When Should I Put My Son in the Toddler Bed

My daughter has been in a toddler bed since she turned one. She does get out to come to our bed at times, so that is something we are trying to break. My boys were all in toddler beds by that age also, and we battled the getting in and out of bed routine a lot. However, they do get over that and eventually stay in their bed. Also, if you are worried he may get into something in the middle of the night, and you don't want to close his door, put up a tall gate to keep him safely in his room. That helped with one of my boys. Hope this helps. Good luck!

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Does he currently try to or can climb out of the crib? If the answer is no, and he is generally happy sleeping in the crib than I would say to keep him in there until he does try and crawl out.
Once we switched from a crib to a bed we put a gate on the bedroom door, this kept our little one from being able to wander beyond the bedroom and when she did wake up, we went to the gate and put her back in her bed, we didn't allow her to leave the room.
She is 4 now and an excellent sleeper. I also have an 18month old who is still in her crib and will be until she tries to climb out.

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If I were you, I'd wait until he can understand the "big boy" transition. I figure, if he's still okay w/ the crib, keep him there! He's still so young, but I do understand wanting to take the next step. The transition to the open bed definitely opens up the possibility of falling out of bed (even w/ those rails, my oldest son still fell out all the time) and, like you said, the ability to have unsupervised freedom. I think between 18 months & 2 years is a good time for the big move- when they are much better at understanding and communicating when you say something like, "If you wake up, come get Mommy or Daddy in our room" and they can respond with "Okay!" Do what feels right for you is always the best option! If you think he's ready, go for the toddler bed!! Only you know what will feel right for your little guy ;-)

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If you think he is ready for it then by all means put him in the toddler bed. You know him best! :)

My daughter was in a toddler bed by the age 2, however she hated it so I ended up buying a twin bed and bought some guard rails and never had a problem with it. My son we converted his crib to a toddler bed just past two (and would have sooner if we ever took the time to do so)and never had any problems except for nap time where he would get out of bed and play and we would go back in and lay him down and tell him he cannot play till he gets up. He never leaves his room at naptime or bedtime. We just two weeks ago moved him to twin bed, bunk style with a ladder and he has done awesome.

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Hey!

I would wait until your little boy is trying to crawl over the rail. He just turned a year old and is to little for the toddler bed, unless he is trying to go over the rail and he is going to hurt himself is when I would put him in. I think my son was a couple of months before his 2nd birthday before we put him into the toddler bed. He would put his legs over the side of the bed and jump down. It was too scary and we put in the toddler bed. On the other hand, my daughter seems so small for the toddler bed and we still have her in the baby bed at 19 months. She is jumping in the baby bed and on the couch, so I think she is too young for the toddler bed. She is not at that age yet. I think if we put her in the toddler bed now, she would just get out and run around.:) You will know when he is ready, each child is different. Good luck!

C.

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i have 2 kids, 7 and 5, my son is still in a toddler bed that we put him in when he was 3 but he is delayed so we were scard to do so but with my daughter we put her in a toddler bed when she was 2 in a half or 3.

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I have 2 children, my son is almost 4 and my daughter is 2. We waited until they were 17 - 18 months old before moving them into the toddler bed. My son was moved because we needed the crib for my daughter, and we moved my daughter into the toddler bed because she was starting to climb out of her crib! You stated that your son comes into the "big bed" in the middle of the night. If your son is not climbing out of his crib on his own, I would recommend waiting until he's a bit older. Then you won't have the worry about him getting up in the middle of the night and hurting himself. Once they have the freedom of coming to your room if they wake up, they will be doing that alot more than you'd like them to!

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I have 18 month old twins and we just switched to a toddler beds. We put a gate in front of their door so they can't leave their room. We did the same thing with my daughter as well. The only thing we have problems with is that the boys fall out of their beds. It's really up to you on when you choose to make that transition.
Hope this helps some. A.

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HEY GIRL
I PUT MY FIRST SON IN HIS BIG BOY BED WHEN HE WAS 22 MONTHS AND WE PUT UP A BABY GATE IN HIS DOORWAY SO WE COULD HEAR HIM GET UP IF HE WAS GONNA GET UP AND HE DID EVERY TIME HE DID WE JUST CALMLY PUT HIM BACK AND TOLD HIM IT WAS TIME FOR NITE NITE. ALSO WE SPOILED HIM A LITTLE BIT WE BOUGHT HIM A RACE CAR BED PAINTED THE WALLS ALL DIFFERENT COLORS AND TURNED IT INTO FUN WE ALSO PUT A TV IN HIS ROOM SO HE WOULD LAY THERE AND WATCH MOVIES OR CARTOON NETWORK. HE ONLY TRIED TO GET OUT FOR MAYBE A WEEK. OUR 2ND SON WE DID THOMAS THE TRAIN ROOM AGAIN DID THE TV AND HE WAS 17 MONTHS WHEN WE PUT HIM IN HIS ROOM WE JUST SHUT HIS DOOR AND WE PUT A BABY MONITOR IN HIS ROOM AND IN OUR ROOM HE NEVER TRIED TO GET OUT WE WERE LUCKY WITH HIM HE WAS SO EASY!! I THINK NOT BEING STRESSED OUT SHOWING HOW FUN IT IS AND HOW BIG HE IS FOR SLEEPING IN A BIG BED REALLY WORKS. I HOPE THIS HELPS!!---A.---

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I had my first son at the same age as you. I had no idea about when to do this type of stuff. We waited until my son was about 24 months because we needed the crib for a new baby in a couple of months. We ended up having to lock him in his room at night, because he cried and cried to get out. He also ended up in our bed time and time again in the middle of the night. After about 3 nights of locking him in he no longer woke up and adjusted just fine. So my advise would be, as long as you can keep him in his crib, do it. Until he starts crawling out of it on his own and posing a danger to himself, the crib is a fantastic place!! Hope this helps a little.

