Transition to a Big Girl Bed

Hi J.,
We were forced to move to a Big Boy Bed when my little one was 22 months old. He climbed out of the pack and play at Grandma's over Christmas and when we returned home, we just decided to make the transition. We bought a toddler bed at Walmart for $50 and just continued to use the crib mattress. My little guy is in the 80th percentile for height, but this little bed will be plenty big for him for quite some time. We like it because it is close to the floor, so he can climb in and out with ease. He's only fallen out once, but it was not too traumatic, since he was already so close to the floor. It's also nice for us because he has a small room, so the little bed doesn't take up as much room as a twin bed will. If you already have a twin bed, you can just buy the rails to attach. If not, a toddler bed is a nice "in-between" and none too expensive.

As far as getting them to use it, it just takes time! We were lucky with my little guy - he just stayed in there from the get go. Even at Grandma's! While he does occasionally climb out to play with toys at naptime (and there are TONS of toys in his room), I simply put him back in bed and tell him night night, and he almost always complies. I think I've only had to do this three times at the most. You just have to be consistent and they'll get the hang of it.

Best of luck with your new Big Girl!!!
A. K

If you are hesitant to purchase a toddler bed, you could buy a twin mattress and have that on the floor until she is a little bigger. Another option is buying a twin bed and a side rail to keep her a safer unless she likes to climb. My SIL has had success with the mattress on the floor and did not have to worry about her daughter getting hurt if she fell off of it. Good luck.

Hi J.-

We also felt that a toddler bed was a waste of money, so instead we got a twin bed and took off the box spring for the first few months so the mattress was closer to the floor. (We just put a few strips of wood across the bed rail underneath to support it- and all of her 22 pounds didn't need much support!) I also would put pillows or a big fluffy comforter on the floor just in case! And then eventually, my husband just built a bed rail that we painted white to keep her in so we could put the box spring back on, and because I think it made her feel a little cozier to have the rail their. Now she doesn't fall out, but we're still working on getting her to stay in her bed! Once asleep, she sleeps all night- but some nights that takes a little while. I guess it's very exciting to have free roaming priveleges after being in the crib for so long!!! Good luck~

We actually switched rooms, too, when he switched to a big boy bed--the Baby Room was going to be a baby room for our hopefully soon-to-be-conceived baby, and we wanted plenty of time for the transition (it turned out to be more than a year, lol, plenty of time!). Anyway--we moved his toys and "room" over there gradually, getting him used to playing there, too, and then moved the bed in, but didn't make him sleep on it, then just naps...and then the nighttime transition was very easy

Hi J.,

We have four children (14 to 3 yrs). We have always put a twin bed on the floor (without box spring) to get started. It saves money not having to buy a toddler bed and is low enough that that can get in and out easily. We have also kept the crib up for a week to see how things would go. A couple kids wanted to go back in once but after that no more.

M. :)

Hi J. -- We went straight to a twin bed and it worked fine. We put the bed alongside a wall and then rented one of those railing things from a rent-all for a couple of months til she had the hang of sleeping in the middle.

My daughter was thrilled to have moved to her big girl bed. Even had us leave a note for Santa to come up and see it!

Good luck! L.

I know that when we went through this, we went to a toddler bed and only went to a twin bed when our DD was fully potty trained (both daytime and night time). I will let you know that her crib turned into an extra long, slightly taller toddler bed, so we didn't have to go out and buy one. Once she had reached a milestone in her life of being fully potty trained is when we made the move to a twin bed.
One thing to keep in mind is the ability of your child to even climb up into a twin bed (if it is on a frame). Sure you can give them a step stool to get up and down, or as you stated before, you could just put the mattress on the floor. I know we didn't have any issues, but when we did move her from the crib to a toddler bed, we had to out of her own safety, since she was climbing out and up onto the attached dresser. I think that if we didn't have the option that we had I probably would have gotten a toddler bed anyways simply because of the age she was (18 months) and her size at the time. I am sure that what ever you do, the main issue will be keeping her in the bed when she needs to and doesn't want to.

