[blindkid] From a crib to a bed?

[Richard Holloway]

We were worried about this with our daughter (no light perception, now age 9) when she was a baby as well. 

As the parent of three kids, two typically sighted and one of the sighted kids now 18 (so she is 9 years older than my blind daughter), I probably should have realized we were overly concerned about this for our blind child. In retrospect, my oldest and very typical daughter was more prone to fall out of the bed and in fact of the three kids, both of the sighted kids have fallen out more. How ironic does that seem?

Nonetheless, typical side-guards on a bed didn't seem the best plan for our blind daughter. We felt that sliding around them to get out of bed was confusing without a visual concept of the location (probably also incorrect, but it made sense at the time). 

What we ended up doing was using a day-bed with a trundle bed that slides from under the main bed and then lifts up to make a double bed. At night, we'd pull out the lower bed a couple of feet and Kendra would sleep on her bed with no side rail or guard of any kind. Once in a while, she'd roll off (not often). When she did, she would "fall" about one mattress thickness to the lower bed. If she "fell" again, she was maybe 3 inches more than a mattress thickness above the carpet over a carpet pad.  Think of two mattresses, stacked like steps above the carpet. If that is not enough for your concern, add a pad at the edge of the lower "step".

With this setup, In the morning, we would just push in the lower bed. If she had a bad night (or a sleepover when she was older) we'd pull the lower bed clear out and raise it, then the parent (or sighted guest) would sleep on the extended part of the double bed without the sides and block Kendra in somewhat.

Over time, it became a non-issue and we never had a single bed-fall worth mentioning. I know every situation is different, but if you think about it, many kids (and adults) sleep in very dark places and get out of bed with very little visual assistance, so I expect it is not all that surprising that there are generally few issues with blind children falling out of bed more than average.

We did have a situation when Kendra was younger though, and still in her crib which I am still trying to figure out: Kendra, as it turns out, was a "climber". One night, we walked into her room and found her fast asleep, literally balanced across two (perpendicular) sides of her crib, face down, right in the corner. (One arm and one leg each inside and outside the crib; amazing!) For that we found something called a "crib tent", because we did feel that a fall to even a carpeted floor from over the top rail of the crib was potentially very dangerous. Problem solved. They also keep most cats out of the crib if that should become a concern.

Here is a link to a picture of one: http://reviews.buybuybaby.com/8658/BAB15029064/reviews.htm

Hope that helps!

Richard



On Jul 7, 2012, at 1:00 PM, Sarah Dallis wrote:

> Hi everyone. My daughter is coming up on her 2 year birthday and she is
> blind (there may be some light perception but not much). She doesn't walk,
> talk, or crawl. (She's so close to walking and talking, but is not into
> being on all fours to crawl or play.) She's getting a little big and I
> would like to move her out of her crib, but I don't know what bed to get. I
> can't switch her to a toddler bed because she'll fall out. Her TVI said to
> get a full size mattress and put it on the floor so if she rolls or falls
> off it's not a far drop. I talked to another parent who got her blind son a
> futon that was low to the ground, pushed it into a corner in the room and
> then put a pillow across the open side. But then again he knows how to get
> off a couch, while my daugter will fall off the couch. I'm not sure what
> the best option would be so I wanted to gather others opinons.
> 
> Thanks in advance
> 
> Sarah Dallis
> 
> Mom to Ellie: http://elliesgrace.blogspot.com
> 
> Pampered Chef Consultant
> 
> Order 24/7 Online: http://www.pamperedchef.biz/sarahdallis
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