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I think that you will know when he is ready. But when you do put in the BIG BOY BED then stick with it. When he gets up your put him right back no giving in!! The sooner he learns that he can't stay in mom and dad's bed and that he can't get up and stay up the better the big bed will go over. I will warn you that there will be a few weeks of getting him used to it. But in the end it is so worth it!!

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I would put the bed back up as a crib. Its a new house and might be kind of scary at first for him. The crib will give him a sense of security. I didnt put my kids in the toddler bed until they started climbing out of their crib.

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u can start putting him in a tot bed now try to lay him in it down at noon nap times and it should hve a gard rail on it they all come with one till he learns not to roll out of bed the will get out of it with no problem i had mine in his at age 1 and a half yrs old and he did just fine and i never had to fight to keep mine in bed when they are tired they will sleep.No matter what

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My youngest slept in a toddler bed, from the time he was a year or a little sooner. He stayed in bed all right. I just shut the door. Both my kids learned that if the door was shut they were supposed to stay in that room, or stay out of it, whichever. My oldest had the hardest time learning to go to sleep on his own. We gave him a toy and after about a week, he learned to sleep in his own room and if he wasn't sleeping, he stayed in his room. Most kids don't like being in a dark room when no one else is. Of course, that is after everyone else is asleep. I just kept a monitor in their room for the next year or so. I could always hear if they got up. I was lucky. My kids didn't wander. My oldest stayed up until 1 am or later until we got him on meds but my youngest was always very good about staying in bed. Good Luck!!! It's hard to let them grow up but at the same time it's fun. Enjoy it while they're little, it doesn't last long. Mine are 11 and 7 1/2.

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I would set up the crib for right now. I think that he is still a little too small to be able to get up and roam. When we switched my daughter's beds, the main concern was that if they did get up in the middle of the night that they knew they had to come into our bedroom first and get one of us. There was one time that my older daughter did not though. But she wasn't hurt. Just a little scared of the big dark house. As for keeping them in the bed, that can take a few nights and some patientce.

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Since he can already get out of his crib, it doesnt matter what you put him in, he can still wonder in the middle of the night. My advice is this, and I used this with my son. Place a babygate in front of the door, so he cant get out of there, but you can still hear him if he opens the door, etc. I use a baby lock on the inside of the door too, but if you feel that is too scary, then try the gate. Most doors are set up so when the door is closed, the gate can sit in front of it. If the door swing into the room, that is. It may not work if the door opens the other way, but then I have never seen bedroom doors that swing out of the door instead of in the room. I hope this helps and Good Luck!
PS if he can climb over the gate, then set the gate just high enough for him to not climb over but not too high that he can crawl under it.

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My son went to the toddler bed around 14 mos. partly because we wanted him used to it when his sister arrived. we started with nap time. and within about 1 weeks we wanted to sleep in it at night. we did put pillow on the floor just in case. But our toddler bed has the rails 1/2 way up and it's pretty hard for either of them to fall out. we moved him on to a twin bed about 2 1/2 so that his sister could start using it. and no problems yet.

we also put a gate across their room so if they got up they could get out. The first week or so we'd have to go put them back in the bed, because the got out and fell asleep on the floor. The more they woke up in the bed, the quicker they'd figure out to go to sleep in it. AFter about a week they were doing pretty good.

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I'd wait till your son is about 2 1/2 maybe 3 yrs. old. I put my son in a big boy bed when he was 2 1/2 yrs. old I think it was. But that was only because he was about to out grow his crib. IF his crib converts into a twin size bed. That might help. IF he hasn't started to get out of his crib yet (by himself). I'd keep him in the crib a little longer. Till at least 2 1/2 maybe 3 yrs. old.

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my son was just over 2 years when we put in his a twin bed. he wasn't climbing out of his crib or anything. i was just ready and figured he was too and wanted to get the borrowed crib(our daughters) back to the owners so we could put her in our sons.
he does get out every so often, but most the time for good reasons.he's had a dream or scared. not to say he doesn't do the 'i have to go potty' but doesn't go thing..haha..
we just put him back in..
we also had a body pillow we put next to his bed at first incase he fell out. he's 3 now and hasn't yet.
not sure when we will put our daughter in a bed or changer her crib to toddler/day bed.. she's the age now ,that we put him in his twin..but she isn't ready at all !! luckily she doesn't climb out and is too small to even if she tried. haha..
good luck,, i fretted over this myself..asked a lot of questions just like you.. then it seems once it's done,, we fretted over nothing..hahahah..
T.

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