At what age did your child start to sleep in a bed?

Question

My son is only 14 months, still too young (I believe) to go into a bed. I dont intend to make this move for a while yet - he is happy in his cot, has enough room and sleeps very well. However I am interested to know at what age people put their kids into beds and whether you started to have problems with your child sleeping at that point or whether it all went relatively smoothly.

Answer 1

I put my oldest daughter in a bed at 17 months and my youngest daughter started in her bed when she was 20 months. It went so much better than I thought it would! It took about 3 or 4 days for the oldest to get used to it and then she started sleeping through the night. The youngest has stayed in her bed from day one, probably b/c she's right next to sissy!

Answer 2

Well, I had planned to put them in a bed at 2 yrs old but we were to be moving around then so w eleft the cribs up until we got into our new house... which, took longer than expected.  They slept in their new beds when they were nearly 3 years old.  They were very excited to sleep in them, mostly because we got them racing car bed sheets, lol.  Before the switch, we just took off one rail of the crib and lowered it as low as we could so it was kind of like a bed then.  I think that helped prepare them.

Answer 3

On his 1st birthday bottles went bye bye and cuppies came.  On his 2nd birthday his crib went bye bye and his big boy bed came.  Then on his 3rd birthday his sippy cups went bye bye and big boy cups came.  

Its fun to do it this way bc kids will correlate getting bigger with new milestones as well as looking forward to presents, cake, etc.  

Answer 4

at 2 we gave my sone a bed, we made a big deal out of how grown up and special it was but we left the crib in his room, it was cramped but we gave him the choice (after we made a big party out of it the bed) and he always chose the bed, after a week we removed the crib and haven't looked back.   on bit of advice my dad gave me and i followed is that when you put a toddler in a bed it should be a real twin size mattress no toddler size mattresses, cuz kids move and turn so much in their sleep that my dad (who had 4 kids plus me) always found us sleeping on the floor because we had either climbed out or fell out and never got back up into bed.  toddler beds are a waste of money.

good luck with the bed, but keep im in the crib for a bit longer.

Answer 5

My son is 2 yrs & 4 mos.  He still hasn't made any attempt to climb out of his crib yet.  When he starts trying to climb out we'll put him in a bed (his crib converts to a toddler bed w/rails).

He doesn't always go right to sleep at night now so I fear we're in for some long nights when he's able to get out of bed and play ~ even if it is dark!

Answer 6

My first went into a bed at two years old. I would have let her stay in the crib longer, but it was needed for the second baby, so I allowed plenty of time between going into the bed and the birth of the second baby, so that she didn't feel like she was being turfed out to make way for her brother. We made it part of her birthday present and she helped choose the colourful doona set. We used a bed rail for only a short time and we tried to get her excited about the new bed.

Answer 7

My daughter started climbing out of her crib around age 1 - she is very tall and was easily able to climb out of the crib well before I was ready to give in and put her in a "big girl  bed" -- but around 1 1/2 I gave in - we bought a bunk bed set (both top and bottom are a twin) and just used the top half with the removable rails ... she loved it!! I let her pick out the sheets, and she helped me make the bed, so it was exciting for her.  I thought I would never be able to keep her in the bed, but it was easier than I thought. I think the excitement of climbing out of the crib is what she was after, and because she was never able to climb back into the crib she just cried...  but now she can climb in and out of her bed as needed without my help. After a few nights she stayed in her bed all night.It was great!  

Answer 8

all my kids had their own little youth beds (with rails) by age two.