Beds for kids

[Girlo]

We're getting rid of Alex's crib VERY soon! :bliss: We'll be buying a twin bed to replace it and I'm wondering which direction to go in......

We can go the uber-cheap route through Sleep Country for $99 each piece ($198) for a mattress/box spring. Or we can spend about twice as much on a set that'll be more supportive and last longer.
Paul is thinking of the cheapo set because Alex isn't 100% night trained yet. I do have a couple of mattress covers...but those probably aren't 100% for protection.

We haven't checked out any other places, like IKEA or a close-out furniture place yet.

Any suggestions on where to buy a reasonably priced twin bed for a kid? Or how expensive we want to go with this? Would it be worth the extra $$ now to get a good mattress? Or should we just wait 10 years for a good one when he's really going to know the difference?

One last question - should we just buy the mattress or do the whole set? We do have a race car bed.....which we'll only need the mattress for....but we're not completely sure it'll take a twin or a crib mattress. And if that bed is too big for his room, we won't be able to use it anyway. Which could potentially be leaving us with just the mattress at that point. If we bought the set and used the race car, we'd just store the box spring in our garage storage. If we just bought the mattress and the bed didn't work out, Alex would just have the mattress on the floor. Is that better than having the whole bed? Personal choice?

I just don't know......

[Dennis]

We bought a really good bed for Joe because we figure he's going to use it until he goes to college. If you have a good mattress protector it will be fine.

[Cami]

When my girls first moved to beds, we put mattresses on the floor so that if they fell off, it wouldn't be a big deal. Then we added the box spring later. I'd buy the box spring now too. Even if you don't use it immediately, you'll have it. Sometimes you can find deals on sets that make it cheaper than buying the pieces separately.

I guess I'd go with the one that would last longer, although I can totally see the reasons for buying a less expensive one. We've had one of our mattress sets forever (in the guest room) and I know it wasn't expensive (grad school days) but it still works fine. We got it at Sams... which used to have good deals on mattresses, maybe they still do?

We had waterproof mattress pads on the girls' beds and they worked fine.

[Mary DK]

We got Eliot's bedroom furniture from what used to be CargoKids and now is Pier1Kids, we spent a little more b/c we figured that they are good furniture that he can keep for a long time plus we can add pieces as he grew up.
We got the bed, a tall dresser & a bookshelf... next thing we'll buy when he starts having homework (maybe next school year) will be the desk & maybe a night stand for his own alarm clock.
We use a waterproof cover (it's like a thin plastic cover) under the regular mattress pad to keep it clean in case of accidents. Oh, and the way this beds are made you don't necessarily have to buy the mattress set, it would make it really high with both so we only bought the top mattress.

[magoo]

We bought Anna this bed (without the shelves underneath it) because she wanted a "high" bed:
http://www.canwood.com/products/whistler/whistler_junior_loft2.jpg

We then bought the cheapest foam mattress possible. We use mattress protectors 'and we'll replace it once she's bit older and less likely to mess it up.

ETA: We bought her this bed when she was about 3.5. She was out of the crib at 21 months and just slept on a mattress on the floor.

[Karri]

We bought the kids really good mattresses. We initially bought the cheap ones, brought them home, sat on them, and promptly returned them. My reasoning was 3fold: *if they were that uncomfortable for me, they couldn't be great for my kids, either. *there are times we end up in bed w/ them and I am not sleeping on a crap mattress :lol: . *we want the mattresses to last 15 years (when they leave the house, essentially).

If you're going to go w/ a traditional bed in Alex's room, I'd buy the box spring and top mattress together. Its generally a better deal as a set.

Our boys have bunkbeds, so no box springs there. We moved Elliott straight from the crib to the regular bed.
Norah has a normal bed, so she's got both mattresses. We don't have a head/footboard yet, though. I am waiting till I find the one I really want. Plus her bed is pushed up against the wall and that would kinda get in the way, anyway.

Oh....I bought waterproof mattress pads, and so far, nothing has soaked through them. If you're worried, you could double up: put a flat crib matress pad on top of the waterproof on.

[Kristen]

Camille will start out on a futon, but will hopefully graduate to a queen that is in her future room.

