This is where my babies slept (or not)... (John Lewis Anna Drop-Side Cot)

Member Name: azana

Product:	John Lewis Anna Drop-Side Cot
Date:	07/11/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: solid wood - good price

Disadvantages: drop side - hmmm not really.

When you are shopping for your baby, John Lewis is always a good place to head. Though they are, perhaps, less well known for their baby products on the British High Street than Mothercare, in my experience most of their products are more reasonably priced than their better known competitor, and they also provide a fantastic service in terms of guiding parents to be through the maze that is "buying things I will actually really need for my baby".

This particular Cot bears the John Lewis name and can be viewed in thier stores. It was the one that we settled on nearly 6 years ago now, having made good use of it since the time, it is now awaiting a new home and a new baby, shortly to be passed on. It has proved to be solid, durable and to have served us well in the time we have had it.

If you are looking at cots you will soon realise that this one is actually somewhere near the cheaper end of cots - Ikea do stock a range of very cheap cots, but here you are actually looking at something which is quite reasonably priced, and yet solid wood. This exact cot that we have comes in Birch, which does yellow slightly over time, but it has a nice finish and is less knotted than pine.

When we bought it, the cot wasn't available in white, which is now a rather nice alternative, but the price was very similar - we paid £90, which did not include a mattress, which we purchased seperately from John Lewis. You could buy any mattress from any supplier, the cot is standard "cot size" (L125 x W68.5 x H90cm), and will fit standard cot bedding - as opposed to Cot Bed bedding.

If you are hesitating between this and a cot bed (cot that transforms to a bed), it is handy to know that the range does come with a matching changing table (£77 now and less than we paid). There is also a matching toddler bed at a similarly reasonable price, in actual fact you could probably buy both the cot and the toddler bed for a similar price to a cot bed, depending on the size of the room you have and future plans.

Assembly:

The cot comes flat packed, and is assembled with an alun key (provided). The diagram to illustrate the assembly wasn't the clearest, but assembling it was not too arduous, even for a team of one rather pregnant lady and her husband bent on ignoring the instructions. We have actually assembled and disassembled the cot a fair few times due to various house moves and children wanting "big beds" and the cot has not suffered as a result.

Features:

The cot is, as in the picture, pretty plain really, the wood is nicely varnished. Some cots have anti-bite bars on the rail - not this one - but then in my experience the children didn't tend to gnaw on their cot, neither was the lack of an integrated toy an issue. We were easily able to attach things to the side as necessary.

This cot has a slatted base that can be placed at three heights, via adjustments with the alun key and bolts. The top height is only really suitable for the baby stage, as soon as they can move you need to lower the cot to the middle or lower setting. In theory, in the bottom setting only, the side can be lowered via a pedal at the bottom. In practice we rarely, if ever, used this feature. When children are big enough to be on the lower setting mainly you will lift them when they want to get out and you can reach in for them more easily than trying to depress a pedal at the bottom of the cotside. This feature is not necessarily a reason for purchase.

Durability:

As I have stated this cot is of good quality and the wood has aged well. This is a quality item, and comparable to much more expensive cots in my opinion. Style wise I think maybe Birch is a little out of favour these days, but to me it is still a classically nice cot. You can view it in store if you are not confident enough about purchasing it online unseen.

Would I recommend?

I am very glad that we didn't buy a more expensive cot than this. I think that this was a good buy, especially bearing in mind that there are matching items. It can be tempting to splash out on nursery furniture when you are expecting a baby, but you will soon realise that there are many more things you will probably want to buy and that a baby is not going to know if a bed is a fancy brand or not, or sleep better as a result. You may want to have your baby in the room with you in the first few months, in which case you will probably end up buying a moses basket or similar - for us our first baby went into this cot at 12 weeks when we could stand her grunting all night no more, and both children used this cot until over the age of two.

I would recommend this cot and am sad to be passing it on, though happy that someone else will get good use of it. I am only taking away one star due to the fact that I am not sure how you are supposed to actually drop the sides with the pedal. Overall this is a good buy.


Further info:

Note that this, or any cot, should not be used with a pillow or duvet before the age of one or more, and cot bumpers should really be avoided too, as they are dangerous for babies. The helpful staff at John Lewis will be happy to advise on this and other baby matters in my experience.

Summary: a good choice for us