Need Suggestions for Sleeping Options When Traveling

my toddler likes to sleep on the couch when we're visiting. At first, I worried about him falling off the couch. I'd pull up a chair against the couch where he slept. Now I just give him a pillow, blanket, and kiss goodnight.

Walmart does have the travel beds, but i think you can only order them online... try once upon a child..they have good stuff there too

How about getting him his own little sleeping bag? He's old enough to be out of the travel bed. If you put it in HIS own wheeled suitcase, that he can move himself, he may feel more like he "owns" it. Practice before you go, having a sleepover in his bedroom. Worked for us!

We bought a toddler air mattress from One Step Ahead that is great. Has curved up sides so they can't fall out and I would venture to say our kids will use it until they're close to 8 y/o.

Go to www.onestepahead.com. They have great solutions!

We just got a sleeping bag and let our son sleep either on the floor next to us or on a couch, etc. He loved having his own space. Turns out he's allergic to dust mites, so I'm seriously thinking about the bed the others mentioned. The sleeping bag is now working well for our 20 month old when we travel.

Thanks for asking this question, I was just wondering the same thing myself for my son, we travel a lot and are leaving for Seattle in two weeks so your timing was perfect.

Thanks again.

I know a lot of pople have the same situation as you do. I worked for QVC for a long time and they sold a product an inflatable bed for about 35.00 that comes with the battery and pump. It folds up nice and small like the areo bed and when we had kids testing it they LOVED it because it was new and something special. That might work for you! If I remember right they have both a boy style and a girl style! Good luck!

I agree with Melissa go to the One Step Ahead website. They have neat inflatable travel beds for toddlers.

When our daughter was your son's age we used a twin-sized blow-up mattress (blows up either with a pump or hair dryer). Easy to pack and you would take along a hair dryer anyway. We would put it on the floor with tightly rolled up blankets tucked under the fitted sheet along each side to prevent her from rolling off.

In general, the mattress-on-the-floor thing is a great transition from the safety of a crib to the eventual "big bed." Worked great for us -- good luck!

Yep, OneStepAhead inflatable toddler mattress. We have two and will soon purchase a third. They are perfect for hotels and friends houses. Note: also get the thing to blow them up. (My mommy brain just forgot what that's called!)

there are some great air matress/sleeping bags at walmart or target with charcters like dora and diego that work great

I have the exact same problem myself...so this suggestion was what I was thinking for my own son, but I haven't tried it yet. At costco they have the folding mats. They are near the camping stuff, they are about $40 or so. My mom uses them all the time for visiting grandkids. They are really soft and can fold up for storage.

When our son was 2 we went to Target and purchased a combo Spiderman sleeping bag/blow up mattress (they also have different charaters). He loves Spidarman and really enjoys sleeping in it whenever we go places. It rolls ups small and is easy to take anywhere. We have put it and his clothes in the same small suitcase for long trips.

I think it cost between $15-20.

We had a trip planned to visit my parents, and I knew my mom had already given her pack-n-play away. So we purposely got rid of the crib and put my son on the crib mattress on the floor for a few weeks before the trip. He slept on the floor at grandma's house. He was about 27 months old. From that, we transitioned him to a twin bed a couple months later.

I too was wondering what to do for my 17-month old until I did some research as I really needed an option with the inflatable rails. I found the sleeping bed from www.OneStepAhead.com but after reading several of the reviews that said this bed was really prone to air leaking, I kept searching. I found the AeroBed version just for kids. We have owned a queen AeroBed for about 9 years and had had NO problems with it so I am thinking this is really the way to go and will be giving it a try since I am completely happy with the solid construction (of the queen version). Here is the link to the AeroBed for kids version. www.thinkaero.com/group/8/store_ProductDetail.html

This same product is available on www.Amazon.com so you can end up getting it a little cheaper (about $10 less) plus it qualifies for FREE shipping. Best of luck! A.

I got my son a travel bed when he was two at Target. It's an inflatable mattress with a sleeping bag attached to it and a pillow, too. It's very nice. It's a little noisy and makes some noise when they turn over, but my son thought it was so cool and loved sleeping on it when he stayed at my mom and dad's house. I've seen them other places, too, and you can get them with cartoon characters like Dora and Sponge Bob. We just got a generic space themed one at Target. That's where I know they are for sure. They are just past the toys in the camping and sporting stuff, if I remember right.

What about a sleeping bag or an inflatable mattress for the floor?

Get a sleeping bag that is of his choice. Have him sleep with it on weekends in his bed. Then when you go on a trip, take that and either put it on the floor in your room or push two armed chairs together and put it there and he'll feel like he is at home. I've done that with my children at times when they were little. I hope this helps K

Hi M. -
We live in Denver and travel often to see my family in St. Louis. We have 3 children - 6, 5 this weekend, and almost 3. With our first child, we found ourselves at that in between stage when she wasn't big enough for a regular bed but too big for the pack-n-play. Our solution was to travel with a crib mattress and a bed rail. (This only works if you are driving). We'd put the mattress in a corner and the bedrail on the outside. It worked perfectly. We did it this way for our 2nd child and will probably do the same this summer when we travel again. If you are going by plane, you might check to see if family you are visiting have these items or could borrow them for your visit. Hope this helps! Happy traveling! C. M.

We will put our son either in an extra bed or on the floor. I always prep the bed and floor with pillows laid out about the size of a crib with a blanket over the top so the provide a barrior but don't move.

We use a Toddler Aerobed. It is a smaller size air mattress
with a good size lip around the bed so it works like a bed
rail. It rolls up like a sleeping bag and we check it as
a piece of luggage when we fly on trips.
We also had the One Step Ahead air mattress but liked
this one better- the lip is higher and it is bigger with a
washable mattress pad cover that comes with it. There are sleeping bags they now sell with characters on it and an air mattress that you can blow up and slide inside the sleeping bag- this option did not work for us because the air mattress was super skinny-like the size of a pool floating air mattress.
Good Luck!

Hi M.,

At Walmart yesterday I saw a really neat Toddler cot. Folds up easily and is very low off the ground. Might be something to look at!

My family travels alot and we found a kids tent bed with a air mattress & pump included. My 2 year old loves it. We let him sleep in it in his room for about a week before we left home so it would be something familiar while we were away. we still use it and it has been over a year now. I think we got ours at either Wal mart or target for less than $20.

for my son we bought a little air bed. they are child size and come with a sleeping bag cover in different popular characters. they cost about thirty dollars and you can find them in the capimg section usually.

We bought our son a fun sleeping bag for such occasions. He loves it and never tries to get out because he wants to sleep in his special Thomas sleeping bag. We just put it on the floor in a corner of the room and it worked like a dream.

We used to take a fold up playpen with us for our son to use at other people's houses. It is safe and easy to transport.
G. Blackwell

I've done a few different things when faced with this issue:
1. Ask the host family to borrow a few bedrails from friends that might have some sitting around.

2. Call a rental company (they do exist almost everywhere) to rent some bedrails (or a crib). They deliver.

3. Go online to Mamasource in whatever zip code you are visiting and ask to borrow some from them. Mom's are great all over the world and are happy to help out.

Good luck!

I had the same problem with my daughter who is now almost 6. I found and bought her a inflatable mattress it was toddler bed size and it came with its own "sleeping bag" we had a care bear one til her older brother popped it(hes 12) by jumping on it. then I found a hello kitty one. she is still rather tiny and uses it still when we go camping. I found the first one at costco and it all rolls up to about the size of a sleeping bag. Hope this helps