apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

The whole bedroom look great!

Well looks good but the whole thing is one big safety hazard. A crib full of stuffed animals, a pillow (!), & blankets in front of a window is not the greatest idea in the world.

How is the "co-sleeper" attached to the bed? On the real thing, there are straps that go btwn the mattress and secure to the other side of the bed. Good idea though.

elle -- none of the things that are in the crib are in the crib when our son goes to sleep. the crib only has a sheet on it when he's sleeping. when he's a year old, we'll add the bumper, pillow, and cover. thanks for worrying about his safety, albeit a tad condescendingly!

Very cute! We have a Gulliver crib, but also purchased an Arm's Reach co-sleeper for the first few months. If only we had seen this earlier!

I have both the Gulliver and an Arm's Reach co-sleeper and I must comment on this design. I reviewed the Fliker photos as well.

This is a very VERY dangerous idea.

The Gulliver does *not* feature a "removable side" design. It does not have a drop side. It does not have a toddler conversion kit. It is a four fixed sided crib. The crib above is assembled incorrectly.

This assembly is dangerous because a gap can develop between the bed and crib and cause strangulation or other SERIOUS injury. This is exactly the same as pushing a mattress against the wall. Every organization that advocates safe co-sleeping states that this is dangerous. Babies die and are injured this way every year.

Please review the SIDS website or co-sleeping websites or check a book out from the library on safe co-sleeping. Co-sleep with your baby. Great. But do it SAFELY.

A co-sleeper includes long straps that affix it to the mattress. They cannot be separated. A co-sleeper has a high safety barrier that is higher than the bed mattress and baby. It protects the baby from falling out. Co-sleepers can't be used after a baby has any sense of locomotion. But if you were, and the baby got out, there is no gap to fall in.

Please do not use this set-up. Buy a co-sleeper if you want one. They are frequently available used on Craig's List if you are on a tight budget. Or use the crib correctly assembled. We love ours. But please do not use this.

Finally, as others have commented, bumpers are unsafe. And they are unsafe after a year because they become stepstools to escape the crib.

Um, JudiAU...gotta tell you, the Gulliver does have a removable side. We own a Gulliver and it was very clearly marketed at the time we purchased it as having a removable side (for conversion to a three sided toddler bed later), not to be confused with a drop side (it does not have that feature). We removed the side for our toddler so he could make the transition from cot to bed and it is easy to do (removing the side that is, transitioning toddler to a bed not so much lol). No comment on whether this works as a co-sleeper, don't know much about them.

I was just interested in the debate and went to IKEA's website. This was in the product description:

Key features:
One bed side can be removed when the child is able to climb in/out of the bed.

...so it appears to be able to be used as a toddler bed.

Its seems to me the safety issue would be more pronounced if it were not between the wall and the bed, as far as being able to slide and create a gap.

What do others think?

...the room is neat, by the way!

Goodness gracious. What about giving people the benefit of the doubt? We don't know if Joannalovesyou has it strapped to the bed, we don't know if she takes the stuffed animals out, we don't a lot of things. We don't live with Joannalovesyou. All we know is what we want to assume in a brief moment. Chill, people. I swear, other mothers are mothers' worse critics. How sad.

Joannalovesyou, I think the room is cute.

I was also a little concerned about the potential for a gap between the 2 beds. I'm totally a do-it-yourself-er, but I don't think I'll be improvising with a crib or other safety-related items.

i guess this is my foray into what will be a lifetime of strangers criticizing my parenting choices. however shall i celebrate?

i know that this setup is safe in our house, and that is really all that matters. there hasn't been so much as a one inch gap between the bed and crib since we set it up. the bed is very firmly against the crib. since this picture was taken, we have also removed the side table, so the crib is bordered by walls on two sides.

as far as bumpers go, i actually sewed the bumper myself so that it would protect his head if he scooched up against it, but that would crumple under his foot if he tried to stand on it. there is no way my child could use the bumper as a stepstool up and out of the crib. it would be much easier for him to leave the bed by crawling over me and jumping off the edge. but guess why that won't happen? because he sleeps four inches from my face and i wake up if his breathing pattern changes in the slightest. statistics show that SIDS is dramatically decreased in co-sleeping families because the parents are so in tune with their children. guess how i know that? because i'm extremely familiar with SIDS co-sleeping safety.

i, too, find it sad that mothers use this opportunity to jump all over each other. really sad.

thanks to all of those who left pleasant comments here and on my flickr.

