When did your toddler stop sleeping in a crib?

[Tiggerlovinggrandma]

DH and I were watching our DGS today. He is 17 mos and at the beginning stage of trying to climb on and off everything in sight. He is successful so far at climbing on and off couches and some chairs. As we watched him we noticed he puts his leg up to climb out of somethings as well like his pack n play, crib. etc We know it won't be too long before he is successful at this too so we are wondering:

What age did your child master climbing out of his/ her crib or pack n play and finally transition to a big bed.

Did you use a regular size twin bed or child size one?

Did you use side rails to protect child from falling out?

What techniques did you use to keep him/ her in his bed at nap or bed time?

Our DD did not venture out of her crib until nearly 3. No warning either. One day DH and I were repainting her room. We had put her in her crib just outside of her room to keep an eye on her swhile we paintedf. Next thing we know she is standing beside us. Boom!! Time for a big bed. Actually we had a corner unit that we used for her for awhile. The bed on it was a bit lower so didn't have to worry about her falling out.

DGS stay over night with us at least two nights a week. We are his primary sitters while DD and DSIL work and go to school. He is giving us plenty of warning that he is heading for an escape sometime soon. LOL So any helpful suggestions tips, etc would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[tigger813]

Both of our girls moved into a toddler bed at or around their 2nd birthdays. DD1 had already crawled out of her crib several times. DD2 never tried but we wanted to get rid of the crib and got her a toddler bed.

Story with DD2: We told her how she couldn't get out of bed once she was in it on her first night. A while later after putting her to bed we heard her crying and calling quietly, "I need help!" She had gotten sick all over her new bed and comforter...At least she stayed in her bed!

 

[heazer]

My son is 17 mos and he's been perfecting his climbing before he perfected his walking. He's a monkey, so we've gotten pretty good at blocking things. He's almost able to get his foot up on his crib top rail now, with the mattress on the lowest setting. It's only a matter of time for him I'm sure.

My sisters and mom tell me that the rule of thumb is that you move them from the crib to a bed when they start climbing out, or trying to, so that you prevent any accidents.

As far as which bed to move him to, you could get away with a toddler bed for awhile since you may not want to set up an entire bed for him. If you already have a twin available, then use that. We'll be using a rail of some sort for our son, and will skip the toddler bed and go straight to a twin bed.

I think the biggest advantages of the toddler bed first is it's lower to the ground, takes up less space than a full bed, and they are less expensive (less than a hundred for the bed, and you use the crib mattress).

Keeping him in the bed, whichever one you move to, probably won't be easy. Basically you'll want to at least have the room safe enough for him to roam if he gets out of the bed, and perhaps a gate at the door so you can leave it open if you want. Eventually he'll get trained to stay in the bed, and depending on the child it can happen quickly or take a long time. You might have to do the routine of putting him back in the bed repeatedly until he finally tires and stays there. It's time consuming, but it does usually work if you can stick to it.

Hopefully someone with some recent experience can toss some useful tips out there!

 

[Colinsmom]

Our older DS stayed in the crib until a few months past his third birthday. He could climb out of it around his second birthday. Our younger DS is still in his crib at 2.5yo. He climbs in but not out, but probably could climb out if he really wanted to do it.

For both, we put a crib tent on the crib around their second birthday. That eliminated the falling out risk, and kept them safely in their crib (vs. wandering the house while we were sleeping) until we were 100% comfortable with a big boy bed.

If you decide that you don't want to do a crib tent and want to do a toddler bed this young, I'd put the mattress on the floor to minimize any falls in the early months.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

What age did your child master climbing out of his/ her crib or pack n play and finally transition to a big bed.

Did you use a regular size twin bed or child size one?

Did you use side rails to protect child from falling out?

What techniques did you use to keep him/ her in his bed at nap or bed time?

DD had just turned 2. She always used a pacifier to help her fall asleep. When she turned 2, the "binky fairy" came one night and took her binkies away. Well, she was having a hard time falling asleep without it, and since she had nothing better to do, she decided to learn how to escape the crib.

We had a convertible crib, so I converted it to a toddler bed the next day. I didn't use a side rail with the toddler bed, but because it was a converted crib, there was only one side that was truly open. And it was low to the ground so I wasn't too worried. I think she only fell out once, and it was well after we'd made the transition to the toddler bed.

