12-02-2008

Anna, now 18, has been sleeping in a tent bed for most of her life. The floor of the bed consists of a single bed mattress (protected by a plastic mattress protector) with the extra space filled in with dense foam rubber which we cut to size with a two-bladed electric knife and covered with sheets and blankets. Although you can't see them in the attached photo, the adjacent walls are padded, so Anna can have a very strong thrashing-type seizure and be perfectly safe (when she's zipped in) as every surface she can possibly contact is soft.

Anna's bed is her favorite place. In the photo, she is relaxing after school and playing with a few of her favorite toys. She can listen to music, sleep, clap for us if she needs attention, arrange her pillows as she likes (she's really into pillows), and just feel like the bed is her safe place.

A few pointers if you decide to pursue this idea:
--Buy a tent with doors on both sides. That way, when the door zipper fails (which they all do eventually) you can reverse the tent and use the other side. When both zippers are gone, some manufacturers (like Kelty, the maker of the tent pictured) will replace the zippers for free. We have two identical tents and when one is being repaired, we set up the other.

--Note the pad Anna is sitting on - it's a 30" wide rubber-backed pad which stretches across the bed and tucks in on each side. The pads can be changed quickly and easily, and the whole bed doesn't have to be changed.

--Buy a tent with adequate headroom. Some tents are low-slung and it's not possible to sit upright in them when the mattress is added. Anna is 5'1" tall and she has lots of headroom, as you can see, and the tent is almost 7' long so she can stretch out and sleep comfortably.

--Compared to other options, the tent bed is a cheap way to go. Our tent was about $150., the mattress $80., and the foam $20. or thereabouts. The sheets, pillows, blankets etc. can be as fancy or plain as you choose.