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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful.
Terrible Off-gassing
By Lisa
I'm surprised that most of the other reviewers haven't mentioned the incredibly strong off-gassing from this crib. We ordered the solid wood as we hoped to avoid this very thing, but unfortunately this Made in China crib has a strong laquer on it. We aired it out for 3 months until the baby came, and while the smell improved a lot over that time (it took awhile, believe me! It was so strong, we had it in parts in our open well-ventilated basement and it needed 3 months!), I still didn't feel comfortable having my baby sleep in it. When I put my nose inside of it, I still got a whiff of the off-gassing.The lacquer itself had 'cracks' in it all over the place. You couldn't really notice it at a distance, but it definitely wasn't the nice 'solid wood' look we were hoping for.It is sturdy, and I had no reservations about it holding my baby.The other problem we foresaw, even if we had chosen to use it, with the off-gassing aside, it's so narrow, that when my newborn threw his arms out to his sides, he would've hit the sides of it.We paid more for the organic mattress, which was okay fumes/smell-wise. Not very firm or thick, not great support for your baby. Also, environmentally-speaking, this is a terrible practice that this company has: if you want to order the organic mattress, you have to order it separately, but you still have to take the standard mattress that comes with the co-sleeper. Why? Because they are pre-packaged in China, and they won't unpack and re-pack them with your organic mattress. The standard mattress, by the way, NEVER lost its terrible off-gassing. I would not even want a pet dog or cat to sleep on it, or to keep it in my house.The bedsheet that comes with the mattress is a very cheap low threadcount, and the bumper pad is not great quality.Also, the plastic castor wheels that come with it have intense off-gassing.My advice: if you really want this: order it many months in advance and let it off-gas. Order the organic mattress, and let the company know how unimpressed you are with their environmental commitment by not allowing you to not receive the standard mattress as well. Better yet, don't order from this company at all. For the environment and for the health of your baby.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Solid piece of furniture (way better than plastic version), but low-quality mattress & accessories
By muff
I purchased this item in the Cherry color. Also posting this review here since many people appear to be interested in the Espresso finish, in the hopes that this info will also be helpful to those buyers...I chose the sleigh bed over the cheaper, plastic version of the Arms Reach co-sleeper for several reasons, and am glad I did:- Very solid piece of furniture. Much more solid than the plastic one, which feels like it is going to topple over at any minute. Note that the actual box says "made MOSTLY of solid wood," as opposed to the Amazon description which says "made of solid wood," but it nonetheless feels very sturdy to me. Should last a long time.- Built-in height adjustors allowed me to adjust to fit our 30" bed height much more easily than the plastic version (which requires you to buy extra plastic pieces to snap into the bottom of the legs - very sketchy, I felt like this would make the co-sleeper even less stable). The design is pretty good - there are four extendible pieces built into the four legs, and there is a metal bolt so you can choose at what level to snap in the legs. The bassinet feels just slightly less stable at the highest setting (and looks a bit strange aesthetically - like a giraffe or an AT-AT from Star Wars!), but it still seems pretty stable in the fully upright position (I just make sure to take more care when flipping it on its side, e.g. to adjust the height, as it seems like there is some chance the legs might snap if you're not careful)A few small nits that prevent me from giving this item five stars:- The biggest issue for me is the quality & safety of the included accessories (mattress, fitted sheet, and bumper). I agree with other reviewers that they are very cheap, and they are potentially also (depending on your own personal beliefs on eco-friendliness) unsafe. The mattress is thin (2"), and is made of 100% polyurethane foam with a 100% EVA covering. (EVA is supposed to be the "safer" choice vs. PVC outer layers, and the EVA theoretically should shield any toxic fumes from the polyurethane, but the inclusion of both components in a baby mattress still made me a little uneasy. I am not an eco nut, but personally would have preferred a 100% cotton or wool fill, just in case.) The fitted sheet that goes over the mattress is 100% cotton, but it is rough/scratchy/not soft at all .. and to boot the care instructions are a bit ridiculous (tag indicates you should machine wash "lukewarm," no heat-air fluff only - totally impractical for a baby sheet!). The bumper doesn't look particularly cheap to me, and face/exterior is happily 100% cotton, however the fill is 100% polyfill (which is pretty universally acknowledged as less breathable than cotton or wool, and therefore a potential safety concern). As a result, I going to be shelling out additional cash to purchase softer/organic fitted sheets and a custom size organic mattress from Naturepedic.- Also on the subject of the bumpers: I also find it unfortunate that Arm's Reach hasn't yet adapted their design to take into account the American Academy of Pediatrics' recent recommendation not to use a bumper at all as part of your baby bedding. Arm's Reach specifically says on its website that it does not recommend the use of its co-sleepers without the bumper (and note the mattress, measuring exactly 31x21x2", is also sized specifically to work with the bumpers - without the bumpers it is a little loose, with extra space between the mattress and the edge of the sleeping nest), but many parents (including me) are going to be really torn due to desire to adhere to the latest safety guidelines. At a minimum Arm's Reach needs to make its bumpers thinner and 100% cotton-filled .. and even better would be to redesign this item entirely so it doesn't use bumpers at all. To be honest I'm not 100% sure yet what I'm going to do in the meantime, I think I'm probably going to take out the polyfill batting and replace it with a very thin cotton layer.