Are pull out couches safe for children ?
 

Kind of a silly question, but it is travel related. Have a room at the Alden Beach Resort in St. Pete's booked for April. Unfortunatley, only room left has a king bed and pull out couch in the living room. Hubby is a big guy, 6'4, and I don't think the both of us will be comfortable on the pullout.
Something is picking at the back of my mind that pullouts aren't safe for small children. ( ours is 3 ). Asked for a cot, but they don't have them. Any suggestions ? Thanks

I imagine if they were unsafe for children they wouldn't be on the market.

Liability and all you know.

If you are really concerned (and I don't think you need to be) don't pull it out. Just let your chld sleep on the couch. :-) I usually take the seat cushions though and put them in the gap between the mattress and the back of the couch. Or are you worried that the sofa sleeper will fold up easily with so little weight on it? I've never known that to be a problem.

Our boys have slept on pull out couches many times-never had a problem. They don't fold up easily.

Thanks. I have never slept on one, and it's good to know they can't fold up easily. I need to stop worrying so much...it is a vacation after all !

What funny memories this brings back. Growing up in the 50's we had an early sleeper sofa in our den. It was different than today's versions. You had to lift on the continuous seat part and unlatch, then lift and pull forward. The back would then go down. You slept on in lengthwise and there was a big crack up the center where the back and the seat met. Our favorite thing to do as kids was to unlatch it and bounce until it gave way, snapping up and trapping us inside it. So much fun. And about as dangerous as playing with an abandoned refrigerator!

Those things were banned years ago. I can't imagine how today's versions could be any more unsafe that 90% or all furniture your kids come in contact with.

I would say that the biggest danger is how grungy those pull outs can be.
Sometimes the sheets are left on for months and no one checks to see if they were used! :O

Oh my gosh Patrick, your story made me laugh. It reminds me of one of our favorite games ... we'd take turns wrapping each other up like a burrito in a foam sleeper mattress and tie a rope around it. The the others would take turns pushing the burrito from side to side. With your arms tied to your side, if someone missed, you'd better hope you missed that coffee table. Was that fun or what?

Our 3 year old son slept on a pullout on our recent vacation in Mexico. While probably not the most comfortable place for an adult to sleep, he slept fine. The one "safety" problem might come from the gap between the back of the couch and the bed when you unfold it. However, that is easily alleviated by simply putting the back cushions in their usual place once the bed is taken out.

How did we survive our childhoods. Pretty soon they will ban bathtubs since this is a major cause of injury. Massachusetts is pushing legislation thru now to make helmets mandatory while sleding.

To answer the question, they will be fine in pullout couch. Stick a pillow in the voids if it makes you feel better.

ahhnold - While I know of no reason that a pull-out couch is fine, safety issues are real. The honest answer to your question is that we didn't all survive to adulthood. Hopefully childhood death due to accidents is lower today than it was in the past. I have no statistics, but I'd be willing to wager that it's true. :)

You might want to bring a sleeping bag for your little one - not for safety reasons, but because you will not be able to stay up in the living room after he goes to bed.

We tried a similar arrangement once when our oldest was about two. She ended up sleeping in a sleeping bag in our room so we could stay up - then when we went to bed, my husband carried her, bag and all, to the foldout.

jlm...Direct that to the rest of the posters here who agree with me. For once, most posters here agree with me.

My other comments were sarcastic in nature. Any parent that follows all the safety regulations with their children has said the same thing at one time or another.

Actually, ahhnold, I agree with you too, but had a typo in my post. I meant to say that I know of no reason that pull-out sofas are unsafe. I would let my kid use them.

I was just pointing out that caring about safety precautions isn't some fanatical concept - they really make a difference!

Ahhnold,
I'm surprised by you. Clearly you've forgetten the very important lessons taught by noted Economist Milton Friedman - a person who Reagan often cited.

Government, as Friedman noted, needs to take a more business oriented approach by using cost-benefit analysis.

Incremental cost of helmets for children from a law requiring them for sledding - Minimal. Most kids have bicycle helmets anyway.