I had a twin bed in her room that I used to lay down while nursing her at night and where I slept when she was sick. After about 6 months or so in the toddler bed, she would sometimes climb on her own onto the twin to sleep and eventually made the switch to being in the twin full-time. I didn't use side rails then either. My mom was panicked about that, but I figured she'd only fallen out of the toddler bed once in more than 6 months so I wasn't worried about it. She's never fallen out of her twin bed while she's been sleeping. Now she has when she's supposed to be sleeping and is screwing around trying to reach a toy without getting out of bed is a different story. But a side rail wouldn't stop that situation anyway.

As for keeping her in bed, when I find a fool proof way of keeping her in there, I'll let you know. (For reference, DD will be 5 next month.) For a while, I put a babygate in her doorway. If she couldn't get out of her room, she'd eventually crawl back in bed, or just fall asleep on the floor by the gate and I'd put her back into bed. Things got a little harder when she got big enough to climb over the gate. She likes to listen to music when she's falling asleep so telling her I'll turn off the music if she gets out of bed works a lot of nights.

 

[J3nn78]

My oldest was about 2.5 before we moved him out. He just never tried to climb out.
My youngest was 15 months. He wants to be just like his big brother and wanted a bed too. He did fine with it too.

 

[chipper10]

What age did your child master climbing out of his/ her crib or pack n play and finally transition to a big bed. We put DS in a big boy bed at 14 months. We skipped the toddler bed. We just bought a twin bed, but we did not put the box springs on the bed. It was too high off the ground when we tried to have the box springs on the bed.

Did you use a regular size twin bed or child size one? Regular Twin Sized bed

Did you use side rails to protect child from falling out? Yes. Although I think we may be getting rid of them soon. DS is 20 months now.

What techniques did you use to keep him/ her in his bed at nap or bed time? We would escort DS back to bed. After 2-3 days, DS got the point. Now he stays in the bed until we come get him.

I hope that helps!

 

[RMulieri]

My daughter was in a toddler bed at 18 months.After climbing out of the crib repeatedly and almost braining herself, safety was our issue.The toddler bed worked till she was 2 1/2, then a big girl bed .

 

[amandaraye]

We didn't wait until any of our kids actually climbed out of their cribs before changing them to toddler beds. They were all in toddler beds by age two at the latest. I'm very lucky...none of my kids would get out of their little beds until we told them they could. We put safety gates up in their bedroom doors just to be safe, though. My 2 yo DD now will not leave her bed until she's told she can get up now. Silly girl.

 

[foltzy]

Both of my kids were around a year old. They both started to climb out of their cribs and my dh and I decided to make their cribs into toddler beds for them.

 

[perkinsrose]

When my two were little, I was concerned about our two cats climbing in to sleep with kids. We bought a cheap ($15) unpainted wood frame screendoor (no metal, just flexible screen with rubber piping to keep in place) and attached to their bedroom door frame. The reg door was there but we never shut it anyway. This made airflow possible and I could peek in. I added hook & eye outside because I wanted to be able to hear them before they started roaming the house if they got out of bed by themselves. It made me more comfortable with them in toddler & reg. beds.

Oldest child went to toddler bed at 18 months. Second child went to toddler bed around two while older moved to twin bed with rails around 4. The thing I preferred about toddler bed when they were really little was it was easy to change sheets without rails! Also, with the twin bed against the wall, I was concerned about them wedging their body their during the night. If twin bed is not against wall, I guess you could use two bed rails. My kids never really got out of bed by themselves until age 4 or so. I guess I was lucky--they always called me when they woke up!

When oldest was first adjusting to toddler bed, I sat in hallway and watched and had to basically use SuperNanny technique of silently going in to put lay him down a few times. I phased out the hallway watch quickly and it was much easier than I thought. This was pre-supernanny era but I read this book that gave some ideas/insight--this is a newer edition:

http://www.amazon.com/Solve-Your-Ch...bs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219843731&sr=8-1

Many libraries will have the older editions.

 

[syko]

My daughter is 28m and has never tried to climb in or out!!!!!!!!
She will stay in there until she lets us know, but we have a convertable crib, so that will be next, around the crib we have put the Disney carriage bed from RTG.

 

[disneynut14]

My DD turned 2 in April and we tried her in a big girl bed on vacation in July. She was awesome. Wouldn't get out until someone came to get get her. Of course we had a baby gate in front of the door. She only climbed out of her crib once or twice, but that wasn't why we did it. She was getting to big for the pack & play on vacation. My DS 6months was also ready to move from cradle to crib and I wasn't about to go out and buy another crib.

