Tell Me About Your Child's First Days in a Big Kid Bed.

C. when we moved DD into a big bed from her crib, she was too afriad to climb down ( she was 18 months). However after a couple of months she got the hang of getting off the bed. I then used the method of putting her back to bed and saying good night. If she got off her bed again, I would not talk to her and put her back into bed. After a couple of times, she knew she has no choise but to stay in bed.

Good Luck.

C.,
In our case, the big boy bed was the only way we could get our son to sleep without us. We, however, bypassed the toddler bed and went straight for the full size. It has taken us about 5-6 months, mostly because we can spare the time as he is our only for now, and he will lay down in bed, and go to sleep after a couple of stories, without us. We never shut his door as I have witnessed him trying to tear up books and play with stuff. I do know people who have put a gate in the doorway, but we just never got one, so we just kept an eye on him. He has a couple of books that he just loves, so we let him look at those until he decides he's done, at which point he pitches them over the side and lays down to go to sleep. I think the idea is consistency and keep up the routine. Good luck! Hope some of this helps...
Shannon

So, we found Izzy's bed and she wouldn't get out of it the whole way out the store till we loaded it in the truck. (She was 25 mo.) I put her in it like normal at bedtime and she stayed in and slept all night, naptimes were the same. Just recently she has started getting out of bed-sometimes crying at the closed door at bedtime, we let her cry and if she opened the door we told her no, it's bedtime and eventually (2o min at most) she would wander back to bed and go to sleep. Occasionally she gets out in the middle of the night and we discovered it was always for a drink of water so now she keeps a sippy cup of water by her bed at night and she never gets out of bed in middle of night. At naptime, every now and again she will play with toys rather than sleep and I will let this go on for a half hour at most and then I will go in and remind her it's nap time and she whines sometimes but always gives in. Now with a new baby comming we will see what happens. Hope all goes well for you!

A gate would never work for us either. We close his door, actually his door has always been closed when he goes to sleep, even as a baby so that's not a big deal. It took about a week I guess, he will sometimes run to the door after we leave and knock (or pound.... depending on how mad he is, lol) but if it's truly nap or bedtime he will go crawl into his bed and go to sleep after no more than 10 minutes.

I have cleared his room of toys and stuff to get into. I had to put a doorknob thing on his closet too... he started to get toys out of there when he would get up. :o)

give it a couple of weeks. good luck!

~ t

My mother bought our son his todler bed for Christmas just as he turned 26months old so we decided to put it to good use then.
The first couple of days were horible. He thought it was so cool that he could get out whenever he wanted that he did so almost every half an hour. Finally on the 3rd day we turned the lock and locked him in his room. He would bang on the doors, and call out for us for almost 1/2 hour and sometimes 1hr but at least he knew he was not comming out of there. That lasted about 2 months. Anyways we're 6months into it, and now he tells me when he wants a nap, and walks to his room all on his own and sometimes closes the door on his own. He stays in bed throughout the night as well. I don't lock the door anymore since there is not need to.
All that to say that the locking the door trick is probably more emotianally painful but seems to be most effective.

Good luck and may the Lord bless you with losts of patience. :-)

I know you want me to say it only lasts a week, and that they soon transition well and are back to normal. Unfortunately, I'd be lying through my teeth, so I'll tell you the real story. My daughter was climbing out of her crib at 25 months, so we transitioned to a toddler bed. For a few weeks, we had to sit by her door to make sure she stayed in bed. Then, we moved further and further away, until we were in the next room. But she'd still take an hour to get to sleep, and would come out of her room over and over and over again. She insists on her door being opened, so we tried closing the door, taking away stuffed animals, a sticker chart, the SuperNanny technique where you just silently put them back in bed over and over for a few nights until the get it. None of it worked. And a baby gate didn't work, because she just climbed over it.

This week, at 28 months, we have FINALLY made progress. And as bad as it sounds, we had to start getting a little mean with her. It was all a big game to her, and every time she'd come out of her room, she's smile and giggle and then run back to her room. So clearly, our tactics weren't working, and she was in total control, which is a bad idea. So this week, we put her to bed, and told her if she got up, we'd close the door. She got up, we put her in bed, and told her we now had to close the door, and if she got up again, we'd lock it (we switched the knob so the lock is on the outside). Sure enough, she got up again, so we put her back in bed, told her we had warned her and that we now had to lock the door, and locked the door. She screamed and cried and was mad, and we felt bad, but truly, she needed to get mad, because her thinking she was so funny with her antics just wasn't acceptable. After about 5 minutes, we opened the door, and told her if she stayed in bed, we could leave the door open, but if she got out of bed, we'd have to lock it again. And she went right to sleep! Granted, she was very tired that night, but it's been 4 nights, and she's been so, so much better. We only had to lock the door the first two nights. Ever since, she's gotten up just once and then gotten right back in bed and stayed there. She doesn't go to sleep right away, but she stays in bed, singing or playing with a stuffed animal, until she's asleep. I can't tell you what a relief this is to me!

So, I would try every other tactic first. Try a sticker chart - tell him he gets a sticker if he stays in bed, and if he gets X number of sticker (our chart has 10 spots), he gets to choose something special (it could be going for ice cream, a small toy, whatever). Try the Super Nanny technique - if he gets out of bed once, put him back and say "It's bedtime, love." If he gets out of bed again, put him back and just say, "It's bedtime" and any other time he gets out of bed, put him back in bed without eye contact or speaking to him. You'll have to try this a few nights to see if it works - one night is not enough.

But if all else fails, locking the door was the one thing that worked for us. I would never leave it locked all night, but just to get my point across for a few minutes. My daughter is going to sleep a bit later than she was at night, but she usually stays in bed all night now. Nap times can still be a struggle, but I sometimes nap with her, or again, threaten to close the door.

Good luck!

Hi C..

I would recommend just putting a baby gate up in his doorway instead of closing the door. Closing the door might make him feel very isolated and cut off. If he's a climber, put up another one on top of the other. At least this way he's being supervised moreso and he doesn't feel so alone. I've seen a two year old tear up a book and stuff the paper in his mouth and then start to choke/gag on it....so even books aren't foolproof. As for the routine, I think it all depends on the child. Some children take to change very well and there's no problem and others fight change. I would give it a couple weeks. It took a few weeks with mine. They would love to get out of bed. I would just consistantly place them back in the bed and tuck them in. It took many many times before they realized hey, I should just give up and go to sleep! Good luck!

So if it's recommended to not close the door during nap times or even at night, doesn't the noises in the house keep them awake. I have to walk past both of my kid's doors to get to other areas of our upstairs. I'm pretty sure they would try to get my attention if they noticed me walking by their door. I know they wouldn't stay very quiet.
A.