I totally understand that it can be hard to hear people say anything critical about decisions you've made as a parent. i will just say this, though: I follow product safety for a living and am familiar with details of reports of children who accidentally suffocate in cribs. In every case I have seen the parents could not have anticipated the ways in which their children became entrapped. It looked safe to them. The one caveat to this is the cases I'm familiar with involved children who were left alone to sleep, and not co-sleeping. In general, I've had concerns for some time that posts such as these are not accompanied by any safety warnings. That includes craft toys that are potential choking hazards. I understand people use their common sense when buying or trying things suggested on the site. I just find it strange that the AT Nursery folks don't consider safety integral to good design. For instance, why AT Nursery highlight BPA and phthalate-free bottles and then post products or alterations to products that could pose other hazards? I would hate to think one of my favorite design sites puts looks ahead of safety.

AFAIK the comment section is for our opinions, not merely for praise.

OH MY GOODNESS! What if the child used the bumper to step out of the crib, got onto the bed, and then pulled the circle stickers off the wall and ATE ONE AND CHOKED ON IT!!!!!!!

What an irresponsible parent!

Opinions don't have to be snarky.

I love your quilt and the circles. Plus I give you credit for choosing a bold wall color. Enjoy your baby

Are those things on the shelf above the bed votive candles?
What if you get too excited and those lit candles fall off the shelf?
It's a fire hazard, people!

----just kidding ;).
Every little thing here can be a target of criticism.
I know those folks know the safety issue. A lot of times people do things (dressing up a bit)for the photo shoot.
Let's not lecture other parents or bed manufacturers start making a crib equipped with 5 point harness.

And this post's comments section is a prime example of why I will not be frequenting this website much at all anymore, if ever. I have never met a group of such self righteous people who take it upon them selves to police the choices of people they don't even know. What ever happened to kindness between strangers. I bet most of you would be incredibly ashamed if your children knew of your behavior, and I bet that not a one of you would have the guts to say these thing to another person's face.

I am a little hesitant to enter into what has become a debate apparently, but I just have to say that as long as all the safety precautions have been taken and there is no way for there to be a gap between the bed and crib, then I really like this. I like the way it looks and as a mother of two, I can see how this would have been very handy a few years ago.

I am also hesitant to enter this discussion, but to me the photo includes a number of "red flags." Having someone point them out can be educational for someone who missed the fact that babies shouldn't sleep with fluffy bedding or stuffed animals. I'm sure we all understand now that the mother belonging to the picture understands the red flags just fine, but I don't think parents should dismiss public discussion of safety issues out-of-hand or take them personally.

Our children's lives are way too important to lose them because of the heavily-marketed, picture-perfect cribs full of stuffed animals, baby quilts, baby pillows, bumpers, etc. I'm not referring to the picture in this post. I just did a google search for "crib" and all of the top results had pictures of cribs full of soft bedding. Additionally, I just looked up the latest crib recall in which two infants died due to a gap in the crib. What a tragedy. Every decision about where to put a baby to sleep should be made with safety foremost and other concerns a distant second.

I do have a question about the Gulliver. When we looked at the assembled version in the store, the gaps between the poles on one end were larger than what is specified as safe (I don't remember the specific figure now, but the gap was larger than the recommended soda/pop can.) Looking at this, I'm thinking the one in the store must have been assembled wrong. Has anyone else noted that about the Gulliver? Or should I chalk it up to poor assembly?

Do you mean the space between the vertical bars? I will check on this when I get home, if I'm understanding your question correctly. Based on my memory, all the vertical bars are equidistant from each other, so if one is too large than they all are.

cute!

Very Cute! Love the Amy Butler Fabric!!! :)

To anybody who bought a Gulliver highchair at an IKEA-Europe store between Jan and Feb 2008, be sure that it's not one of the affected ones:

" The affected GULLIVER highchairs were produced and sold in Europe in January and February of 2008 only. GULLIVER highchair is marked on the under surface of the seat with a four digit date stamp (YYWW), a five digit supplier no, IKEA logo and country of manufacturer. The affected date stamps are 0801, 0802, 0803, 0804, 0805, 0806, 0807 or 0808 and were produced by supplier no 13755."

More informations here:

http://design.blogsociale.it/2008/03/07/marcia-indietro-dallikea-ritirato-il-modello-gulliver/

For those concerned about the safety of sidecarring a crib, this site has excellent instructions that are usually followed by parents who choose this option for their baby to sleep:

http://www.freewebs.com/sidecarcrib/index.htm

The crib is hooked to the bed and precautions are taken to ensure that there are no gaps.

I think this looks great, beautiful color scheme.