Thursday, January 24, 2013

Adaptive Beds

Thank you for all of the wonderful and helpful info about supplements.  Whew, there’s a lot to learn, but I appreciate the tips.

 

Now, here’s another question for y’all, which will probably be a little more limited in who’s able to respond.  We need to get an adaptive bed/safety bed for Cooper.  He’s learned how to rock his crib to the point where it fell up against Conner’s crib!  (Cooper’s crib is perpendicular to Conner’s, with about 2 1/2 feet in between the cribs.) The only thing that keeps Cooper from crawling out of his crib is that he must wear his foot braces/bar shoes when he’s in his crib.  The bar shoes prevent Cooper from hiking his leg over the edge of his crib to crawl out.  Otherwise, he’d be out of there in no time flat.

Noah's World Bed for Children with Autism and other Sleep Disorders

Up until recently, I didn’t even know adaptive beds/safety beds existed, and, had I known, I probably would have thought it was cruel and unusual punishment.  Until I had three children with special needs who all would NEED an adaptive bed to keep them safe (once they are longer safe in their cribs). 

 

An adaptive bed is used for children who have special needs and are unable (for whatever reason) to sleep in a regular/traditional/typical bed.  In Cooper’s case, he needs the confinement of a crib to keep him safe, yet he’s no longer safe in his current crib.  Since Cooper is non-verbal and doesn’t obey commands, he wouldn’t be able to call out to us at night for help, and we wouldn’t be able to insure he’d stay in a regular bed.  In fact, I’m positive he’d just climb right out because I’ve watched him do it.  He’d be all over the place, into everything, and totally unsafe if he could get out of his bed.  (Cooper doesn’t sleep well—lots of night time waking, but if he’s in an adaptive bed that keeps him safe and contained, he’ll be content to play with toys in his safe place until it’s time to get up, or until he goes back to sleep, whichever comes first.)

 

There are TONS of options for adaptive beds.  It would be nice to have one with padding inside because Cooper bangs his bar shoes against the crib rails, which has banged up the wood and taken the finish off.

Special Needs Beds for Children 3

So, my quest for today is to gather information on adaptive beds for children with special needs.  I’ve been told that many times insurance will cover the bed if a doctor writes a prescription for it and explains the medical necessity, so that’s the route we’ll try first.  (If not, I’ll probably just buy the Nickel Bed Tent, but I’m not sure that it would keep Cooper contained because he’d thrash his bar shoes against the edges, which might tear it.)

I asked this same question on Facebook yesterday and got some good suggestions.  Just wondering about pros and cons of various beds, what my options are, which bed(s) are people’s favorites, etc.  Eventually, we’ll need to get an adaptive bed for both Selah and Conner as well, so hopefully I’ll learn from y’all which ones to avoid and which ones are fabulous.

 

Thanks so much!

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