The Story of Our Floor Bed

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When I was pregnant I prepared a nursery in my mind and at the center of that picture-perfect nursery was, of course, the perfect crib. I knew I wanted to raise my son in a Montessori home but the floor bed that is typical in Montessori nursery made me a bit uncomfortable. So I opted for a crib and found my dream one, not realizing that after about 4 months my son would never sleep in it. I understand a crib works well for many families but it did not work for ours. Just as I do not think the Montessori floor bed is right for every family I do not think a crib is.

In this post I am going to do a full breakdown of what floor beds are, why we switched to one, our process of switching, and how it’s going.

What is a Montessori floor bed?

“One of the greatest helps that could be given to the psychological development of a child would be to give him a bed suited to his needs and cease making him sleep longer than necessary. A child should be permitted to go to sleep when he is tired, to wake when he is rested, and to rise when he wishes. This is why we suggest that the typical child’s bed should be done away with as has already been done in many families. The child instead should be given a low couch resting practically upon the floor, where he can lie down and get up as he wishes.”
– Dr. Maria Montessori, The Secret of the Childhood, p. 74

The Montessori floor bed is quite simply a bed on the floor that is used instead of a crib in many Montessori homes. It allows babies the freedom to get on and off the bed as they wish. Typically it also does not have sides which allows for a greater view of the room. Ours is a bit different in this aspect, but it works for us.

It can be used from birth, though many families choose to use a more cozy bassinet for the early weeks or months. During this period babies are not able to get up on their own anyway.

Children in Montessori floor beds are able to get up instead of sleeping. This feels very foreign to a lot of people, but it actually is part of the design. Most children, however, when given the freedom from early on do not often end up playing instead of sleeping.

Why We Switched to a Floor Bed

As I mentioned above we actually planned on using a crib. However, it did not work for us. Transfers became impossible and after about 4 months Yitzchak was needing more support to get to sleep (totally fine and developmentally normal). We tried taking the mattress out of the crib so I could lie with him while putting him to sleep and it worked wonders. We decided it was time to try to convert our crib.

Converting the Crib

The first step of converting our crib into a Montessori floor bed was taking off the legs and removing one side. Obviously, the mattress had to be closer to the ground and we didn’t want the bars all around it. Our crib had crossbars with legs on the bottom which we removed. We then took off the front side, leaving the other three sides in place.

We initially wanted to leave the spring platform the mattress rests on in to keep the mattress from being directly on the ground. However, since we wanted to be able to lie with him we worried how that would hold our weight. Instead, we just took that off and put the mattress directly on the floor. We do not live in a place with high humidity and we air it out from time to time.

This worked okay but it didn’t look fantastic. Yitzchak also was rolling off a lot. Though I knew he would get used to not rolling off I thought maybe it would make sense to get the toddler attachment. This would allow him to still get in and out, prevent rolling off, and make it more aesthetically pleasing.

We ordered the toddler attachment and put it on the fourth side. So now his bed is made up of the four sides of the toddler bed, just with the mattress directly on the floor instead of on the legs.

How it is Going

We love the floor bed. He still is in our room at night until at least his first birthday. However, we use the floor bed for naps and the first part of the night when we are awake. This works perfectly for us. Being able to lie with him as he falls asleep is so much better than transferring into a crib. It has become a favorite part of my day. It also is wonderfully sustainable. I plan to continue lying with him as he falls asleep as he gets older. I have wonderful memories of this with my mom and I far prefer this to doing a silent return in the evening.

Another amazing thing related to the floor bed also happened. I remember reading in the book “The Montessori Baby” that with a floor bed someday instead of calling out your baby will get up and come find you. I was doubtful this would happen any time soon. Then one day recently Yitzchak woke up, got out of bed, played a little, and came and found me. It was magical watching him wake up so happily instead of calling for us.

Of course, the bedroom needs to be completely babyproofed. All furniture is anchored to the wall, outlets are covered, cords are covered, there are no dangling strings, etc. The Pikler is folded up for sleep. We had his room completely safe anyway though so this was not a big transition.

I have gotten a lot of concerns from people about him sleeping in the toddler years when he is more interested in exploring. I am not concerned about this for several reasons. One, from everyone I know who did a floor bed early on (as opposed to switching a toddler) since the freedom was always there they are less inclined to use it. Additionally, learning more about the biology of sleep allows me to create a cooperative sleep relationship with Yitzchak that involves me reading his sleepy cues but also trusting his body in a similar way to how I do with food. There are a lot of scare tactics from the sleep training industry (a lot of which I initially fell for and why I was at first reluctant to get a floor bed), but the reality is with a proper winddown routine (which we have) the chance that he will end up sleep-deprived because of this freedom is unlikely. I also lie with him which makes it even less likely. I believe in responsiveness at night regardless so it aligns with my parenting philosophy.

Floor Bed Recommendations

Even though I love our floor bed if I were buying for a new nursery I would not buy our crib and convert it. It was quite expensive and there are better options. I love the Sprout floor bed (code OnTheWay10 for discount). They make it in multiple sizes so what I likely would have done is start with a crib mattress directly on the floor and then switch to the Sprout floor bed when it was safe to move past the crib mattress.

That said, I believe most toddler beds could probably convert to floor beds by removing the legs.

UPDATE: Check out my YouTube for more about the floor bed!