We decided to buy the toddler bed for home. Mostly for space reasons. The 2 will be sharing a room for a little while. She loves it. From her first night she has done great. She only fell out once and I am still not sure how she managed that. The bed has rails! We also keep one of those doorknob covers on the doorknob inside of her room, so if she does get out she just plays in her room until someone comes to get her.

Good luck. I will never forget the look on my DD's face when she got her big girl bed. What a memory.

 

[luvmy3]

All my kids were around 2. My dd was just before, about 20 months when she climbed out. My boys never even tried so we waited till just past their 2nd birthday.

 

[lecach]

DS got out a few times and we told him not to - that he could fall. And he stopped So he stayed in his crib until he was 3 1/2. Heck - why mess up a good thing. We only moved him to a regular bed because he was getting too tall.

 

[Zeebs]

Cullen was 18 months we wanted to do it before the baby came and turfed him out of the crib. We just put him straight into a normal single bed, it has a rollaway underneth so it is reasonably high. We put a bed guard on it and a foot stool at the end so he can climb in and out on his own, at 2.5 he is still too short to get in on his own.

We had stair gate on his bedroom door which we shut (have just taken it off so we can put it back on the stairs to stop his little brother) he would get out but we were very firm, just go back in pick him up and put him back into bed. He soon got the picture. He does get up on his own in the mornings and comes and finds us, we are either in bed or already up with his brother so it works out fine for us.

Will probably do the same for Seth when he reaches around 18 months it worked out great for us.

Kirsten

 

[slo]

Both my girls went straight from their crib to a regular bed. I did use bedrails for both of them, and they worked great!!!

The ages they left their cribs were different from each other.

My oldest was almost 4 - she loved her crib!!!!

My youngest was 2 1/2, and we moved her from her crib because she was bigger than my older DD at that age, and she was heavier to get in and out.

 

[pednurse]

DS was 18 months old when I walked into his room to find him sitting on the rail of his crib (riding it like a horse!).....went out that day and bought him a toddler bed. Funny thing was he didn't realize he could get out of the toddler bed and it was about 3-4 months before he ever got out of it himself (and it was a Little Tikes race car bed so it wasn't like it was high up off of the floor or anything! LOL). DD was even more of a climber than DS was (as hard to believe as that was!) and we moved her to the toddler bed at 18 months as well....wasn't even going to give her the chance to climb out of the crib. She was even funnier than DS.....she NEVER got out of the toddler bed herself (would just call & call until I'd go tell her she could get up once she was awake) and it wasn't until she was 5 (and had been in her twin size bed for a year) before she'd get out of bed on her own. Go figure.

 

[Picabo]

DD#1 was a climber and was getting her leg up over the railing by 15mos. DD#2 was due when she was 17mos old so we ended up moving #1 to a toddler bed around 16mos. It was a toddler bed with half rail on both sides...I put one side against the wall with a pillow wedged between the wall and the bed (she she can't fall out that side) and then folded up a comforter on the open side so if she fell out she was cushioned. She only fell out a few times...never even woke up.

When we moved her to the toddler bed we put up an extra tall gate at her doorway so she could roam around the house at night.

NOW, dd#2 is 14 1/2 mos old and shows NO signs of wanting to climb out. So I'm just going to leave her there until she discovers the art of trying to climb out.

 

[3goofyboys]

My older DS was 19 months when we switched over to the toddler bed. He had crawled out of the crib once when he was about 8 months old, but hadn't tried it again. One night just after my 2nd DS was born, my older DS crawled out of the crib, walked down the hall and fell down the stairs! We had a gate at the top of the stairs, but hadn't closed it because he was safely tucked in his crib! After that, he crawled out of the crib every chance he got, so we knew it was time to move him. Both boys have cribs that convert from crib to toddler bed to full size bed, so we just converted his crib to the toddler bed. We didn't worry about bed rails because the toddler bed is so close to the floor; I think it's less that a foot from the floor. If his crib hadn't been a convertible crib, we would have just gone straight to a twin or full bed with bed rails. He was up and out of bed constantly for about 2 weeks. After that, the novelty wore off and when he's ready to sleep he heads to bed and stays put.
My younger DS wants to do everything his older brother does, and he is a little monkey, so I anticipate him crawling out of the crib fairly soon. I don't think he is anywhere near ready to be in a big boy bed, so we'll go the crib tent route for him.