TIME FOR A TODDLER BED?

Alicia - posted on 12/23/2010

We just got my daughter 21mths her toddler bed for xmas and she love to sit on it makes her feel big but we wont try to let her sleep in it for about a week. we set it up next to her crib to that she could see it everyday. We will try naptime with it first if we succeed with that for a while then we will try bedtime she can open her door so we hope that if we close it she will just stay in her bed Thats all we can hope
as we figure it out more we will fill u in and ps dont get rid of the crib until he is fully on his toddler bed for at least a month or 2

Kimberly - posted on 12/20/2010

The sure-fire sign that your son is ready to move on to a toddler bed is if he tries to or even successfully climbs out of his crib.

My daughter has been trying to climb out for months, but she didn't actually climb out until last week. So, we took her to Ikea and we all tried out different toddler beds, we decided to get the one she spent the most time on and seemed the happiest in. We haven't taken it out of the box yet, but when we do, we'll set it up next to her crib so she can see it and get used to it. Then we'll try to get her to take a nap in it, and we'll read stories to her in it, meanwhile still having her sleep through the night in her crib. Then after a week or two we'll put her down for the night in her new bed. After a while, when she's used to sleeping in her new bed, we'll all say goodbye to her crib.

I'm pretty confident this will work because she already has a set bedtime, so she is already tired and ready for bed anyway.

Good luck

Aleeta - posted on 12/20/2010

My son is 21 months as well, and we still have him in a crib. I am expecting again, so toying around with the idea of trying out a bed. The only problem being that he is extremely active, and I think I will have a lot of trouble trying to get him to stay in bed! So for now, we are staying with the crib, at least until baby is born or he learns to climb out anyways!

Celeste - posted on 12/20/2010

We put our daughter in the "toddler/convertible crib" bed at 16 months and we recently put her in a regular twin size bed (she's 21 months now) the only reason we did this was because im pregnant again and will need the crib. I did not want her getting upset when we had to take it away for someone else.

She LOVED being able to get in and out of the toddler bed and she slept just fine. She has been sleeping in her regular size bed for about a month now and we have had ZERO problems... we don't even have a guard rail.
I think you will find that giving him the freedom to get in and out will make him more independent, but you may deal with some late night tugging at the sheets (we did briefly) we always just put her right back in bed and she got over it. Makes mornings easier, she just comes and gets us when shes awake.

Hope this helped!