Toddler Bed Time?

Diana - posted on 06/29/2009

We changed our 2.5 yr old to a big boy bed a few mnths ago and he doesn't go to sleep on his own (we still sit with him) but we also put a safety rail across his door so he can't get out and just randomly wander the house, it seems to be working for him he has safety rails too. We changed him over cause he always seemed to sleep more solidly when he was in a big bed, he's very restles and was always banging into the crib rails. I wouldn't worry to much you'll know after one or two nights if a big bed will work for you or not, you'll never know til you try.

Katie - posted on 06/29/2009

we never had any issues - our 3 and a half year old daughter transferred from her cot bed to a normal single bed when she was 3 years old (just after our youngest was born so she needed the cot bed!) and we had no problems. She was quite happy being in a big bed and yeah she fell out a couple of times but she was fine. Perhaps 2 years is too young for a bed? Why are you thinking of moving him to a bed?

Dara - posted on 06/28/2009

My twin daughters are 2 1/2 years old. I just changed their cribs to toddler beds the other night. My son however was in a toddler bed at 1. It depends on the child. I would say if they can't get out of the crib on their own, leave him in a crib. I only changed the girls' to toddler beds because one of them figured out how to get out of her crib and the other was stuck in her crib screaming out of jealousy. Good luck.

Stephanie - posted on 06/27/2009

Thanks! I'm gonna try it out and see how it goes!

Jen - posted on 06/26/2009

Quoting Stephanie:

We have the crib that turns into a toddler bed then the head and footboards for full size bed...so I would have to pretty much just take the front peice off and try it out...I'm such a paranoid person I get scared of his safety more than anything! At night he sleeps so good so I'm sure he would be fine!

My friend has one of those types of cribs, but her's really didn't change much when she put the toddler bed rail on. It's was pretty much how I have my daughter's crib now on hers had a shorter rail. With those types of beds it's easy to test out because then you can out the rail back if you think he's not ready. If he sleeps through the night and doesn't wake at all and you think he's ready then I would go for it. I'm also planning on doing the safety gate thing just so I know she can't get out of her room. Just make sure his room is very baby proofed, keep the monitor on, and if he happens to get out of bed put him back and explain to him that we have to stay in our bed at night. I'm sure he'll be fine, but all mommy's worry about their babies. :)

Valerie - posted on 06/25/2009

Stephanie, what we did was we used a baby gate for our first little one. I know some people think of this as caging your kid so to speak, but we didn't look at it this way. The gate kept her in her room and safe and outta trouble. Once we feft that she had learned that bedtime was for staying in bed and going to sleep we kept it off and she was an angel and went right to bed and stayed in her bed and went right to sleep. However our second little darling was a completly different story!!! We tried this same thing with her but it didn't stop her from climbing right over it in like 5 seconds flat. She is now 3 1/2 and she still doesn't have the same understanding that bedtime is for staying in your bed and going to sleep, she has every excuse in the book. With her we stay upstairs until she goes to sleep, because if we don't who knows what she would get into, probably be hand cream in her hair or something stupid like that. So just to say that you kinda have to try different things to see what works best for him. We made the jump from crib to bed when both of them started climbing outta their cribs. I think for both of them they were about the same age as your son. Hope this gives you some food for thought.

Stephanie - posted on 06/25/2009

We have the crib that turns into a toddler bed then the head and footboards for full size bed...so I would have to pretty much just take the front peice off and try it out...I'm such a paranoid person I get scared of his safety more than anything! At night he sleeps so good so I'm sure he would be fine!

Jen - posted on 06/25/2009

What we've done is lowered the rail on our daughter's crib. (We keep meaning to build her toddler bed, but we're just very busy. We're obviously not in a rush lol.) Do that for a little while and see if he climbs out. The crib with a rail down and the toddler bed are very similar except that the rail goes the whole length of the crib and the toddler bed rail will only go about half way. If he freaks out with the rail down then keep him in the crib. My daughter is only 18 months and she's always been good about going to bed.



You could also do a trial run if you have a friend with a toddler bed. Let him take a nap in it and see how he does. My daughter sometimes spends time at my friend's house and they have a firetruck bed and race car bed and my daughter took a nap in the firetruck just fine lol. Good luck.