Convertible beds for newborns: features and tips for choosing

Any young family is faced with the fact that it is necessary to quickly find significant amounts of money in order to urgently provide everything necessary for a new member of the family, which is also growing rapidly, regularly changing its own needs. In such a situation, furniture of the transformer type can become a real find for the family budget - one that is capable of changing at the request of the owners, acquiring new functions. Buying one such piece of furniture is cheaper than buying several separate ones, but the functionality usually does not suffer from this. A baby cot is one of the most popular such purchases today.

Convertible beds for newborns involve a combination of such furniture with something else, and the task of parents is to determine what potential new functions they expect from such a purchase. The manufacturers themselves, in pursuit of consumer attention, are ready to offer the most unusual combinations that can offer maximum functionality, however, not all potential buyers imagine that this is possible at all. For this reason, it is worth starting by looking at your options.

• Bed with a chest of drawers. Such a solution is very beneficial for small apartments, since both a sleeping place and storage boxes are present here from the very beginning - the baby sleeps, as it were, on top of the closet. The possibility of transformation here lies in the fact that the sleeping place can be increased over time by moving part of the boxes for things. Similar models like "Fairy" in our country can be safely called massive.

• Baby cots with a pendulum are a combination of a regular bed and a cradle. In general, the sleeping place is motionless. But if the parents wish, you can push it, and it will begin to swing with a small amplitude. Some popular models are able to react even to the child's activity - not only to movements, but also to crying.

• Models with a changing table. All at once for the newborn, because without the last detail it will be difficult for a young mother. Since the table is actually needed only at first, over time it transforms into something else - it can be either additional sleeping space or a writing desk.

• Round models. The initial meaning of this design is the absence of corners, which should have a positive effect on the possibility of avoiding injury to the baby. The product, due to its shape, takes up quite a lot of space, despite the fact that it rather rigidly limits the growth of the baby; however, that is why it is a transformer - over time, its parts can be arranged in a different order, turning the furniture into a bed of a more familiar shape.

• Multifunctional options. Some manufacturers thought that it was not necessary to combine only two main functions within one piece of furniture, and released the first 3-in-1 models - a bed, a swaddler and a chest of drawers. After that, their imagination could no longer be held, and in pursuit of the consumer, 5 in 1 and even 8 in 1 models were released. Of course, excessive versatility implies partial duplication of some functions, however, some families may still be interested in this.

The very active conquest of the market by transformers in itself suggests that such a purchase is very justified and practical. Whichever model the consumer chooses, he is guaranteed to receive a number of advantages, among which the most important should be highlighted.

• For a kid, furniture is usually bought literally for a few years, since he is growing rapidly, and his needs are changing. The transformer allows you to make the once purchased item last longer - some models "see" not only rapid growth, but also the maturation of their owner. This approach saves not only finances, but also the time of parents, who do not need to run around the shops every couple of years in search of replacement of old furniture.

• Almost any transformer assumes the presence of at least one or two drawers for storing things, which are always at hand, given the low mobility of the newborn. The zone of constant stay and regular service of the baby can be organized literally on two square meters, which greatly speeds up and simplifies all the necessary operations for the mother.

• Buying a transformer always significantly saves parental money - a kind of wholesale purchase, and the presence of common walls between the bed and the same chest of drawers affects here, which allows the manufacturer to save on materials. As a rule, a transforming crib costs about one and a half times more than a similar simple one, but instead of it, you would have to buy a separate cradle, changing table and a wardrobe for storing things, and then also purchase one or two more spacious beds for a growing child.

• Many modern apartments, built back in Soviet times, do not differ in an abundance of free space, therefore the presence of even two children in a family can force all household members to make room. It's good if there is where, but in many cases such a task becomes a real problem. Again, in this case, a transformer may be an excellent solution, since it provides everything a newborn needs in a space of two square meters. This means that not even a room, but one corner is enough for a baby, which means that parents with their first child can live even in a one-room apartment, and with two in a two-room apartment.

On the one hand, transformers look like a real panacea, on the other, why haven't they replaced the classic twin beds with wardrobes, if they surpass them so much in all respects? Numerous reviews indicate that such furniture, like any other, has certain disadvantages, which sometimes push you to completely abandon such an acquisition. In fairness, most of the disadvantages of transforming beds do not relate to absolutely any kind of such furniture, but only to specific models, but the buyer should at least be more careful when choosing a product.

• The maximum risk lies in the possibility of buying a low-quality product, which should replace a whole set of furniture. If the bed is made of second-rate material that will soon lose its visual appeal or, even worse, functionality, then not only the sleeping place will be damaged, but also the chest of drawers, and the changing table, and all other elements of the purchase, which means that the money will have to be spent again. At the same time, transformers often attract the attention of not the most wealthy consumers, who often choose them for the sake of saving money, and this only further exacerbates the situation.

