Samsonite Pop-Up Travel Cot - colour, Café Creme

PARENTS PLEASE BEWARE DO NOT USE THIS IF YOUR BABY CAN ROLL OVER

We used this travel cot for our recent holiday for our 18 week old baby. The cot was fantastic to assemble, built in mozzie net, great size, light to carry and seemed the ideal cot. Our son slept in this for a week with absolutely no problems and loved it - he seemed to sleep better than in his cot at home.

However, towards the end of our holiday he learned how to roll over. One day we put him into the cot and left him for a nap. Upon returning his face was wedged in at the side, with his face pressed against the gap between the cotton mattress and base. He was stuck and unable to breathe. I absolutely cannot bear to think what would have happened if we had not found him as when we picked him up he had red marks on his face from struggling and was gasping from being pressed against the base of the cot. I have never seen him so distressed. He simply could not get his head out of the gap and could not breathe. If we had not gone in my baby would have died.

The mattress is not padded enough for a baby to sleep on it as specified by other reviewers, and so you need to put it on blankets or a soft base. This means that if they roll over and get their face in the side, it sinks slightly and they can get stuck. For the rest of the holiday we removed the matress completely so he was lying just on the thin base (much like tent material), and put it on top of the matress so there was no way this could happen again. However, this is not acceptable and the mattress should be attachable so that there are no gaps whatsover.

This cot would be absolutely fine if your baby cannot roll over. However, as soon as they can please do not use this cot as it's only a matter of time before a parent doesn't get to their child in time.

We were lent one of these and found it has some very good points but you do also need to be careful of a few things.
The cot is very light and folds up tiny so is great if you have to carry it around. It is reasonably easy to put up once you have figured it out, and our baby seemed perfectly happy sleeping in it.
However it does have some potentially big minus points to watch out for!
Firstly, the mattress is more like a pad than a normal mattress - as it's designed to squash up small, it is not rigid and not very thick. This means that it might not be very comfy when used on a hard floor - we put something soft underneath or used it only on carpeted floors. It also means that most fitted sheets will not fit - apart from the size and shape being unusual, anything with elastic will scrunch up the mattress as it isn't firm. My mum eventually made us some sheets where you put the mattress inside and button them, like a duvet cover - before that we had to use flat sheets but they tended to come untucked.
We also found that even a quite small baby could move the cot around by lifting his legs and kicking against the sides; and I have heard stories of older babies (5 or 6 months) being able to tip them over once they can roll. So please don't EVER use one of these on a raised surface or near any hazards, even if it seems safe! And I would not recommend it for older, strong and active babies.
Finally, getting the cot back into its bag is a bit tricky as it tries to spring back into shape, so it can be a bit of a hassle, though this is only a minor disadvantage compared to the size and weight advantage it has over other models.
In all, I would recommend this provided your baby is still small and not too active, and if it is used on a soft surface and where rolling or movement would not be a problem. But for older and active babies, a more stable style would be safer.

We brought this on holidays when my baby was 9 weeks old. It was very easy to put up and fold away, folded down into a tiny bag and was very light. However, the mattress really is more like a quilt and I felt we had to pad it up with an extra baby quilt to make it softer for him. I notice that it is possible to buy an additional foam mattress for this cot and I would probably recommend that you do this if buying this cot. Also, my 3 year old was able to knock this slightly out-of-kilter by kicking it around ( not while baby was in it obviously!!!) so you would want to watch out if you have older children.