Hello grandparents. This is my first post and I’ve been at my wits end and have a sick feeling on the pit of my stomach about something my DIL is introducing to my 6.5 month old grandson. Please feel free to tell me if I’m being dramatic and unreasonable, but I’ve a strong feeling many will agree with me..
So my DiL (actually she’s the long term partner of my son, but I will refer to her as my DiL), she read/heard recently that all cot mattresses contain toxic chemicals and are a danger to babies. They also have two daughters who slept in cots and are top notch healthy girls. My grandson is their “very special gift” as they have wanted a boy and with a 6 year age gap to their youngest daughter, he is so precious. I can understand how they feel towards their little boy. So, since my grandson is getting too big for his bedside bassinet and keeps waking in the middle of the night, it’s time to put him in his own room. They currently have 3 bedrooms and the girls have had their own rooms from being babies. They are planning on developing their basement and adding two more bedrooms, but that’s a way off yet, so for now, the plan is that the two girls will share the master bedroom (being the largest bedroom), my son and DiL will move into the mid sized bedroom and my baby grandson will have the smaller bedroom. Nothing wrong with that plan, right?! Well I mentioned about the article my DiL read about cot mattresses? He is so precious that she refuses to put him in a cot and instead, has bought (and now set up) one of those floor level single beds with a low level rail. She’s reassured me she’s going to fully baby proof the bedroom so that when he’s old enough to crawl out from the bed, he won’t get access to electrical outlets/cables, heating vents, drawers or the walk-in closet. And there’s going to be a stair gate at his bedroom door.
My mind will not shut off about the potential danger my grandson is in. Right now he is pretty much fixed in place in the bassinet, but once in a floor level bed, he will crawl out whenever he feels like it and they don’t even have a monitor!
I’ve just voiced my concerns to my son and told him his family here in the UK think it’s utterly insane (they live in Canada and she is Canadian), but I’ve yet to hear back from him.. he’s very passive and anything for a quiet life. It’s so frustrating! And don’t even get me started on her giving my grandson a bottle of formula during the night by way of a rolled up blanket across his chest to support the bottle as she then goes back to sleep!!!
Sorry for the lengthy rant and if you read it all, thank you. Am I being overly dramatic?