Cost of Medical Care when head trauma occurs - significantly more than minimal as sleds can reach 30 to 50 miles an hour.

Honestly, if you're going to say we spend to much as a society on medical care, than what you need to do is find "easy" avenues to reduce the incidences requiring care and utilization rates of expensive tests.

An easy way to reduce cost of medical care due to sledding injury is to use one's brain. Do not sled near a granite wall. Do not sled on ice.

I'm not saying safety measures are not needed, but there is no denying that common sense must first play a role to prevent them.

I don't disagree that common sense is needed. However, if you've ever been to Disney, Vegas, or New Orleans and gotten an up close view of the average American, you'd realize why we sometimes need the government to protect us.

Google "John Smoltz iron shirt" sometime and you'll find out why you need a label that says "Do not iron clothes while wearing them."

Are you sure "we" need the government to protect us? Do you really think the government telling people to make sure the lawn mower is "off" before removing the blade will make a difference?

The people that need those instructions not only will not follow them, but will end up injuring themselves in some idiotic way anyway. Far cry between wearing a helmet and taking off your shirt before ironing.

Ryan, LOL. Sad, but true.

Wagonwheel, whenever i've had a pull-out, the staff will come in and open it up for me. Check out what they do when they do that. Make sure you know of any safety features because in the AM you might not want to wait for them. Or you might have instances where you want to open it to use it and not want to wait for them.

But all in all, they are just folding beds, not the problem that barcaloungers seem to be (no offense intended to any barcalounger patrons or makers).

"Google "John Smoltz iron shirt" sometime and you'll find out why you need a label that says "Do not iron clothes while wearing them."

So are you suggesting that if there HAD BEEN such a label, that it wouldn't have happened? Of course not. Labels and safety precautions don't work on idiots. It's that simple.

Amen ..patrick.

I like the suggestion of the sleeping bag, and moving him when we go to bed. Thanks Buttercup.

Interesting political angle to this hot topic of pull out couches...but, uh, thanks...I think...

Patrick, Ahhnold, et al,
Perhaps I didn't make my point as I intended it. My point wasn't that people won't continue to do stupid things if properly warned. (Such as the woman who decided to get out of her car in the bear section of the Great Adventure Drive-Through Safari. Despite signs saying "bears can be hostile.")

Having a label saying "don't iron your shirt while wearing it", doesn't stop the John Smoltz's of the world from doing just that. But, it does at least limit what their lawyer will try and get from the iron's manufacturer.

To be clear, idiots will be idiots despite a warning label. The only way to stop said imbecile from profiting from their stupidity, is to tell them what could occur.

My brother is a NYC fireman - I've heard plenty of stories about people who'd qualify for "Darwin Awards." Such as the guy who broke his eye orbit after being hit by a golf ball that richocheted from his home made potato gun (he'd run out of potato's and needed something else) and the guy he had to cut out of a dryer because once he'd gotten in, he couldn't get out.

On the other hand, government intervention will sometime bring a potential problem to the attention of an otherwise cautious but under-informed citizen.

Ie - my kids go sledding all the time here in Massachusetts. We sled in an area that is free from granite walls, trees and other obstacles. We use the usual amount of precaution but sometimes the kids get in each other's way and knock each other over. Currently, I would never think to ask the kids to wear helmets. But if I was told that wearing the helmet could prevent serious injury, if I was made aware of just how prevalent sledding injuries were, and was made aware of how those injuries occur (ie granite walls vs. kids knocking each other over) and how serious the injuries can be, then I would now be a better informed parent and could make better decisions for my kids.

Common sense is a strange thing - no one shares the same defination of common sense - what makes sense to you is based on your cumulative experiences. It might not make sense or be obvious to me if I haven't had the same experiences as you.

I think that the term "common sense" should be redubbed "uncommon sense" because it seem like there is less and less of it around as time goes by.

Maybe the problem is the lawyers.

Should a bed read" Caution: Rolling out of this bed improperly may cause injury". Without that warning, lawyers can file a lawsuit.

