Crib to Big Kid Bed?

Hes almost 2, i if anything i would put the crib side down. It will keep him from climming out from so high yet wont role out of bed. Try that for awhile. He will be ready soon after doing that for a few months. All in all hes about read for a big boy bed. My 2 boys (now 8 & 10) were 2 when i moved them up to a bed. Remember this means he can get out to ask you this and that and be cought playing with toys. Its just the next step in life.

Hello,
Every kid is totally different. My daughter was in a toddler bed before she was 1 1/2. It was difficult at first trying to get her to stay in bed but it didn't take long and now she is 27 mo. old and loving her toddler bed.
A.

Hi there K.. I would definately look into a toddler bed. My daughter started to crawl out of her crib before she was 1 years old and we immediately got a toddler bed...it has rails on the sides by the top, and we put a body pillow on the floor just in case she fell out (which she did a couple times cuz she's a wild sleeper) She didnt know she could get off the bed on her own the first couple nights... when she learned she could, she came out for hugs, kisses, water, or whatever. We'd give her her hugs or kisses and lay her down and let her know it was night night time and she needed to stay in her bed.

We even started leaving a little lamp on by her bed and let her "read" herself to sleep. She stays on her bed and gets to stay up to "read" so its a win win. If your son is crawling out of his crib I would definantly take that as a sign he's ready for a "big kid bed".

On baby proofing a room... get down to the eye level your son is at. That way you can see what is dangerous at his level...what he's going to see and want to explore.

Good luck! J.

Hi K.!

I am a mother of 2 lil boys. A 2yr. old(soon to be 3 in August) and a 10 month old. My 2yr. old is also a good sleeper and likes to talk to his stuffed monkey until he falls asleep too.lol I think it is the cutest thing! Anyway, I had heard about the crib tent when my first son was like 7-8 months(that's when he started attempting the crib break out.lol) and I decided to try it out. I love love love it! My 2yr. old still uses it. I have never had to worry about him falling out of his crib or roaming around touching things that could hurt him. It is on the pricey side($100 but the price might have gone down by now), but I think that it is worth it. I found it online. I just googled crib tent and it just took me to the link. Now that my son is about to turn 3 and we will be getting him into a toddler bed(yes I know finally)we definitely will be using it for our 10 month old. Anyway, I hope this helps you! Good Luck!

R.

My daughter started do the same thing but she was 13 months. Like what your sister in law said it scared her for about 6 weeks and then she did it again. What we ended up doing was leaving her in the crib but kept the railing down and since the crib was at it lowest setting it kept her from falling out but when she decided to get out she did not end up hurting herself. We ended up putting her into a big bed when she was 2 and we didn't have trouble with her getting out and she was the same as your son whould sit in bed and talk to herself then fall asleep. Hope this helps...good luck.

I have a 2 1/2 year old...who still sleeps in a playpen because I haven't had the time to clean up all the junk in his room (on my list to do next month), but my doctor told me that with her daughter,she had to sit by the door for a few nights. Every time her daughter got out of bed, she simply led her back to bed...did not hold her,did not talk to her, did not get her anything...just right back to bed with basically no communication, and helped her back into bed. I know this sounds time consuming, but eventually the child will get the idea. I would imagine that as long as you NEVER give in, that he will get the idea pretty quickly (few days or a week). As long as he never gets any kind of a "reward" for getting out of bed, like mommy attention, he won't be interested in doing it. Good luck! This is what I plan to try as soon as my son's room (and our only bedroom) is safe for him to walk around in alone, should he wake up at night.

I am having a similar issue with my 23 month-old. My husband suggested the crib tent, but I feel that would just be buying us a couple of months and postponing the inevitable. We are now making the switch from crib to big boy bed (a twin with rails). It is no easy task and naps are a nightmare. My husband has been driving him around at nap time until he falls asleep (bad habit I know). I have ordered a really cute bedding set with zoo animals on it (he loves zoo animals) and hope that helps. At night he usually gets to sleep easily, then at 2am we hear the pitter patter of little feet. The "experts" say silently return him to his bed as many times as it takes. I'm trying to be consistent, but it is difficult at 2am, when pulling him into my bed is so much easier.

21 months sounds like a pretty typical age to make the bed switch. Whatever you decide to do, make sure you and your spouse are on the same page, and be consistent.

K., you got quite a few responses to your question, but I thought I'd give you one more! My first son moved to a toddler bed at 17 months (his brother was on the way and we needed the crib.) We put it in his room next to his crib two months before the actual switch, so that he could get used to it. On "switch day" we took apart the crib so there was no going back. He didn't like it the first night, but did well after that. We just sat by his bed the first few nights and told him that he needed to stay in bed. We also read a book about moving to a big boy bed (can't remember the name, but it was Elmo, and he loved it!) As for falling out...we actually came up with a solution for that too. I'm sure you've seen those foam swim noodles before...well we bought four of them (two for each side)...we wrapped them in a sheet and tucked them in to the head board and foot board, making a sort of siderail for each side (in addition to the mini side rails that the toddler beds usually come with).
Our other son will be two in August and he hasn't tried to climb out (yet!) So we're going to keep him in the crib until he turns two and then decide what to do. I'm not in a hurry this time, and we've got a lot going on right now (including a cross country move), so it'll wait a little longer. Good luck!

Hi K.

