RECEIVE 10% OFF CODE SIGN UP FOR NEWS & OFFERS ON ALL UK ORDERS FREE NEXT DAY DELIVERY ON ALL UK ORDERS OVER £50 Travel, Eat & Sleep Receive 10% off your order:37DM23H and 37DT25H (see below for other model numbers)A competitively priced travel cot that is light enough to carry in one hand, yet seems as sturdy as heavier models. Ideal for babies and younger toddlers. Not suitable for older babies/toddlers, travel bag doesn’t have wheels, doesn’t double as a playpen, mattress feels thin and hardLightweight, very easy to assemble and collapse, looks sleek, feels sturdy, good value for money With rave reviews from mums around the country, the RedKite Sleeptight Travel Cot has a lot to live up to. It’s the only cot – travel or otherwise – made by British brand RedKite Baby Co Ltd, the makers of the Push Me Fusion travel system, and many other baby products. Although it’s the only cot in its collection Red Kite does offer it in three colours – pink, blue and black.
Weighing 8.5 kg, the Sleeptight Travel Cot is suitable from birth to 15kg, which is around 3 years. It has padded top rails, mesh sides and comes complete with a mattress and carry bag. Competition-wise, it’s an alternative to the Mothercare Block, the Hauck Dream N Play, the Joie Commuter and Argos’s BabyStart travel cots. And depending on where you buy it from it’s actually the cheapest travel cot you can buy, costing £27 at a well-known super market. Although some retailers sell it with another fiver or so on top, it’ll still cost you no more than £30.00. When folded into its neat black bag, the cot and mattress measure a mere 76cm x 20cm – compact enough to fit into even the smallest car boot or backseat. Picking the bag up in just one hand, thanks to wide handles, meant I could hold comfortably hold my toddler’s overnight bag in my other hand. And that made the journey to our overnight destination, up several flights of stairs, easy. Wheels on the bag would make it easier to transport the cot along flat ground, but would make the whole thing heavier and trickier to store.
Once assembled, the cot is sleek and simple, and the jet black colour looks classy and is a refreshing change to the traditional nursery hues of pastels and bright colours.There are just five steps involved in putting it up (and only four to collapse it), with idiot-proof instructions provided on a small pamphlet. I read it through first and couldn’t believe how simple it seemed. I assembled it in front of a group of friends on New Year’s Eve (pressure!) and was determined to do it without any help, though I did struggle a little to click the top bars into place. But the whole thing was up in less than two minutes and securing the mattress to the base with the Velcro straps provided only took a further minute. The second time, the entire process took only 90 seconds! Taking the cot down for the first time was slightly trickier than assembling it, only because I wasn’t firm enough when pressing the release button. But the cot is sturdy and I needn’t have worried about snapping the folding bars, which moved easily as soon as I applied more pressure.
And seeing the majority of other mum’s reviews, this is the number-one gripe about this otherwise-excellent product. Many parents report padding out the mattress with extra blankets or buying a thicker version to make the cot more comfortable, although parents of younger babies report the mattress provided is perfectly thick enough to support the weight of sleeping infants. But RedKite warns against this in the instructions as, “using a thicker or differently sized mattress may allow a child’s head to get between the mattress and the side of the travel cot, causing suffocation.” Far from being a design flaw, the hard-backed mattress has been specially designed to protect your child. Unlike cots that have rigid sides, the Sleep Tight travel cot has flexible sides. As a result, the mattress has a solid base, a specific length and width, and is less than 2.5 cm thick, in order to meet relevant safety standards, says Red Kite. It’s also worth noting that the mattress is wipe-clean, making it more hygienic than foam, and means you don’t have to buy a separate waterproof sheet.
In order to comply with the safety guidelines (see above), we placed a sheet over the mattress but didn’t add any extra padding, which Tyler didn’t seem to mind. He loved being able to see out of all four sides, thanks to the white mesh panels that also keep the cot well-ventilated - perfect if your child likes to sleep curled into a corner and/or you are staying somewhere very warm. Tyler is at the very top of the height restrictions (the cot is unsuitable for children who are 86cm or taller) but when he laid down there was still a fair amount of room for him to move around. However, when he stood up, he was almost able to clamber out and, with the padded top rails (a great safety feature) for support, he was more interested in climbing than slumbering. Consequently, he was too excited about playing in it to sleep in it.It’s remarkably sturdy compared to other inexpensive travel cots I’ve used, and I wouldn’t worry about it collapsing. In fact, I’d say it’s ideal for very young babies up to around 18 months to two years.
The company states it should not be used for a child that is able to climb out, reaches 86 cm in height, weighs more than 15kgs or is aged over two (whichever is first). But lighter infants would probably find the mattress more comfortable than heavier babies anyway.Having used wobbly cots with miserably thin foam mattresses provided by holiday villa owners, this felt positively luxurious. And the RedKite Sleeptight Travel Cot looks far more expensive than its price tag and its colour renders it inoffensive. Saying that, it’s not as sturdy as our Graco Contour Electra but given the Sleeptight is about half the weight, a third of the price and takes up far less room, I’m not disappointed at all. Plus, unlike bulkier travel cots, it’s truly portable and doesn’t take a team to assemble.Although some parents report using it as a means to stop their babies crawling off or to keep older children away from younger ones, it’s designed as a sleeping device – not a playpen.