What Does Your 2 Year Old Sleep in on Vacation?

We bought KidCo PeaPods when our twins were about 2 1/2 and used them everywhere. They are little pop up temts with mattress and sleep sacks in them. They kept the girls contained and were easy to pack. I highly recommend them.
http://www.kidco.com/main.taf?p=4,5

1 mom found this helpful

Hi M.,
I remember asking the same question about a year ago. My daughter is a very "sensitive" sleeper-- i.e. doesn't sleep well if she's even a little uncomfortable. At 2 years old she was tall for her age and I think the padding in the pack 'n play was too thin. We had some really tired trips to Grandmas.
My Mom bought a folding full-sized crib by Dream on Me. It wasn't cheap, and of course she also bought the mattress and sheets (nicer than she has at home!), but you could bring these along yourself. The brand is Dream on Me. Here's a link to their site. Don't look at the mini-cribs. They're no bigger than a pack'n play.
http://www.dreamonme.com/
If the grandparents are willing to invest, it's a great option.
Good luck!

Hi! One Step Ahead, an online company, sells an inflatable toddler bed, like an Aerobed... check it out!

Hello M.: I want to answer this one as a Grandmother to several wonderful children. We do have the portable fold up bed and the 2 year old curls up in it still or sleeps cross wise. But we also have a small pop up tent that we set up and the little ones sleep in that as well. They have the fun of being like camping and everything they need is contained. I also let the children sleep in sleeping/slumber bags. You might have to have an extra blankeet under the bag for softness. My cousin does a great thing as well- she keeps a toddler size mattress in a room at her house for just this reason with her grandchildren.

Hope this gives you some help. Have fun with the Grandparents! Nana G

Hi M.,
My sister and I were looking for something similar for her son. We saw ( I think at Babies R Us) a travel sleeper. It looks like a little cot with sides for medium sized kids, and it sits really low to the floor. I don't know how much they cost, but they looked really great and compact.
I hope this helps!

You could also consider renting a crib for the duration of your vacation. You would have to do a search online, but I have done this before. Bring your own sheets and crib mattress. It's easier than finding something else to lug around, IMHO.

I've heard of some people buying a small pop up tent for them to sleep in once they are too big for the pack n play but not ready for the bed. They are on the floor and have the sense of something around them. I've heard the kids love it, but have never had the chance to try it out myself. I got my kids sleeping bags and put them on the floor. They loved it. But they still may get up and wander around...

I happend to have a pack n play that is older (bought in the mid 90's) and it is bigger then the current ones...so I have been able to use that up until almost 3...they also make pack n plays for twins that are larger if you really want to keep him in a pack n play!! You can do a search online for them.

Hi M.,
When our kids got a lil older & didn't fit in the conventional portable play pen we would either take a fold up cushion(kinda like a futon but covered in vinyl, they sell them at Costco, it folds in to thirds) or if we were at someones house, we would remove two couch cushions, put them together length wise, then put a crib sheet or a twin sheet over them and this is where they would sleep. This way we didn't NEED to take anything EXTRA with us.And best part the kids were only a couple inches off the floor & wouldn't hurt themselves if they rolled off, we would just place them next to where we were sleeping. Air mattress's are Great but we have found them a little bulky to carry around, and it seems they need to be patched right out of the box?? Every one I have had leaked air??? when we can't find a hole, we relized it was the seams leaking??even our expensive AERO bed.. so we stopped buying them...Anyway, I will say ALL our kids LOVED sleeping on Grandma's couch cushions..we didn't have to drag anything with us & grandma didn't have to store any extra beds..... Not all kids will be okay with this if they won't go to sleep unless confined. Our's were told to stay put & they did mostly, but some won't?? Good Luck, enjoy...
G'ma L.

We just bought a fold out Regalo cot for our 2.5 year old, that sits about 6 inches off the ground. Very compact, super easy to set up - but I wasn't happy with its lack of cushion. So I picked up a One Step Ahead pad that lays on the floor (second hand) that had a nice cushion, & combined the two. My son really likes it, but he has been in a toddler bed for over 6 months now so it may not be the thing for you.

My kids sleep on kids' air mattresses. They have an attached sleeping bag, and are low to the ground so you don't have to worry about injuries from falling out. They come in lots of characters (we have Cars and Hannah Montana), and run about $30. They also work great for camping.

