Portable Cot

A portable cot is very useful when traveling with small children.  

These cots fold up into small packages  and are easy to pack into the car for the road trip.

They are also very useful when arriving at your destination when that extra bed is needed.

You can see by looking at the picture that they are very safe in that they are only inches off the floor, so falling off the bed should not be a problem.

However, very young children under 2 years of age should sleep on these cots.

A good idea is to let the children sleep on these at home before taking a trip as this helps them become comfortable sleeping on the cot and lets them take a little bit of home with them when traveling.  Most parents know the value of keeping their children calm and comfortable when traveling as it can make for a much more enjoyable trip.

Photo Credit: Amazon

I had never heard of "nap mat" before my grand children showed up with one.

Then again when I was young we did carry around a sleeping bag at times when needed, and they were used for the same purpose as a nap mat.

Most modern nap mats can be rolled up just like a sleeping bag and carried along for either nighttime or nap time.  They are like min-mattresses.

The covers are removable and washable or the entire mat is washable.

Many people also use these on the children's portable cots as a cushion.

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Unfortunately over the past few yew years our various emergency service units have had to put cots to use for shelter housing.

In the wake of hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes the portable cot has come into use at most  emergency shelters during and after the storms.

Fortunately the cots do provide emergency bedding for those in need.

Adult cots haven't changed much over the years. 

They're still pretty much the same as they've always been with just really some changes in materials.

In the past they were all made of wood, now many of them are made of aluminum, but they still fold up and pack away pretty easily.

The only problem I ever had with cots were the ends of them. 

Then ends are held together by a board that connects the two sides and sometimes this board can beat up your ankles if your feet hang over the end.  The easy solution is to make sure you sleep on large cot.

In today's world a lot of people put sleeping pads on them to make them even more comfortable.

The lowly air mattress is probably one of the most widely used portable beds.

It is used by campers and backpackers because of its light weight and compact size.

I don't know how many nights I've spent sleeping on an air mattress. 

When I was in scouts and doing and lot of camping it was a part of my normal sleeping gear.

Later on in life I slept on air mattresses when visiting friends.

An air mattress can serve a very useful purpose when you have more house guests than beds. 

In addition the are easy to store and take very little space in a closet or drawer.

The main drawback to an air mattress is inflating them, especially a large queen size mattress.

However, here's a little video I found on Youtube that may help you out at home.