Floor beds are a popular Montessori-aligned alternative to traditional western cribs for infants and toddlers. The Montessori approach emphasizes independence, freedom of movement, and respect for the child's natural development. The floor bed, which allows the child to move around freely and enables more independence related to sleep, can be used to support the implementation of the Montessori philosophy in the home. However, it's important to note that the Montessori floor bed is not for everyone, and some parents may prefer to use a traditional crib. Caregivers can still implement the Montessori philosophy at home whether or not they choose to use a floor bed.
What is a floor bed?
A Montessori floor bed is a low bed that sits directly on the floor (or on slats such as a bunkie board) without being fully surrounded by rails or bars. The mattress is typically thin and firm, with no soft bedding or pillows before an appropriate age when it is safe to add those items. The bed is often placed in the child's room with items like books or stuffed animals nearby so that the child can get up and play quietly in the morning or when they choose to.
Why use a floor bed?
One of the main benefits of the Montessori floor bed is that it promotes freedom of movement, independence and self-regulation. By allowing the child to move freely and explore their environment, the child is able to develop physically in an optimal way. Because they are free to get in and out of bed, they learn to take responsibility for their own actions and develop a sense of autonomy.
Another benefit that many parents enjoy about a Montessori floor bed is the fact that the caregiver is able to lay down with the child comfortably (if the child is on a twin-sized or larger mattress). For parents who nurse, they can nurse their child to sleep or during the night and leave the bed easily without waking or disrupting the child. Parents who want to lay with their child until they fall asleep are able to do so more easily with a floor bed.
Finally, using a floor bed from a young age eliminates the challenging transition from crib to toddler bed. The child will already be used to having sleep independence, so parents will not have to undergo this transition.
When should you use a floor bed?
Experts generally recommend that infants sleep in the parents' bedroom for at least the first few months of life. Many Montessori families start out using a bassinet or sidecar cosleeper in the parents' room for nights, possibly use the floor bed for naps from early on, then transition the child to a floor bed once they are a bit older. Some families even use a floor bed in the parents' bedroom until an age at which they feel comfortable moving the child to their own room. Personally, we kept Sophie in our room in a bassinet for nights at the beginning, then transitioned Sophie to a floor bed in her own bedroom around six months of age.
While you can certainly wait until 12, 18, or 24 months to begin using a floor bed, the transition will be more challenging, as your child will not be used to the freedom that a floor bed offers. With consistency and patience, though, you can transition at any of these ages. Once a child is 24 months and older, though, they could transition directly to a traditional toddler or twin bed. The idea of a floor bed is that it is accessible to a child who is too young for another type of bed, but if they are twin sized or bigger, they can be used for many years if that works for your family. We plan to keep Sophie in her twin-sized floor bed until she wants a different type of bed.
Safety considerations
It is important to follow safe sleep guidelines when using a floor bed. The mattress should be firm and only have a fitted sheet on it for babies under 12 months. Parents should also be cognizant of where the floor bed is placed and/or how snug the floor bed frame is if they have one, to ensure the infant would not be able to get stuck between the mattress and wall or mattress and frame.
Many families like to use slats or a bunkie board underneath the mattress to prevent mold. This will depend partly on the climate and humidity where you live, but mattresses that are directly on the floor without airflow need to be aired out regularly. Because of this, we chose to use a 1" slatted bunkie board underneath our daughter's floor bed.
A fear of many parents is the child falling out of the floor bed. Many Montessori parents report that this actually has never happened to them if they use a floor bed from early on, because their infant learns the bounds of the bed. However, a very low mattress is recommended for floor beds, and if you do not have carpet you may want to have a soft mat or blankets on the sides that are open to the floor. We chose to utilize a floor bed with partial sides because my daughter is a wild sleeper and rolls around a lot in her sleep; it has sides around a lot of the bed, but still has an opening where she can independently get in and out.
Finally, but very importantly, the bedroom where the floor bed is located must be fully child-proofed. Outlets and cords must be covered, furniture should be anchored to the wall, no other hazards should be present, and once the child is tall enough to open the door, it needs to be secured in some way to prevent wandering the house in the night. Essentially, the bedroom should be as safe as a crib would be for the child. All of my baby-proofing item recommendations can be found here. In addition to having the room full child-proofed, we have two Ring cameras in my daughter's room so we can see the whole room and check the footage if anything were to happen, which gives me peace of mind.
Some people argue that a floor bed is actually safer due to the number of children who fall out of cribs and become injured. I have personally known multiple people whose children have gotten injured falling out of their cribs, even when it was on the lowest setting.
Our floor bed journey
I began to dive into the idea of Montessori at home when my daughter Sophie was two months old. I had always preferred Montessori-style toys and materials, but had not heard of floor beds until I read the book The Montessori Baby. At first I was very skeptical of the idea of the floor bed, but as I learned more about Montessori, I became curious. When Sophie was six months old we transitioned her into the crib in her own bedroom for nights, and almost immediately she began getting her legs stuck in the slats of her crib (even while wearing a sleep sack) multiple times per night and waking up screaming. After our pediatrician said it's not safe to use mesh crib bumpers (the only option others had suggested for the issue), I decided it was time to try a Montessori floor bed. I chose this house-style bed primarily due to the partial sides, but I also liked the look of it.
In the first few months, I loved that I could lay with her in her bed to nurse or comfort her (I still love this!). She sometimes rolled around, but did not get out of the bed until she was about 9 months old. I remember seeing that she had gotten out of bed on the monitor, and when I went into her room she was sitting just outside the bed's entrance looking very proud of herself. She didn't get out much more until she was a few months older.
We did go through a phase where she wanted to get out of bed often and it took more patience to stick with the floor bed. Although she generally stayed in bed all night, for naps she would often get out of bed then fall asleep for her nap on the (carpeted) floor elsewhere in the bedroom. Over time, this improved; sometimes should would get out of bed, but she would almost always get back in within 10 minutes or so and fall asleep. Overall, we love the floor bed and it has definitely paid off. At the time of this writing at 19 months old, Sophie falls asleep independently in her floor bed for both naps and nights, and does not get out until morning, when she often will look at books or play with her stuffed animals independently until we come in to get her.
A few other notes: We moved into a new house when Sophie was 11 months old, and her bedroom is much smaller in our new house, but she now has a playroom, so we no longer keep any toys in her room. She just has a basket of stuffed animals and her bookshelf. I like it this way because there are less sleep distractions, but many families do have toys in their child's room with a floor bed and as long as the toys are safe (no choking hazards, etc.) that is fine too!
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