We do home childcare and found a cot for our kiddies that I think would be perfect for a vacation bed for a toddler. It's built like the chairs that fold up like an umbrella and can be put into a bag just like they are for transportation. When unfolded, they look much like an old fashioned camp cot. The child's body fits into a slight depression in the middle which provides some protection from falling out, but if they did fall out the cot is close enough to the floor that there should not be any problem with them getting hurt. This cot is easy to transport, and is very reasonably priced... just under $30. I got ours through WalMart online shopping and had them delivered to our nearest store (so didn't have to add a shipping charge). Look up the brand name "Regalo" at WalMart online and see if you think those would work for you. One other thing about these cots is that it will last your child for a long time. You can purchase them in two lengths. My recommendation is to buy the longer one because that way the child can use it into his early elementary years. If you have any questions after looking at them, feel free to send me a personal message and I'll try to give you an answer. (By the way, even though it may sound like I've written a 'commercail' for these cots, I don't work for either Regalo or WalMart. I just am very happy with this particular product and feel that it's a good option for you.

We just went to visit the grandparents for two weeks and my 27 month old just slept in the pack-n-play. Although it "looked" a little small for him, he slept fine (naps and nighttime). We are planning on using it again in September, when he'll be even taller, but I need him contained, so many of the other suggestions would not work. Renting a crib is an option, but most places will rent you a pack-n-play as the crib (these are travel type places and who is going to be setting up a full size crib?) If he's not complaining, the I think you'll be fine.

Floor. It's camping trip adventure time.
Okay, we don't really do that. We put our 2 yr old in our bed when we traveled. My mom-in-law's spare room has two twin beds, so my daughter and I took one while my hubby took the other.

Stephanie

Hi M.,
We went through much the same thing. What worked for us was to buy a long bed rail that we could take along and attach to a single bed or a mattress on the floor. I was able to find one at Babies R Us that is an extra long extra tall hideaway bed rail that can slide under the mattress when not in use. Our thinking is that we will use it eventually when we move our daughter into a regular bed. It has worked great for us several times.

Good luck!

We just took a little three day trip and used the packnplay for our son who turned 2 in March. He too has had some incredible growth spurts, but I just went ahead and used it anyway. I took some extra little blankets to pad the bottom (under the pad that is included) and used hotel towels to hang over the sides so he wouldn't be distracted by our movements. It worked out fine and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I'm not sure how long your vacation is, but kids are so adaptable. We returned to our hotel each day for naptime and our son did just great napping solid and sleeping at night too. We wore him (and ourselves) out everyday and that probably helped too. You might want to scope out some parks in the area just to have some sure things that will give him the chance to have some new play areas to explore and expend all that energy. Hope all goes well.

We didn't like to have to pack anything extra, so she slept between us.

We use the Aerobed toddler bed for trips to grandparent's houses, camping, etc. We put it on the floor of the room we're sleeping in. My daughter is very tall so we started using it long before she was out of her crib at home and it's been great. When we travel to hotels, we just made sure to get a room w/ 2 beds and put pillows around the edges or asked for bed rails. She's now 3.5 and has slept in a twin bed for a while so we don't even put pillows around her anymore. I know that we will use the Aerobed toddler bed for quite a few more years.

I have off the chart tall kids and my son also slept in a pak in play until he was 18 mths and I thought he was too big (shamefully I look at photo's now and think he was too big about 3 to 4 mths before I took him out, bad mommy ha ha. Anyway, I have found now that there are actually larger pak and plays if you don't need all the fancy stuff at Wal-Mart.
If that is still too small, I would go the sleeping bag and pull out chair route. You can get them at Wal-Mart or Target and they are those fuzzy covered chairs, but some of them pull out like a lounger. VERY portable, can be smushed into a suitcase or even bought while at grandparents.

good luck

When our boys were young we just put them in between us when we went camping or to a hotel. Good Luck!

Hi M.,

When we found ourselves in this situation, we either had our son sleep with us or we used a children's air mattress. They are made by Aerobed and are sold through One Step Ahead. It packs easily and has raised sides all the way around that provide a little barrier to help them from rolling off. It also has a nice plush washable cover. It's a little pricey though, so if you won't use it a lot, I wouldn't bother. In addition to travel, we've used ours in the family room for naps or on days when our son was sick.

A.

Hi M.,

I'm sure your pack 'n' play will be fine. Even if he is a little big, it's something he's used to, and it's really the easiest.

After my boys outgrew the porta-crib, I used "bedrails". I just traveled with 2 of them everywhere we went, then slipped them under the matress. They are about 4ft long, and have these "arms" that slip in between the matresses, and they are very easy to use and travel with. You can buy them at Walmart, Target, or Babies R Us.

Anyway, I'm sure you're fine with your Pack N Play, especially because you don't want to interrupt his perfect "sleep by myself" routine :O)

~N. :O)

we use the Aerobed toddler bed. It has elevated sides to stop our son from falling out. We've used it quite a bit and he only rolled out once (one of his first times on it). I highly recommend it.