Have you ever been overnight at a hotel with your child and the hotel sets up a run down old crib for your baby to sleep in? Or how about when your child is having an overnight at grandma and grandpa’s home – is there a safe and comfortable place for your son or daughter to sleep? Have you thought about purchasing a travel bed for your toddler?

Safety and comfort is number 1 at all times when it comes to your child – and even more so when travelling with you son or daughter. Have you ever had that one night when your child cries all night – and you just know it is a result of them sleeping in an uncomfortable bed? How about getting to a hotel room and you see the crib they have set up for your son or daughter – and there is absolutely no way that you will be placing them in there to sleep – not clean – not safe – and so on. You may be ready for a toddler travel bed. There are many good quality beds to choose from – but how do you decide on the one that is the best option for your family. Read our 7 tips to help clarify your decision.

1. Lightweight – make sure that the bed is light enough to carry. When you are travelling with your toddler think about strategies to keep your load light. One way to do this is to buy a travel bed that is light. It should certainly weigh less than 6 pounds or under 3 kilograms. The lighter the better.

2. Easy to carry and load into your car. The bed you select should have its own travel case and when packed away it should be no larger than 24x8x8(in.) or 60x20x20(cm.). No matter where your travels with your child take you – on a plane on a cruise ship or to grandpa’s house you have to carry all the gear and it all has to fit into tight spaces – like your car trunk or as checked baggage on a plane. A small, compact bed will help with this.

3. No hassle set up and put away process. Speed and simplicity are the keys when setting up or putting away your toddler travel bed. You arrive at your destination – your child is tired – you don’t want to struggle to get the bed set up. You want a bed that one person can handle on their own for set up and for putting it away in its travel pack. The bed you get for your child should be easily set up in less than one minute or so, and it should be put away in a similar amount of time.

4. Simple and quick access to your toddler. If your child needs you in the middle of the night you want to be able to easily reach into the bed to pick them up or to pat their back. The bed you decide on should have a way for you to quickly get to your child – usually with a side panel that can be lowered by a quick zip of a zipper.

5. Good air ventilation – a good bed will provide for good air flow for your child. Look for one that has mesh side panels that will allow for good air flow helping to keep your child comfortable.

6. Comfortable and light mattress – you want your toddler to be comfortable and you also want to have a lightweight bed. Make sure that the portable bed that you purchase has a comfortable foam mattress.

7. Buy with confidence. Check to make sure that the retailer that you purchase from has a no problem return policy – you want to make sure that the bed can be returned (with no problems from the retailer) if it just isn’t right for your family. And if the bed that you purchase is a high quality one, the manufacturer should provide a life time guarantee which will protect you years from now in case there is a problem.

There are lots of essential pieces of baby gear that make life better and easier for families. We consider a toddler travel bed to be essential to our family – and maybe you feel the same way for your family. When the time is right for you to look for a bed for your toddler child use these tips to help to make the right decision for you.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 5:42 am and is filed under Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.