Just reading over your questions and wanted to give you some advice on what I did with our son. He too was able to get in and out around 19-21 Months. So my husband and I both agreed it would be best to buy a toddler bed. Our decision was also swayed this way because I was pregnant and was going to be using his crib for the new baby, so we wanted him transitioned before she came along.
Anyway he did great! The first few weeks he didnt get out at all, then he figured out he could get up easily and that's when naps were a little hard. I just kept putting him back in the bed and telling him no. Now he's in a double size bed and loves it even more then the toddler.
If I were you I would not waste money on the crib extender. If you feel your son is ready for a toddler than get it. I even had a friend who just bought the big bed and skipped the toddler and it worked great for her. Baby-proofing is real easy too!
Hope some of this helps out

Hello fellow mom- my name is B. and I have a two year old son, which was about the same age when he started climbing out of his bed. My fiance and I decided to go and get him a big boy bed and it was a great decision we made. The reason we made the decision was we didn't want him hurting himself trying to get out of the crib, and it was taking longer at night to get him to sleep because it became a game for him,(he would laugh and clap at himself everytime he got out. Cute the first time you see it). We thought about getting a toddler bed, but didn't want to waste money on having to buy another bed in a few years. Ever since hes had his big boy bed, he pretty much stays in bed as he did when he was little. Cole was also and still is a great sleeper, so hopefully you will have the same luck as we did. Hope this helps a little.
Sincerly B.

I don't know about extentions for the crib bed. I have found children are curious and if they want out they will figure it out regardless of what contraption we put in place. When my son was younger he actually started climbing out at 9 months and I ended up using a play pen with a good mattress for some time. At 2 we went ahead and skipped the toddler bed and got him a twin bed- it was close to the ground that most and he loved it. Gave him room to sprawl out- getting him use to the change was a bit difficult at first. Super Nanny has great ideas for bed time as well.
Hope that helps, C.

i suppose the age just depends on your kid. we had our daughter in a twin at 18 months and my second was in one pretty much from birth (caged in tho).

if you want to keep him in the crib, go for the tent, it's an easy fix. course i'm sure he'll figure out the zipper but you could safety pin it.

if not, i'd say skip the toddler beds. they aren't in them very long anyway and most aren't made strong enough for you to sit or cuddle in.

we had our twin on the floor and gradually raised it up. our daughter is 2 1/4 now and small for her age but she still manages to climb up on it with the frame. we have it against the wall with one of the rails on the side so she doesn't fall out and she does fine.

of course moving him to a big kid bed will be a challenge but you'll have to deal with it at some point. i can't really give any advice about the transition cause my kids didn't really care about their crib.

Hi K. :)
Your son is not too young to go into a big boy bed. I have two boys and when each of them turned 18 months we made the transition. The first couple of nights you will put him down and then you'll get up and put him back. My younger son did this for about 30-40 minutes the first night and only tried a couple times the next. We have a toddler bed with rails so I think it reminds him a little of the crib, but he knows the difference. I also needed to put him back into the crib once when family was in town and at 22 months he refused!! He isn't a baby (as he will tell you...). I would give it a try and see what happens. As with most things with kids, the transition is harder on us parents then the kids :) Good luck!!

Hi K.,

Isn't that a difficult age to know what is right to do??? I suppose as parents, we just have to feel our own children out, and see what they specificaly are ready for. My son is 2 and 1/5 currently, but we moved him to a big boy bed just shortly before his second birthday. He was not climbing out of his crib, as all. I think we were just realy ready. Also I was pregnant with our second baby, and I wanted to get my son out of the crib we were going to use for our new baby...before baby came. So he didn't feel baby was taking away his things. So we took it down, and stored it in the garage. The transition was NOT easy. It took about a week and a half up to two weeks to get him to stay in his big boy bed. But he was VERY exicted about getting one. The first night we put the baby gate up in his doorway so he couldn't get out of his room, and he just slept by the doorway that night. So that didn't realy work. So the subsequent nights, I sat in the room, in a shadowed cornor, and whenever he ventured out of bed I would simply and queitly without a word, pick him up and put him back in bed. As the nights went on I moved closer and closer to the doorway, and he got out of bed less and less. By the second week I was sitting outside his door in the hallway. And eventualy halfway down our stairway. Eventualy...I didn't need to be near the room at all. I think him just knowing I was near made him feel comfortable. And after that...he was "big boy bed trained" :). The biggest thing with him, is that we have set limits to when he can get up. And that is he goes to be by 8:30pm...and he cannot get out of bed an earlier than 7:00am. Those perameter are set for my sanity. He used to fight it, but now he'll just lay in bed and talk to himself, read a book, or sing until he is allowed to get up. Nap time, will be a difficult time too. But once you get it down, or rather once HE gets it down...you feel so much better!! And so proud of your toddler. It is a big transition and milestone for your child. Give him lots of praise, and hugs, and even stickers for doing as he is asked. I prefer rewarding good behavior over punishing bad! It gets so tiring when you deal with the "terrible two's" it feels like they are constantly being punished. So my son learns REALY well with posotive reinforcement over punishment.

My thought is that your son is ready for a big kid bed. 21 months is not that young when it comes to crib vs bed. It might have scared him to fall out, but now he knows he can get out, and probably will do it again. You might try a toddler bed with a baby gate across the door to keep him safe. My first child (a boy) started at just over a year in literally climbing out of his crib, so we had to get a Big boy bed at 13 months and he loved it..and it was also fun for us to be able to lay with him and read stories in "his space".

Have you thought of a Crib Tent, it connects to all 4 sides, has a zipper that opens the top of it so only you can get in?? They can be purchased at Babies R Us for I think about $70.

No, I would agree it sounds too early to switch to a big kid bed.

I've seen some see-through mesh tents that attach to the top of cribs that keep kids safely inside. You have to unzip it to get them out. Try OneStepAhead, I know I've seen them in their catalogue.

The see through tent is the way to go! My girlfriends son who was about 16 months old when he started climbing out of bed and she too (and same with her son) wasn't ready for the toddler bed...so she bought the tent as a last ditch effort. And HE LOVES IT!! He is excited to go to bed now, he cannot climb out or anything. It really is perfect. I highly suggest it.