I'd start out with the mattress on the floor so it will give you more time to shop bed frames and find one you really like.

I would go with the good mattress. My parents bought top of the line 30 years ago and we STILL have it!

[Alysia]

Do you guys have a Costco card? The Costco Home store in Kirkland has some really nice stuff. I know it's a bit of a drive... but Genavieve and I would hang out with Mr. Alex if you guys wanted to check it out by yourselves. :heee:

(We got Genavieve's crib at the Costco home store but they don't carry cribs anymore. Brad and I were just there a few weeks ago looking at the kid's bedroom furniture.)

[marcy]

Alysia, how's the quality of the Costco stuff? I'm assuming that's what they offer online as well.

[Eva]

Alysia, how's the quality of the Costco stuff? I'm assuming that's what they offer online as well.

Sorry for answering for Alysia. :blush: Emma's bedroom furniture is from Costco and it is wonderful quality. It is very solid. Just ask my DH and his fiend who had quite the time getting her dresser up the stairs. :lol: It weighs a ton. We looked at beds for quite awhile and this was definitely better quality than a lot of them I saw at other stores for the same price.

I got her a good qualiy bed now since I don't really want to replace it in the future. I am hoping this one will last her through college. We got her a novafoam mattress from Costco at the same time. I love it . It is so comfy and I wish we had one in our bed. :lol: The only problem it is so thick that her bed is really high now. I had to get her a stool to get in and out of bed.

We put a mattress cover on her bed. Emma still wears pullups at night so we haven't had any peeing issues on the bed yet but we have had Christine spit up on Emma's bed.

[Alysia]

Marcy~ The stuff online is not what they carry in the Costco Home store but I would assume it is all good quality as well. Costco is not one to carry really cheap stuff.

[Girlo]

Thanks for the feedback. :aok: I'm glad to hear that the mattress protectors work like they're supposed to! Paul is pretty wary of their integrity and now I can come back and give him some good reviews. :)

Alysia, Costco Home is a great place to check! :aok: We'll do some more checking around to see if we can get a reasonable mattress for as little $$ as possible.

It sounds like going with the set is going to be best in the long run, so that's likely what we'll do.

[Karri]

Shannon - We went through a 2 month span where Aidan wet the bed every night before we stuck him back in pullups. Not once did it soak through to the mattress :aok:

I did buy his from The Bedwetting Store. I dont know if its any better than the ones from target :dunno: But if you're paranoid, you could do some research on waterproof mattress pads.

[Nichole]

I have a mattress cover from Target and it works great. :aok:

We don't have a bedframe for the boys yet, but I will recommend the mattress sets at Costco. We got a full size set from there and it's quite comfy and was very affordable. :aok:

[Eva]

Marcy~ The stuff online is not what they carry in the Costco Home store but I would assume it is all good quality as well. Costco is not one to carry really cheap stuff.

We bought Emma's set online but earlier in the year I had seen it in the store (regular store we don't have the Home store). The brand is Cafe kid

http://cafekid.com

[Alysia]

Ahh... I do think they carry the same brands. Just not the same *exact* stuff. And of course, every time you go to the Costco home store they usually have different stuff too. :lol:

They change products as regularly as people change underwear. :giggle:

[Darcy]

We got Riley a full bed set with a really nice mattress. Our thinking was that it will be our guest bed when MIL spends the night or anyone else. Also we didn't want to buy another bed for Riley later on. We have a really thick mattress protector, and my mom gave us another one that zips over the entire mattress. We haven't had issues with either yet and Riley is nowhere near nighttime trained. We also got her a bed rail since she rolls all over the place at night. One side is pushed up against the wall and the other has the rail. Not sure when we'll be able to get rid of that, though!

[Karri]

My parents bought top of the line 30 years ago and we STILL have it!

Wow. That's a tad extreme :lol: You know the inner structure of a mattress can break down (not sure if that is the word I am looking for) by up to 70% in 7-10 years? Not to mention the dust mites and whatnot that accumulate living in them over the years (sorry).

[Shel]

We actually use 2 mattress pads on Riley's bed. I'm weird like that and she went through a bedwetting spree for awhile :lol: