Expert: Eileen Cronk - 1/16/2010

Question
I have an old iron bed which I bought at a garage sale with no research...tsk tsk, nor was it set up, double tsk.

It has inverted L rails, I am wondering what are people doing to use a conventional box spring mattress that is safe? The rails cannot be flipped over as the pin post is not of equal diameter all the way through, it is fatter on one end than the other. Is this bed usable in a safe way? I was planning on it for my girl's first real bed. Thank you.

Answer
Hi Wendy
Nice to hear from you.
The only safe way to do this bed for a toddler would be to simply attach the headboard to a regular bed frame and forget about foot board and rails at this time.
This way you can use a regular box spring and mattress.
They actually look quite nice this way and there is no danger to the child.
Please make sure there are no openings in the head board that she could get her head caught in.
If there are, forget it till she's older.
Great question
Eileen