I'm sure you have got lots of advice by now! My son is 2 and 40 lbs so putting him in a toddler bed just didn't make sense. To me it was a waste of money so we put him directly in a double size bed. It is great! This way I can lay with him at night and read stories before bed. I have the bed up against the wall and then I just use a body pillow along the other side to keep him from rolling out...so far that has worked. You can buy the bedrails, which we use when we go visit the grandparents, and that works well also. I have two friends that have little ones and they did the same thing, which is why I did it that way! Another bonus to having them in a double bed is if you have company you can use that bed if needed. When we got the bed we had a little "new bed party". We all laid in it and sang, "Aiden's got a new bed". He was very excited about it. He stays in bed at night, I think because it is dark out he doesn't want to get down, but he does get out in the morning and come wake me up when he is ready.
I'd just skip the toddler bed, save the money, and get the bigger bed. Not only do we read at night, I lay with Aiden for 15 minutes or so, which I love...then I we give hugs and kisses and say goodnight! I haven't had any trouble with him and his big boy bed. Good luck!

My son was 27 months when we made the transition, mainly because he had a sister coming in a month! We were worried about the transition as well, but it actually went really smooth! We made it into sort of a big event, though, with a new room painted in fun colors and decorated with a sports theme, and we let him play and climb on the bed a few days leading up to the transition, so that he was familiar with it. We just got a twin bed, because we didn't want to have to get a new bed later on, and he had absolutely no problems. The mattress just sits on the floor, and we didn't even put guards on the sides and he's never had a problem falling off. Of course, with the mattress so close to the floor, it's not that long of a fall! :)
That's what has worked for us, I hope it goes well for you! They get so big so fast!

With my first, we moved her to a twin mattress at about 1 1/2 because we were expecting our 2nd. She did great! We put the frame as low as possible and only used a mattress(no boxspring). With our second, we bought her a toddler bed and moved her at about 1 1/2 as well. We were expecting our 3rd at that time and due to the girls sharing a small room in our apartment, the toddler bed was the best option for us. She's still in her toddler bed right now and will be 4 in July. Our 3rd is 23 months today and we'll be switching him to a toddler bed. I'm looking at getting him a firetruck bed instead of the sleigh bed style one that our 2nd is currently in. I'd say what you put your daughter in depends on the amount of space you have in the room and if you're wanting to buy another bed or her in a few years. If you go with a twin, start with just the mattress on the floor and then when she's a little older, put it on the frame.

We transitioned our dd at 22 to a toddler bed, but within 3 months we had to upgrade her to a twin size bed. If don't already have a toddler bed frame, I would skip it and go straight to a twin size with the matress and box spring on the floor with a bed rail, and then put it up on the frame with a bed rail when she's a little closer to 3.

Our experience went very smoothly with our daughter. We put her in a twin size bed when she was 18 months old. We were expecting and needed to get her out of her crib. We bought a twin size captains bed from walmart. She has a bed rail to keep her from rolling off of the bed. I also bought a two step step stool so she could use that to climb in to bed. We didn't want to waste the money on a toddler bed.
What I did was made the transition very quickly. she took her afternoon nap in her crib and when she woke up it was go time :) as far as taking down her crib and putting her bed, night stand and dresser together. I didn't want to make this a prolonged project. I didn't want her to dwell on us changing her room/life around. Once bed time came we stuck with the same routine as far as bath time, reading books...etc. She crawled into be without a problem and cried for a minute once we walked out of her room, but feel asleep, and never had a problem.
I hope this helps you in deciding on what to do for you little girl.

Hi J.,
I always take the drop side of the crib off to make it a day bed. It has worked great with my three younger children. If you have fears of her falling off just put pillow next to it for a few days to a few weeks. Good luck.
A.

My advice is to leave her in her crib until she is bigger. Our three girls were always in their crib until they were nearly 3. Then when you move her to a twin bed you don't have the worries about her being so small, wandering as much as a two year old, etc.... it may look to you like she is growing out of her crib, but she is warm and comfy and cozy in her bed!!! Don't rush the transition or you may be dealing with a in and out of her bed and room....

We went straight to the twin bed with both kids. I really thing the toddler bed is a wasted intermediate step. My 2 year old will be 3 in May and has been in her big girl bed for one year with no problems.