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I'm confused by this. I thought toddler beds use crib mattresses. Is there such a thing as a toddler bed mattress that is longer than a crib mattress?

Yep. This looks like an Ikea toddler bed. They sell a three piece mattress for their toddler beds. The middle part (I think) is the size of a regular crib mattress, and then there are two modular portions to make it a full twin. Some of their beds "slide" from a crib sized to a twin size, from what I recall. I didn't look too mucn into it, because I figured the three piece mattress would be uncomfortable and lumpy.

We repurposed our crib mattress into a comfy reading nook for the kids, by putting it in the corner of the playroom floor (with the sheets on), and piling on a bunch of soft pillows (collected over the years for various beds/couches). The kids love hanging out there with their books!

We just bought the same bed for our son and it never occurred to me that I could use the crib mattress. Oh well.

Yeah, this is kind of confusing and apparently the author of the post isn't familiar with most toddler beds. ALL the toddler beds that I researched when buying one (apart from IKEA) use the crib mattress. That's kind of the point -- that you can reuse the crib mattress. It's just IKEA that does the funky 3-piece mattress to accommodate their sliding/growing bed thing they've got there. Admittedly, in that longer IKEA bed the crib mattress looks cute with that extra space at the end - but the point of the post is kind of wasted because for most situations its just not true.

I too didn't realize that not all toddler beds didn't use regular crib matresses - ours did - but great idea for those that don't.

We got the ikea "critter" bed not knowing that normal crib mattresses would not fit. Because it was too expensive to take a trip to the coast, we pondered what we should do- make a foam extension perhaps? The stuffed animal idea would have been brilliant, had we thought of it. However after painting it white and making a quilt for the bed, my husband decided he would saw off the extra foot! I was horrified at first. But it seemed the simplest idea. Although I would not recommend our course of action to anyone, it looked just as good and will help in our future of small space bedrooms and apartments during grad school. Anyways, we've stressed and laughed about our toddler bed conundrum, but I couldn't help sharing it after seeing the recent post.

A picture of the "adjusted" bed is here.

I was thinking to make one of these adjustable beds also. The crib mattress we used for our little daughter is still very good, so there is no reason for us to just throw it away when we could use it.