I still love the warning the my morning coffee is hot;-)

Back to the original question:

If you think anything about the sofabed will be dangerous, then do what I do as an adult who's been stuck with a sofabed a couple of times:

Pull out the mattress & put it on the floor. Close the sofa back up.

Your kid won't notice it, but any adult can vouch for a miserable bar half way down that always sticks in your back or side trying to sleep. I even remember a Saturday Night Live SNL news story about the death of the Castro Convertable heiress who passed away, something to the effect of "we'd like to report that she died peacefully in her sleep, but that bar in the bed was killing her"

I do agree with asking for FRESH linen if the bed's already been made up - it can be weeks or even months old. I have never had a guest request staff to come up & open a bed. It's not exactly rocket science.

You made some excellent points, Bennnie.

By pullout-couch, are we all sure that they mean "sofa bed" or "convertible couch"? I have been in a couple of hotels where there's what amounts to a standard twin bed that tucks under a shelf/table affair, and looks like a sort of a bench-sofa with a side table. You roll it out from under the shelf to use it as a bed. The only hazard for a child here would be rolling off on the shelf-side and rolling under it -- which would be frightening but no more dangerous than landing on the floor on the other side.

Have I described this at all clearly? Do people recognize what I'm trying to describe?

You are right Bennnie. Note the further proof that common sense is subjective.

Agree w/rapunzll, just use the unopened couch if the child is young enough. I've done it myself while staying with friends in Hawaii. The "bed" is horrible but as a free couch....it's pretty good!

On the political note, warning labels are entirely about legal liability something we've become obsessed with.

I was reading a thread somewhere between several Australians who were in high hilarity over the US mania about warning labels. Apparently the Superman haloween costume has a warning on the cape to the effect the user can NOT actually fly.

We've become the laughing stock of the world. Maybe if we paid teachers what we pay lawyers, we get better teachers and fewer lawyers.

ahhhnold, I'd thought someone would throw this one to the expert during court recess.

Thanks for the entertaining thread, all. Personally, I think this is one area of his theory that Darwin had right. Those who win the Darwin award generally deserve to.

Lighten up boys...I was concerned that the couches might fold with a child who weighs much less than an adult.( Specially with one little boy who sees jumping on the bed as an Olympic sport.) Don't own one, wanted to know, got SOME good answers.
For those, I thank you very much.

Wagonwheel, when my boys were little, they often slept on pull-out sofas - they survived. Just place the seat cushions in the gap to prevent "things" from falling into that space.

The fact of the matter is, your 3 year old is probably not tall enough to let that center bar even bother him. There is also nothing wrong with asking housekeeping to prepare the bed with fresh linens - just ask and they will do it for you.

Just think how amazed your child will be to see a bed come out of a sofa - that's the great thing about kids, they'll get a kick out of almost anything :) Have a great trip!

travelactually..Now that you mention it. My brother the divorce lawyer keeps me informed of imbecilic lawsuits. The best was the Oklahoma Sooner football fan that bought an RV for the games. On his way back from a game, he put the vehicle on cruise control and went to make a cup of coffee. Surprizingly, the vehicle crossed the median strip and was destroyed, he was fine(that is also subjective).

Well, he won a lawsuit stating that the manufacturer never informed him of the likelyhood of an RV crashing without an operator. He was awarded a new vehicle and $500,000 pain and suffering.

What a country!

I was thinking out of the box, so to speak, and thought the government might put a label on Michael. Sort of a UL thingeee that warned against removal, on pain of law. Could someone please calculate a C-B analysis?

Thank you for all the funny mental pictures!

wagonwheel, just ask and make sure the resort hasn't put a trick sofabed in the room for laughs:-D

And I was just thinking, you might check out the sofabed before you accept the room. I took a teenage grandson up to Portland. I did not find out until after 5 days that the sofabed in our room was soooo miserable. I wish he had told me.

I received a guest questioneer in the mail a few weeks later from Marriot and I told them about their sofabed. No response!

But your little one is so light compared to a teenage boy that will probably not be a problem.