A child’s safety is every parent’s priority—day and night. But even superheroes like Mom and Dad have to rest, too, leaving their little ones vulnerable while they are sleeping. This poses the question: how do parents secure their baby’s safety while everyone else is resting? The answer is simple: bed bumpers for toddlers.
In this article, we’ll be talking about a toddler’s sleeping habits, certain conditions that could lead to injury, and why a toddler bed rail is vital to their nighttime safety.
How Do Toddlers Sleep?
Looking back, bedtime (and frequent naps) seems too blurry to recall. As toddlers, we didn’t sleep because we felt like it. We simply did. In total, it’s estimated that as toddlers we slept for ten to fourteen hours a day, with multiple naps throughout the day ranging from one to three hours maximum.
It’s probably the same case for your little one, falling asleep as soon as they lie down. But is sleep an immediate reassurance that your child is safe and sound? Unfortunately, no, since they move around just as much in their sleep as they would awake.
Active Sleepers
Toddlers are active sleepers, meaning they move around a lot while sleeping. Active sleeping is common among toddlers and usually happens during major developments in a child’s life. Since toddlers go through many changes, active sleeping can become constant.
Movement in active sleep can mean anything from subtle changes in sleeping positions to kicking and jerking suddenly while in slumber. When sleeping unmonitored, your child could push themselves off the bed and hurt themselves.
Aside from active sleeping, here are other conditions that, when unchecked, could lead to nighttime injuries for your baby.
Sleep Regression
Sleep regression is sudden wakefulness and the inability to go back to sleep. Like active sleeping, sleep regression emerges during transitory periods of a toddler’s life or while they are undergoing physical and mental changes. If active sleeping prompts a baby to move around unconsciously, sleep regression prevents anything at all.
Since toddlers can get easily irritated, waking up suddenly and being unable to fall asleep might rile them up and lead to actions that might alleviate their boredom, like walking around or physically expressing their irritation on objects around them.
A terrifying part about sleep regression is that it happens suddenly and without warning, and parents might not be around to keep their children in check until they return to their slumber.
Night Terrors
Night terrors are instances wherein a child feels extremely fearful during sleep. This happens around the first few hours of non-REM sleep, and once toddlers wake up, they will have no recollection of what caused their panic.
Most people would point to nightmares as the prime reason for the panic, but other causes, like sickness or external stimuli, are known to provoke night terrors. Here are some of those causes:
- Sleeping in an unfamiliar place
- Tiredness or fatigue
- Noise or sleep disruption
- Mood disorders
- Fever or other symptoms of a disease
An episode of night terrors is usually accompanied by screaming and panicky thrashing, which is why it’s dangerous for a child to experience night terrors alone.
Parasomnia
Ever seen your toddler sit up in the middle of the night, mumble a few words, then go back to sleep? That’s probably parasomnia. Parasomnia is a condition that prompts irregular movement in sleeping toddlers. Sleepwalking, sleep talking, and half-asleep movements are among the symptoms of parasomnia.
Parasomnia makes sleep unpredictable and makes it even harder to ensure your toddler’s safety. Forget about them bumping into the rough edges of their bed—what if they get off their bed and fall unconsciously or walk into a hazardous part of the house?
The Solution: Bed Bumpers
As you’ve read, among all sleep conditions is one common denominator: movement. If you were assured your toddlers would sleep in a stationary position, a simple child’s bed will be safe.
But that’s not the case. Instead, you’re in constant worry about where they’ve gone off in the middle of the night. Fortunately, baby brands have come up with a solution: bed bumpers for toddlers.
Bed bumpers are like small, elongated pillows that are usually made of foam or any soft, baby-friendly material. Bed bumpers are placed at the edges of beds to serve as the barrier between a toddler’s bed and the rest of the world, giving your baby an extra layer of protection when sleep turns against them.
But Are Bed Bumpers Safe for Toddlers?
It’s time to address the elephant in the room. Since we’re talking about baby products, their safety in direct contact with toddlers should also be worth noting. So are bed bumpers safe for toddlers? Absolutely.
For one, foam bed bumpers aren’t as bulky as traditional bed rails. If your child is big enough, using a traditional bed guard rail might even work against them since losing one’s balance on them can cause your child to tip over and fall.
Also, consider the materials. Bed bumpers for toddlers are designed like pillows; a foam bumper is supposed to blend into toddler beds, not stand out. Foam bumpers should be safety guides, not restrictive measures of confinement.
So regardless if it’s foam bed bumpers or inflatable bed rails, getting a toddler bed rail bumper is a completely safe option for your baby. Providing bed bumpers for toddlers might also teach them independence and get them closer to sleeping in their new bed—the big kid bed.
Get Ashtonbee’s Bed Bumper for Toddlers
Bed bumpers are an essential tool in protecting your active sleepers. So, if you have a bed that needs some guarding, look no further than Ashtonbee’s portable bed rails for toddlers. Our travel-friendly bed bumpers are inflatable, making storage easy. With their non-slip silicone backing, all that’s left to do is place them at the edges of the bed—what an easy solution!
You can get our bed rails on our website or through our Amazon store, so buy now!