- As far as the wood frame goes, all in all I was happy with what I got (everything assembled easily - I didn't have any issues with misdrilled holes or anything), however the finish had a few small irregularities (e.g. varnish coming off) fresh out of the box from the manufacturer. I did not notice any major issues with off-gassing.- Pretty expensive for what you get (especially given the low quality of the mattress/sheets/bumper)All in all, I'm happy with this purchase - I really do believe it's the best and most attractive co-sleeper solution on the market. However, it could be even better if Arm's Reach improved the quality & safety of the included accessories.----------------------UPDATE 1/3/13:My baby is now 10 mo old.. we ended up using the co-sleeper for the first 4-5 months of his life, until we transitioned him to his crib and started sleep training him. It worked great for those first 4-5 months, and was still in such great condition at the end that when we were done with it I was still able to sell the whole thing (including custom mattress) on Craigslist for $300.More on the custom mattress (since someone asked in the comments): To place the order you just call the number on Naturepedic's website, or I think they have a web form you can submit too (or at least they used to .. couldn't find it quickly when I looked just now). The dimensions of the custom mattress that I ordered were 21.5" x 31.5" x 1.5" (due to safely regulations they were not willing to make a mattress thicker than this), and that worked great (just enough room around the edges to tuck in the bumpers very snugly). The cost was $84 + $12 shipping = $96 total. It took a few weeks to arrive. I was totally satisfied with the purchase and am glad I purchased sufficiently far in advance to have it arrive before baby came home.Also more on the bumpers: I ended up just leaving the bumpers in from birth, reasoning that they weren't really a hazard until he started rolling over and that I could just cross that bridge when I came to it. As it turned out, my baby did not start rolling until after we moved him to his crib, so it turned out to be a non-issue for us. If you intend to keep your baby in it for longer (or you have an early roller), you may want to consider removing the bumpers or (if you are crafty) replacing the poly fill with cotton or wool.My final assessment of this co-sleeper:Overall I was satisfied with this purchase for my first baby, however I ultimately made the decision to sell it after he outgrew it instead of keeping it for any potential future siblings, because in the end I decided this co-sleeper is not the ideal solution for me. Three main reasons:1) The walls of the co-sleeper are actually quite high - way higher than they need to be IMO for a child that can't yet stand, or even sit up. I guess they do it for safety reasons, but the sides were so high (especially when attached to my rather high bed, with mattress top 30" off the ground) that I couldn't easily reach in to pick up / put down my baby standing up. So, I had to crawl up on my bed (trying not to wake sleeping baby while doing so) and put him in through the open side. Note I'm short (5'3") - if you're taller and/or have a lower mattress, this might not be an issue for you.2) No rocking feature - in either direction! Didn't realize until after having the baby how critical rocking actually is to help them go (back) to sleep! Instead we ended up having to "jiggle" him for up to an hour at times to get him to fall asleep before we could put him back into this thing (and I occasionally woke him up due to not being able to lay him down gently enough, due to reason #1).3) I didn't find the actual "co-sleeper" aspect to be that useful in the end. When I bought this I sort of imagined being able to pull him into bed with me half-asleep, while still lying down. Well, it just didn't work out that way, partially because the lip on the co-sleeper (the height between the baby's mattress and the parents' mattress) is actually quite significant, and maybe partially because I'm just not that strong (and baby got heavy pretty fast). In order to lift him out, I had to get out from under the covers and get all the way up on my knees on my bed .. which really wasn't that much better than just getting out of bed and walking a foot or two to a standalone bassinet or mini-crib next to our bed. In addition, it was a pain-in-the-ass to have a large piece of furniture attached to my side of the bed for 5 months (displacing my nightstand, forcing me to crawl around it to get in/out of bed, etc.). Thus the benefits of using this piece of furniture as an actual co-sleeper just did not outweigh the drawbacks for me.If you are dead set on having a co-sleeper, I still think this one is the best one on the market, at least for now. (However, if somebody else comes out with another one with lower walls, open slats all the way down to the bottom of the sides, no bumpers, and higher-quality accessories, then the Arms Reach product will no longer be competitive.) However, if and when I have another baby, I will personally look for a standalone, solid wood, modern-looking bassinet with a rocking feature that I can station a few feet from our bed for the first few months. If anyone else finds one like this that they love, please do let me know! :)
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
Bed is great but accessories are not so great
By Girldogs
I purchased the Sleigh Bed in espresso and although we haven't used it yet (baby is due in 4 weeks), it looks like a great piece of furniture. It's solid and a beautiful color. It was easy to set up though one of the legs was misdrilled and we had to have another leg shipped out. The company shipped it immediately. My complaint is that the accessories are really poor quality. The one sheet that came with the bed was scratchy and clearly a very low thread count. And while I don't plan to use the bumper that came with the bed, the bumper is also a really low thread count and looks tacky. I looked on their website to order high quality, organic sheets but the website is so poorly laid out and confusing I had to email customer service for help (turns out what I had planned to order would not have fit the bed). I just received what are supposed to be cream, organic sheets (per the description on the website) and they are white and do not state Organic anywhere on the packaging. They are made in China and look just like the low quality sheet that came with the product. I would give this product a higher rating if they would put more effort in to the sheets and other accessories. Also, they desperately need to upgrade their website. It's impossible to use.
See all 16 customer reviews...
Cheap, ditry piece with a surprise inside
Cute but not worth it in the end