• A convertible crib is considered a great option for a child as it can grow larger over time, but in reality most models only "grow" in length, ignoring the increase in width.Of course, not a single child grows in the shoulders as rapidly as in height, however, it is quite obvious that even a first grader will find it difficult to sleep in a newborn's cradle.

• The pursuit of compactness by manufacturers also affects such an important piece of equipment as drawers for things or a chest of drawers. Usually they have very limited sizes, so it would be more correct to say that the most basic things can be stored there, and not literally everything that the baby has.

• It would seem that buy a transformer - and the problem of replacing the bed is solved without additional spending money, but not everything is so simple. In the starter kit, the product is usually supplied with a mattress that is designed specifically for a newborn, and when unfolded, such a bed usually does not follow any generally accepted dimensions of a sleeping place. At the same time, experts studying healthy sleep argue that the correspondence of the size of the mattress to the area of ​​the sleeping place has a decisive effect on posture and the correct development of internal organs, so it is possible that parents will have to run a lot before they find a suitable model. In any case, you will also have to spend money to buy it.

• With all the conveniences, the transformer, into which a maximum of various functions has been shoved into a minimum area, is distinguished by the heaviness and inaccessibility of the space under it, and therefore full-fledged putting things in order under such furniture will be problematic. Moreover, getting something from under the bed that fell there by accident is a whole task that cannot be done without a dad.

Since a transformer is such furniture that, in principle, tries to expand the boundaries of standards, it will be naive to think that it can have standard sizes. It all depends on both the specific manufacturer and the configuration, including the company's desire to squeeze the maximum of possibilities into the minimum dimensions. It would be more correct to say that some combinations of length and width are much more common than others, since they are considered optimal. For example, the average parameters of a transforming bed for a newborn are 120 by 65 centimeters, and if a company positions its product as growing, then the length of the bed usually increases to no more than 150 cm.

In this case, it makes no sense to compose any rating - each manufacturer is distinguished by periodic successful and unsuccessful models, and each consumer sees its pros and cons in each such bed, so the results would be too subjective. For this reason, our review will do without allocating seats - just highlight a few manufacturers that, as of the spring of 2018, were successful.

It is predicted that Russian-made transformers are leading on the domestic market, since there are enough raw materials and manufacturing industries in Russia. If we talk about the percentage ratio by the number of models, then it is Russian creations that occupy a good two-thirds of the entire assortment., being represented by no less than ten different manufacturers, among which "Fairy" and "Antel" stand out. If we talk about the Russian segment of such products, then in general it refers to goods of average quality, not being outstanding either for the better or for the worse, although individual models, of course, can be worse or better than the general picture.Such cots are popular due to their wide representation in any region of the country, as well as due to a relatively democratic pricing policy - such a product usually costs between 6-10 thousand rubles.

If we talk about the products of Western brands, then Italian brands are best represented here. - for example Sweet Baby, Nuovita, Feretti, Bambolina, Birichino. Consumers preferring such products are usually guided by the highest quality of production, because the strict consumer standards of the European Union force manufacturers to use only completely safe and durable materials. Of course, such high positive characteristics affect the price - in particular, some Italian transformers can have a price of tens of thousands of rubles. Among other European manufacturing countries, British and Danish cribs are also popular, but special attention should be paid to Polish products.

Ironically, convertible cribs are one of the very few industries and commerce where China has yet to take a leading role. In our country, a fairly well-known brand Geoby is presented from the Middle Kingdom, which, in general, does not really fit the description of typical Chinese goods, traditionally low-quality, but very inexpensive. Such a bed is unlikely to be able to compete with eminent world competitors, but it can compete with Russian and some Polish manufacturers both in terms of reliability and durability.

Parents probably want their practical and durable purchase to be not only functional, but also beautiful, additionally creating a positive atmosphere in the nursery. Such a bonus is also possible - let's look at what a transforming baby crib might look like.

In the first photo we see the simplest example in terms of design - the body is entirely white and has no inserts of a different color, which allows the product to fit into absolutely any interior. At the same time, a sleeping place, a chest of drawers and storage boxes are squeezed into an extremely small occupied space, although this model meets all the concerns about the complexity of cleaning.

However, a similar concept can be multi-colored, and the combination of black and white is not always strict and official, it is quite appropriate in the case of a baby - the second photo successfully proves all these theses. Here, the manufacturers tried to supplement the general functionality of the previous model with a small changing table, so that the result was a full-fledged baby service center.

The last example seems similar to the two previous ones, however, it is clearly noticeable here that the chest of drawers can be removed over time, increasing the length of the berth, and used as a separate bedside table. Of course, such a solution will take up more space, but this was to be expected, because the child is growing.

For information on how to choose a transforming bed for newborns, see the next video.