just drop a few comments. My son, who is now 26, walked at age 6 months oh yes he did !!! And climbed ... around the same time so after finding him half over the rail of his cot !!! we didn't know what to do. We found a large mattress and put it in our small spare room, made sure he couldn't climb the window sill - or had blinds etc - and also put a baby gate across the door as we didn't want him going into other rooms or falling down the stairs. This worked reasonably well. Except hauling myself up and down off the floor to 'see' to him became excruciating at time - and he never slept any better ! And one day after his late afternoon snooze ... I went up to find him still asleep in huge CURLS of wallpaper! They had just about invented that 'peel to strip it ' wallpaper - he had managed to get hold of the edges ... and had peeled it back as far as he could, leaning I would think with each piece so that the room was totally stripped from floor to around 7 feet all the way round!
And mind those drawers and knobs ... they make wonderful climbing frames!!!
@Ali -
I'm researching doing this, its nice to hear from people who are actually using it. so far I don't hear anything negative from people who use this technique. Where did you buy your bed? what other bedding did you use?
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First of all... Super cute baby! A couple of questions... my niece is thinking about doing this and I have a few safety concerns. Is there any possible way the crib sheet could get pulled off and be a hazard? I think she is actually thinking of using a regular mattress and pillows or mats around it. What if the baby's head falls off to one side and his body stays on? Can that close off the baby's airway? Can the baby get wedged between the wall and the mattress?
My son goes to a Montessori school since he is 10 month. I had to secure my spot when I was pregnant. During the first visit, the Montessori Mentor explained many techniques, such as having the mattress directly on the floor for his liberty of action. We did this and were very pleased with the approach. Mon son is very active when asleep (he is now 30 months). Therefore, we installed a bed barrier on one side for a period of time (we took it off when he was 23 months). The barrier doesn't prevent him to get in and out of the bed by himself, only to fall off the bed at night.
BTW, we also applied other Montessori concepts, like the early potty training (3 months old and he was clean, he was diaper free at 16 months during the day, and 29 months at night - I don't know if it is different from the 'traditional' approach). Also, no pacifier after 14 months (that was difficult, a week of extreme pain and screaming but what a relief afterward). No highchair as much as possible (his level furniture, table and chair). Good luck with your new one!
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I have documented our floor bed on my blog for any of the commenters here who are interested in how we do it (which is very simply!): http://louiseallana.com/tag/floor-bed/
I do think memory foam is a really bad idea and a SIDS risk. I'm basing this on my own experience with memory foam pillow. Something much firmer is better. Our mattress is a boori baby innerspring (expensive), which is actually *taller* than other mattresses, but apart from I think twice where he rolled off it accidentally and cried, he has had no problem with the height of it. We use it solely because it was gifted to us. Otherwise we would have bought a much cheaper ordinary cot mattress, either inner spring or firm foam. Since he often chooses to sleep on the floor I don't think cushy comfort is important to him in a bed! We will eventually get a bigger bed, but for now I suggest getting a cheap cot mattress if you don't have appropriate height bigger sizes available in your area. When the baby can walk they will probably be able to handle a tall mattress then and you can move up to the bigger size without needing to buy a lower Ikea one.
9 months ago when I found this sit, my 1 year old sons bed was on the floor becouse the new baby kicked him out of the crib. I didnt have the money to buy an other crib or a bed fram, but it worked realy nice with the 1 year olds bed on the floor. The baby was about six month so I deside to do the same with him. Pulled the crib out of the room, and put his bed on the floor with his older bother. At frist the baby did fail off and even got a big bump on his head but after the frist week no problems untell one month later. When it was nap time the baby would not go to sleep with his older bother being there. So then it was desided that when his brother was in the room takeing a nap he would be in the portable crib. I have 2 girls that are 5 and 4, they like jumping on the bed and that would make me mad. Well I deside that there beds would go on the floor too. Now they can still jump around but I'm not getting mad at them for doing it.
Hello
I decided if you can encourage a dog to sit in a basket then why not a baby. When my little one starting crawling I put a folded up duvet on the lounge floor so that she could retreat to it or snuggle up when she needed a rest . I thought it was important for her to be able to see a place where she could rest if she wanted and she does use it to sit and play and lie down . When I moved to my flat I devoted one room to be a padded cell ie a bed (mattress on floor) and her teds only . She wonders off during the day and she sits and plays with her teds quite independantly and I have abondoned the cot completely as she seems to have out grown it(she is 14 months old). and is upset by the caged in feel. I went away for abreak to a pine lodge and she and i slept in the twin bedded room she on one with her baby duvet and me on the other with the beds pushed together . she slept so well i not going to bother with a cot or travelcot any more - it saves on your back too travel cots are a nightmare for that . she was happy to stay on her side only coming across to me in the morning to come an prod me in the eye to wake me up with a smile on her face. I think what is important here is that no book will tell you how your baby will be its a case of reading the signs yourself and being confident that your instincts as a mother are the best.
@Ellen - I see some time has passed and wonder how this worked out. I'm in the same boat right now. Turtle position is pretty scary to find your baby in.