I am thinking of moving my son to a toddler bed? Help?!?

Question

My son is 14 months old. He is a great sleeper. At night he walks into his room and puts his hand on his crib and goes to sleep. I am worried that he can get out and fall out. I will be moving in a month and was thinking about converting his crib to a toddler bed. Any suggestions would be great thanks.

Answer 1

That is the best time to do it.

We had been on holiday for a week where my daughter had to sleep in a single bed so when we got back home we put her straight into the junior bed where she has slept for 18months and now at the age of four is in a big bed and loving it. She was 2 when we put her in a toddler bed and 3 and a half when she went into the proper single bed. All the moves were her choice we just persuaded her it was the right thing to do. Put a side barrier up for a while till he gets use to the new bed. . My girl fell out of bed about twice after i removed the side barrier but as she was only about 5 inches off the floor and she did not hurt herself and would just lay on the floor till i would put her back into bed.

So yes the time is perfect when you move get your little boy to choose his bedding and help decorate his new room. He'll love it.

Answer 2

I just did this about 2mos ago with mine. She did great. I set up her bed and called it her big girl bed. She's been in it ever since.

Answer 3

My daughter is 16 months this week and we took the side rail off of our crib 2 weeks ago. The first night I think she was so shocked that she didn't try anything. The second night she got out of bed and banged at the door. We went in and put her back in bed. She got right back out of bed again and was banging on the door again. We just let her go this time. After about 10-15 min. She stopped. About an hour later we checked on her expecting to have to pick her up off the floor and put her back in bed, but to our susprise she was in bed sound asleep. We have not had a problem with her getting out of bed since. We took the side rail off because she started to try and climb out of the crib, and the tents are a strangling hazard.

We switched my son, who is now 3 at about the same age, although for a different reason. I was pregnant and I knew we would need the crib for the baby, so when we moved we got him a twin bed. It took our son a little longer to get used to the idea, about 3 nights instead of 1.

We have never had a problem with either of them leaving their room because we keep the door shut, and they have no toys in their rooms, so when the get out of bed it is dark and pretty boring so they get back in bed and go to sleep.

I would suggest taking the side rail off of the crib if you have a convertable crib and Kid Co makes a nice toddler rail,

(http://www.buybuybaby.com/product.asp?or...

if not then put the mattress on the floor for a few weeks to get her used to it, and look for a twin bed and get a side rail for the bed, there are lots of these out there, in all different styles, to keep her from rolling out in her sleep.

(http://www.buybuybaby.com/stylePage.asp?...

We got a small set of steps from Target to help our kids get in and out of bed independently and safely so they were not climbing over stuff and falling.

(http://www.target.com/Step-Stool-with-St...

We have the blue one for our son and the pink one for our daughter, but it also comes in dark wood, light wood, and white.

good luck

Heather

Answer 4

Since he's a great sleeper you should have no problems with the transition, my daughter litterly jumped out of her crib at 17 months and nearly cracked her head open.  With the toddler bed it's closer to the ground and less worry for injury.  Try him in it for a few nights and see how he does, as long as the side rails are up on either side you should be ok.

Answer 5

I was nervous about putting my daughter in a toddler bed because our rooms are on opposite ends of the house and I decided to put her toddler bed in our room so now if she wakes up she can only be in that area and not wander all over the whole house.

Answer 6

i think it is probably time just make sure to use the rails

Answer 7

My daughter was so good and never gave me a problem being in her crib.  I caught her trying to climb out several times.  I thought she would fall and get hurt so we took off the side rail.  After that she would NEVER stay in her bed.  She'd get up and play with toys. We removed the toys and she started to leave her room.  We put a gate up, she eventually learned how to climb over it, we stacked two of them in the door frame - so she couldn't get over!  She started pushing or kicking them down...she was determined! She made so much noise it would alert us before she "escaped".  Looking back it would have been easier to keep the rail and put one of those mesh tents on top.  We never had anywhere to safely contain her so we can get something done!  I just have to add, she is actually very well behaved-despite how this sounds. There was never any yelling or screaming on her part, she just has a lot of patience to figure something out and get the job done! lol. So normally I would say sounds like a good idea...they'll be proud to be in a big kid bed etc but I regretted it.