Bunk Beds

saggycaggy

Hi,
We have 2 daughters (5 years and nearly 1 year) and live in a small 2 bedroom house. We have no family near us so when they do come to stay it's a bit of a tight squeeze. I'm thinking of getting bunk beds for the girls room ( our 1 year old will still be in the cot/toddler bed for the next year at least) but the bunk beds would be handy for the older daughter and for when Granny stays.

I'd be an awful worrier but is 5 year old too young for a top bunk?? Also if we were to go ahead and get bunk beds can anyone recommend some good quality ones?

Thanks a mill!

theLuggage

Can't recommend bunk bed but I know when my sister got hers, the top bunk was recommended for 6 year olds and up. Now that may have been that model but I guess guidelines like that are helpful and might put your mind at ease.

If your 1 one is going to be another year in a cot bed, then your oldest would be 6, which should be fine for a top bunk - bearing in mind you know your daughter best and whether she could be trusted up there.

Also if you have the space I'd go for the ones that have a double bed on bottom - it's an extra bed space if you need it for relations or their friends when older.

mashedbanana

Hi :-)

We had bunk beds here for the girls too, and we had no problem with them. I found them fierce handy at the time, we had just the regular run of the mill wooden ones. Our eldest was 6 when she went into the top bunk (it was recommended that the child be 6 yrs old).

The 'only' concern that I would have for you, is that your little one would be/already climbing. Those ladders are very tempting ya know!
There are lots of different types of bunks on the market though, some have the lovely stairs going up to the top bunk, others have a sort of a slide. Depends on your price range. Ours was bog standard, but we didn't have a tot starting to climb, our youngest at the time was about 3.

miss no stars

My brother and I had bunk beds as kids.... Well, I had bunk beds and he had a cabin bed (not the low ones, the ones about 6 foot up with standing room under). He would have been about 5 or 6 getting his and he got on fine. The ones we had were part of the flexa system - really handy as it's all interchangable. In fact, he still has his bed (he's 21 now) but the stilts have been taken out now (there was also the option to leave them half in and have a sort of chest high cabin bed). If you do go for bunk bed arrangements, I would recommend flexa (http://www.flexa.ie/) or a similar system as they can be changed as needs change and are good and durable.

wmpdd3

We will def be getting bunk beds due to lack of space for my kids, they are 1 and 2 now so it is a long way off, but I'd like to know what options are around. I slept in the bottom bunk for years and I hated it as a child, even though I had a little lamp.

I was thinking of the one with a double at the bottom as the child would not be sleeping in a 'dark cave'!

saggycaggy

great thanks for all the replies.

mashedbanana- It never dawned on me that my youngest would be climbing around the stairs so that's something to think about too!

Yeah I think we'd definitely get a bunk that has a double on the bottom-Granny/Nana can sleep there when they visit and usually my 5 year old will want to sleep beside them when they do come so that will be handy!

Do you think it's worth spending a huge amount on the bunk beds for safety etc or are they all pretty much the same? I have no idea but I'm thinking around the €400 mark, maybe this isn't realistic either?

mashedbanana

Just another thing, be extra careful what sort of matress you put on the top bunk. You could spend €500 on a top of the range, pillow top /memory foam mattress, and think your doing a good thing. After all,childrens backs are still developing as they grow. Then when you get it home you realise the mattress is too deep (and a fraction too wide) for the top railings to come up over it. Now you can buy a side protector that would slip in under the mattress, but be prepared for a few bent back nails when trying to dress the bed (it hurts like hell!)

We had the bunk,& no problems, they did the job for as long as we wanted them, but after 5 years the girls decided they wanted rid. Dressing a standard bed is alot easier, I must admit, and when the climbing starts, they have a shorter distance to fall, But for extra room in the bedroom then yes bunk beds are the way to go.

miss no stars

saggycaggy wrote: »

Do you think it's worth spending a huge amount on the bunk beds for safety etc or are they all pretty much the same?

Definitely not all the same. The ones I linked to are fantastic, really solid - a cousin of mine is still using the same one and it's 16 years since they were bought and it's solid as ever. The ones I experienced in the gaeltacht were rickity, painful to climb (metal ladders) and had very little back support (the flexa ones have proper timber lats, what I experienced in the gaeltacht had a sort of metal mesh, downright painful). They're the beds your kids will sleep in for 10 years or so, don't skimp.

Queen-Mise

Personally, for me, it is an absolute no on the bunk beds.

My oldest child (boy, 11 now) was the dopiest kid during the night, and could do anything in his sleep. We have found him asleep everywhere in the room: on beds, under beds, floor, on floor under quilts/over quilts, floor of the hall, on stairs...

It would be accident waiting to happen putting him into a bunk bed, and him going to the toilet during the night. He would have fallen and broken his neck probably, if he had been in a bunk bed:eek:

We had them & I refused to let him sleep in the top one. And the hubby said to me, why not. He hadn't connected that our son's nighttime dopiness & a bunk bed might not be a good idea.

He is nearly out of it now, a couple of months of 12, but the odd time you would still see him asleep somewhere odd in the room.

Shelli2

My son fell out of a bunk bed last year while on holidays, luckily his father and I happened to be sleeping in the same room and were able to scoop him up and administer first aid very quickly, but I dread to think of that happening to him in a room alone. He rolled right over the side barrier, which I considered to be quite high, he may have partially slid out the gap at the ladder, not sure as we were all sleeping, but he hit his head very hard on the wall and then the back of his head off the side of the lower bunk. Hospital visits and hours of watching for the signs of concussion followed, he was very sore for days, badly bruised and two huge lumps on his head. And I consider us lucky that his injuries were not serious!

Bunk beds will never be allowed in my house.

wmpdd3

Sorry to hear that, what age is he?

Shelli2

He was 5 when it happened. He's very big for his age, and we didn't have another bed as an option.

saggycaggy

That's scary Shelli, thank god your were nearby. Im no wiser now as to what to do, we are just so stuck on space in our little house so I thought it would be a solution.

wmpdd3

A friend's father made something like this for her 2.

http://www.bunkbedmattress.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/l-shaped-bunk-beds-1-300x232.jpg


The top bunk is only as high as a midi bed, as the kids sleep toe to toe. He made a little stairs at the end instead of a ladder.

I really like this idea but its the small guy I have to think about,not the older one.