Toddler Ready for Big-kid Bed

He's ready-he's old enough. Now that he can open doors some safety measures are going to have to be used in your home. But I think he may be ready already. If he's in toddler bed it may be easier to potty train him, too.
R.

I just switched my 18 mo. old to her big girl bed. I put Dora sheets on it and she crawled all over the bed patting Dora and saying hello to her and boots. The pillow case has Dora and Boots also, so I tell her go lay with Dora and she does. At 3 he should be "ready," but it still may take some getting used to. You may have to sit with him the first couple of nights, until he learns to stay in bed and fall asleep. Don't put him to bed until he's really tired, so that he goes out quickly. Read a story, sing a few songs, then turn out the lights and say good night, just like for a big boy. We use the baby gate on her doorway, just so that she doesn't wander out in the dark and fall down the stairs; usually she cries when she wakes up in the night though. The advice about putting up the new bed with the crib is good also. We did that with our oldest. She napped in the twin bed and slept in the crib, for about a week until she decided that she was ready for her big girl bed all the time, then we gave the crib to our new baby. She helped me put a big bow on it like a present. She also had a special big girl blankie that she could only use in the big girl bed. She was about 18 mos. at the time. Our second daughter switched at 14 mos., so at 3 he should be fine.

my daughter is almost 3 too and isn't potty trained yet! My pediatrician said that if your child is able to climb in and out of the crib (safely), then there is no need to rush them into a toddler bed. My Pediatrician said I could wait at least until 3 as long as they are doing fine in the crib. I was lucky that my daughter never tried to climb out and never got hurt. We did switch her to a toddler bed about 3 months ago though! However, I was worried about her falling/crawling out of this bed and getting out of her room, but actually she has done great! We just put a rail on her bed and put a child safety cover on the door handle (the inside of her door), so that she can't open it. I wanted to make sure that she wouldn't wander the hallways or go downstairs if she woke up in the middle of the night. It has worked too! I still use a monitor though, so that when she is awake I will know it, plus I will hear her knock on the door. I hope this helps!

Once our 2 year old starting climbin out of the crib is when we transistioned her to the toddler bed. Bought new bedding with a character she liked. She comes out of her room when she wakes up and wakes us up. I have the upstairs safe for her. She usually comes straight to our room though i have a gate at top of stairs so she can't go down there. I also still use a monitor just so i can hear her or notice movement even though probabley don't need one.

Our youngest started climbing out of her crib early also. We went ahead and converted to a day bed. She hasnt figured out the door yet, so she stands at the door and knock and calls for us. If opening the door is a problem, you can always get those door knob covers. You have to hold the covers a certain way to get the knob to turn.

As long as he's strong enough and stable enough to get in and out of bed on his own, you can put him in a big boy bed. At this point, you might save yourself a bit of money and just put him in a twin instead of transitioning to a toddler bed. Up to you really. My 3 year old has been in a twin bed for the last year and a half. My 4 year old would never sleep inthe toddler bed. He went from sleepingi nthe crib, to in my bed, to the toddler bed.

Sounds like he is ready! To ease the transition, we put our kids to bed in their crib at bedtime like normal. When we went to bed, I took them out of the crib, my husband moved the mattress onto the toddler bed and I put them back down on the toddler bed. We did that for a week and then we said bye-bye to the crib. I did that with all three of my children and did not have any anxiety issues with any of them. Also, the previous post about getting the character sheets is important, too. The more excitement you generate about it, the less intimidating it seems! Good luck!

I changed beds when my kids started climbing out of the crib. lol.

Hello,

I just moved my 23 month old son to a twin bed last week. He LOVES it and he actually sleeps longer in the morning :-). I decided to get rid of the bedframe and just put his box spring/mattress on the floor in case of falls. I put on really cool sheets and comforter for him.

At night time, I sit in his bed and read to him and I give him his favorite book to look at until he falls asleep. I do put a gate between his door so he cannot get out at night.

I would just try it. You may be surprised to learn that he will really enjoy his bed. Just make sure you put in his bed, his favorite item (blanket, stuffed animal or book)

We moved my daughter to a big girl bed at around 18 months. She was showing signs of trying to climb out of her crib and we were expecting another baby and didn't want her to feel she was being kicked out- like she might have if we moved her at the last minute. She has done great. She did fall out of bed a couple of times, but she was fine, just kept right on sleeping. We have a gate on her room doorway, but we leave it open. We want her to know she can come to us. We are very careful to make sure the gate at the top of the stairs is securely closed. I like the idea of the security rail, but from what I've read the greatest number of accidents with them involve kids under two so it wasn't a good idea for us, but your 3 year old should be fine with one. You can start with a mattress on the floor and then graduate to a real bed (on the lowest setting) after a bit, if that makes you more comfortable. As far as signs that he is ready, I'd say if he is a good sleeper, he is ready. If he has sleep issues now, they might get worse if you switch beds. If you do switch him, be careful about the bedtime routine. We got stuck sitting with our tot until she falls asleep and it all started because we wanted her to feel comfortable in her new bed! Good luck!

My son is 2 1/2 and we just transitioned him. For about a week he fell out of his "race car bed" once a night. It's been 3 weeks now and he hasn't fallen out once. We want to potty train him soon, but I didn't feel we could really start doing that until he could get out of his bed to let us know he had to go.

