Hi all, looking for suggestions/idea's. We have an 11 month old boy who is just starting to push himself around. Up until this point he has slept on the lower bunk and we've just put a pillow in front of the opening for "safety". Now he is moving quite a bit and soon will be able to pull himself up. Has anyone come up with a solution to keep them safely in the bunk at night? All of the traditional rails, etc are way to big as it's for a standard bed on the side. Any help and idea's from people who've come up with a solution are appreciated!

Any reason you couldn't use something like one of those expandable gates? They should be easy enough to cut down the height to fit your needs.

We had a baby born while we were cruising on our 32' sailboat and having them crawl out of a bunk on a sailboat is only half the battle; keeping them from being *thrown* out is another issue.

We used netting. About 1" squares. Secured under his mattress and then up and to the overhead (which wasn't very high).

It worked fine. He never got out when we didn't want him out. But we had a stern set of rules for both kids (our daughter was 2-1/2 when we left Puget Sound and over 7 when we returned). When we said, "stop" they both stopped!

WDR

Yea, we considered an expandable gate. we'd have to install it inside the bunk area as towards the exit things are on an angle. I'll also have to check the height of it. A net is exactly what I was thinking except we have to install all the hooks and hardware drilling into the walls etc. Not to happy about the thought of that!

  On 5/7/2015 at 9:28 AM, rcharrette said:

A net is exactly what I was thinking except we have to install all the hooks and hardware drilling into the walls etc. Not to happy about the thought of that!

I was thinking about that too, but couldn't think of a good way to secure it that wouldn't potentially work itself loose or be too easy for your boy to learn to circumvent. Possibly some of those snap clips... maybe two on each side and two along the bottom? Probably more though so there isn't any chance he could get his head caught in the gap between the net and wall.

It's a good question. Let us know what you get figured out.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Yarome

Leather straps...just kidding.

Check with some of the boat/sailing supply houses for a mesh that is used to keep people in bunks when at sea.

https://sailrite.wordpress.com/category/sailing/

Ken

Being an old horse person, this is what came to my mind. You could check one out at any Tack/Farm store so you could

touch/feel what the fabric was like. I liked the cotton rather than the nylon, and most of them are adjustable.

http://www.horsetackco.com/cotton-stall-guard.html

Thanks everyone. After some searching we ended up finding a baby gate that was short enough to slot into the lower bunk. Problem solved!