Baby cot, cot bed or bassinet: which to buy in Nigeria

Where the baby sleeps is usually the first big purchase and the one people go round in circles on, partly because the words are used loosely and partly because half the advice online is written for houses with a spare room. Here is the plain version, and you can see what we stock on our baby cots and bassinets page.

One vocabulary note first. In Nigeria we say cot. Crib is the American word for the same piece of furniture, and it turns up on imported boxes and marketplace listings. If a seller says crib and you say cot, you are both talking about the same thing.

Bassinet

A bassinet is small, light and low, made to stand beside your bed within arm's reach. Some rock. The ones we sell have net sides so air moves through and you can see your baby without getting up, and a cover carrying a mosquito net.

What it costs: about ₦80,000.

How long it lasts: from birth until your baby can push up on hands and knees or roll over, which is usually four to six months. That is the honest number. Anyone telling you a bassinet lasts a year is selling one.

Who it suits: almost everybody, for the first months, because reaching a baby without leaving your bed at three in the morning is worth a great deal when you have had a caesarean or stitches. It also suits a bedroom too small for a full cot beside the bed.

Cot

A full-size cot with fixed sides, high enough that a standing baby cannot climb out. This is the standard buy and the one most families end up with.

What it costs: from about ₦80,000, going up steeply with wood and finish.

How long it lasts: birth to somewhere between two and three years, when your child either climbs out or moves into a bed.

Who it suits: anyone with the floor space, and anyone planning more than one child, since a cot in good condition is used again and holds resale value in a way that almost nothing else on a baby list does.

Cot bed

A cot bed is a cot built long, with sides that come off and a base that drops, so it becomes a toddler bed at around two and is used until four or five.

What it costs: noticeably more than a plain cot, and it is a large item to ship, which is why the price gap in Nigeria is wider than the one in British catalogues.

How long it lasts: birth to four or five years.

Who it suits: a family in a settled home with one child, or two children spaced far apart. The arithmetic that makes a cot bed look clever, one purchase instead of two, only works if the cot is genuinely free when the toddler still needs it. With children two years apart it is not: the new baby wants the cot, the toddler wants the bed, and you buy a second piece of furniture anyway.

For most Nigerian families we would not push a cot bed. A cot plus a cheap toddler bed at age two usually costs less in total and is more flexible.

The fourth option nobody lists

A portable baby bed that folds down into a diaper bag, about ₦20,000. It is not a replacement for a cot and we would not suggest it as your only baby bed. It is the thing that solves a specific Nigerian problem: the baby sleeping somewhere other than home. During omugwo, at your mother's house, at a naming ceremony that runs late, on a trip to the village. A cot cannot travel and a wrapper on a sofa is not a safe surface.

Safe sleep, which applies to all three

The bed matters far less than what is in it.

• A firm, flat mattress that fits the base with no gap at the sides. You should not be able to slide two fingers between mattress and frame. A soft mattress is not a kindness.
• A fitted sheet, and nothing else. No pillow, no duvet, no cot bumper, no soft toys, no positioner. These are the items that turn a safe cot into an unsafe one, and they are sold as bedding sets precisely because they photograph well.
• On the back to sleep, every sleep, until your baby rolls over reliably on their own.
• In your room for the first six months, which is what makes a bassinet beside the bed such a practical buy.
• A mosquito net over the sleeping space. In most of Nigeria this is not a comfort question. A cot with its own net cover handles it; otherwise hang a net.
• Away from the window, the curtain cord, the fan and the wall socket. A baby who can stand will reach further than you think.

So which one

If you have the money for one item only, buy the cot. It covers the whole of the first two years and a bassinet does not.

If you have the money for one item and a small bedroom, buy the bassinet now and the cot at five months. Splitting the spend that way also lets the cot be a naming ceremony gift, which is a common arrangement and one nobody minds.

If you travel between families with the baby, add the portable bed whatever else you buy. It is ₦20,000 and it removes a real worry.

For where this sits in the whole first-baby budget, see the newborn baby items list with real prices. For what to pack rather than what to furnish, the hospital bag checklist is the other half of the job.