I switched my daughter to a twin size bed when she was 2 1/2 years old. I not only felt she was ready, but she was just getting too long for her baby bed and was waking up in these weird contorted positions. She usually isn't much of a mover in bed. For my own piece of mind I bought a toddler rail to put on the side of the bed, just to be on the safe side. I did not have to transition her. We really worked her up about the bed and she went with us to pick out her big girl bed. She was more upset about not sleeping in it right away because it had to be ordered. But the first night and then after were never issues. She has never gotten out of bed in the middle of the night and she has a stool at the foot of the bed so that she can get out of bed on her own in the morning.
As for potty training, I did use the reward stickers for my daughter and kept the chart and stickers in the bathroom so she could chose them. But my friend, who has a son, and was still being potty trained at 3, used stickers for #1 and had a box of hotwheels taped to the wall in the bathroom for #2, since they had the most problem with that. He was very upset if he could not have the hotwheels, but it all worked out and he quickly started going #2 in the potty. Another friend also used M&M's for #2. Just a few suggestions.

Good luck!

our son used a pack n play for the first year. then at 13-14months we moved him to a mattress on the floor. it was a bit early i guess by most standards, but he was throwing his blanket out of the "crib" so we moved him. we had him watch us pack it up, and say bye to it, and then made him up a fun mattress on the floor.
he was SO excited. he would jump on it and say "BIIII BAAA" (Big Bed). and he wanted to show it to everyone who visited.

it was only a dew times that he got out of the bed and came to the door. and we just sent him right back to bed. we out a gate in front of his door so that if he tried to come out in the morning he couldn't, and we left books for him to read.

good luck. and have fun! it can be really fun to get to cuddle on a big bed together for book time and family hugs :)

My daughter climbed out of her crib at 22 months. She went into a toddler bed but I put a child proof lock on the inside so she can't get out during bedtimes. We have lots of stairs and can't gate them so this became a safety issue. She has no problems. Her bedroom is child proof incase she would get out of her bed.
By 3 year is ready to be in a "big boy" bed. This will show him that he is not a baby and ready to be a big boy!

My daughter was in a full size bed at 2 1/2 so yes I think it is time for him to go to big boy bed. It might help him feel like a big boy being out of a crib. On the potty training have HIM pick out his favorite stickers and let him get one when he does # 1 and when he does # 2 he will get 2 but let him pick them out. My daughter loves Horses and lady bugs so she picked out those 2 and she was potty trained at 2 1/2 when she went to her big girl bed. She would actually get up at night and go her self to so that will help your son maybe. Have him go to the potty AS SOON as he gets up and before he goes to bed IF he says he does not have to go tell him he will get a big boy sticker. It is a working process but it will get done when he is ready. lol Good luck on everything but yes it might be time for him to be out of crib OR also IF he is not all over the bed and his bed goes into a toddler bed get a side rail for him and he can still get in and out of it...

Hi A.. We put our twins in toddler beds at 18 months. They were climbing out of their cribs and didn't want them to hurt them selves.

I would say talk to him about a big boy bed. My son was two and half when we switched him. It wasn't so much the cues that he gave us that he was ready but the fact that he was too heavy to lift into the crib anymore (he weighed in at 30 plus pounds at two years of age)also he was tall enough that we were afraid he would climb out. We talked about how cool it would be to have the big boy bed. Once we got it in there, we let him play on it etc. We left his crib in the room also and started asking him each night where he wanted to sleep. Once he started to say the big boy bed, we decided to move the crib out and it has been gone ever since. I was concerned about him night wandering so we placed a gate at the top of our stairs so he can only wonder upstairs w no outside access. I usually hear him. Good luck!

Hello A.. I would have to say that yes he should be ready for a big boy bed. However, I don't really think those toddler beds are worth the money. I just moved my 23 month old into her own big girl bed about a month ago. I purchased one of those bed rails and put it on her twin bed. Then we got her big girl blankets, did the Disney Princesses so she won't out grow it too quickly. Now, it is not alwyas easy to get her to stay in her bed when she is not ready to go to sleep. I just keep walking her back to bed until she eventually passes out. Best of Luck!

I moved my son to a toddler bed out of necessity. I need his crib for his sister that's soon to arrive. I started out just putting him down for naps in the bed so he could get used to the whole thing before sleeping all night. We leave his door open all the time. I was prepared to use a gate but he hasn't required one. He will be 2 next week and has adjusted extremely well! Good Luck!

We moved our son out of his crib into a toddler bed when he started climbing out of the crib. This was for his safety mostly. We changed his crib into a daybed and put a bed rail up to help keep him from falling out. Then, we put the toddler bed in his room too (although a little cramped then) and he could choose which bed. This seemed to make the transition good for him. As for the door knob covers to prevent him from opening his door, I would advise against it. This is for his safety. If there is some emergency for him, you would not want him to be stuck in his room. We had a problem with our son that he decided he didn't want to go to bed at bedtime. Our pediatrician suggested we put a gate up at his door to keep him in there. This way, we would still be able to hear him easily and he learned he had to stay in his room at bedtime. Now, we don't have any problems with bedtime. Good luck with whatever you choose. Every child is different.