Moving to a "Toddler" Bed

Toddler bed is definitely is a waste of money. My son transitioned at 15 months (we couldn't keep him in the crib, he'd keep climbing out). We got a twin bed with 2 detachable side rails (from One Step Ahead - these are also great if you travel) and a small step to help him get up into the bed. He hasn't had a problem since - has always stayed in the bed and slept great from day one, so it really depends on the child. We also have a lock on the outside of his door to help keep him in his room at night (he's upstairs and just a few feet from the staircase).

go for the twin bed. This will save time and hassle later on when you are trying to get her in to a big girl bed. There are bed frames that are low to the ground but she may like to climb alittle. Also get the railings so just incase she is a roller she wont fall out of the bed. My son never had to use them because he always stayed in the middle of the bed so I dont know which ones are the best. Hope this helps, good luck and congrats.

I've heard some people buy the top half of a bunk bed, so they've got a twin bed with safety bars around it.

My three year old went from a crib to a fullsize. I had a toddler bed for like a week and returned it because even with the rails he would fall out of the opening. I chose a fullsize because he tosses and turns...and he won't have to make another transition until he's ready to move out (believe me, I'm not rushing it). So I definitely think you're thinking the right way by getting a twin bed for her to use longer.

We got a great bed from IKEA. It is low to the ground and has railings on the side. When it is compressed to the smallest it is like having safety rail up with a samll space on each side for the kid to get out. The matress comes in 3 pieces so eventually it will extend to a twin size bed.
here is the link to check it out:http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S39827962

I am of two minds on this in your particular case.

I am not so sure a toddler bed would be a waste for you as it seems it would ease your worries about falling out, plus you can keep it and use it for when the child you are pregnant with needs to trsansition, as long as you get one that is not gender specific...

In general, however, I am not a believer in using a toddler bed for the reason that they are expensive for a short time use...All of my children moved straight from the crib to a twin size bed. I had to use two different methods for protecting them from falling out...With my oldest I purchased the portable travel railing (so when we visited family and such we could take it with us). It worked really well for the most part...occasionally she moved in such a way that she fellout anyways, but it was few and very far between those episodes...

With my twins we could not use the railing as we have bunk beds and the railings require a box spring and mattress set up to "fit" right...To make matters worse, my twins slept together in the same bed until a month ago when we finally coaxed my female twin into her own bed with a princess bedding set.

This meant that they kept taking turns falling out...after two nights of this, and especially as we have hardwood floors, we turned them on the bed. My kids are not big to begin with so the short side was the perfect length for them and the long sides gave them plenty of mobility room. The never fell out again...

So...in your situation??? not sure what would be best for you...do I think purchasing the toddler bed would be a waste of money?? not in your case, your kids are close enough together you could keep the toddler bed and use it to transistion the next child...if you want to move her into a twin size bed...well...your option of mattress only or any of the suggestions I gave you could help with that...

Good Luck!!! ;-)

check out this bed: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S39827962

we are 15 weeks prego with twins & so will be moving our 2 year old out of her crib soon - we found this bed at Ikea - it is extendable so can be a toddler bed now & a twin bed later, plus it is low to the ground, so they can easily get in and out of it.

Once one of my kids can crawl out of a crib, thats when I look into getting a Toddler bed. And Quite frankly a Toddler bed can last until they are 6 or 7 depending on how tall they are. Really the decision is yours. What would be good for you? For example my oldest son was never in a toddler bed, I simply put him in a twin bed and bought railings and it worked fine. So if you think you want them to get use to being a big kid, it wont hurt them if you go ahead and skip the toddler beds.

Here's my 2 cents... Although probably not what you wanting to hear (Sorry). From my calculation, your daughter will be about 24 months when the baby is born (?). You might have a rough time trying to transition her out of her crib before she's an older 2 yr old, perhaps even up until she's 3. Most pediatricians say that child don't develop the concept of imaginary boundaries until closer to age 3, meaning they simply can't grasp the idea of "staying in bed". If you transition too soon and you find your daughter sleeping on the floor elsewhere in her room (or elsewhere in the house), then that's a sign that she isn't ready.

Next thing you should evaluate is how active she is when asleep. If she goes to sleep with her head at one end of the bed, how often do you find that she has turned or uprighted herself to sleep in the the opposite end of the end during the night? One sign that a child is ready for a real bed is when they routinely sleep the whole night at the same end of the bed. Otherwise, moving a child out of a crib can be dangerous. A rail keeps a child from rolling out of a bed but it will not keep her from falling out if she is flopping in different directions and manages to flop on top of it.

Lastly, you're gonna have your hands full when the baby comes... I've heard that some parents find its easier to just buy/barrow a second crib (maybe a used one?) than deal with the headache from transitioning a child too early while also juggling the demands of a new baby AND mitigating sibling jealousy.

Good luck!

Add me to the "get a twin, toddler bed waste of time and money" side. We moved my son slowly between 18 months to just at 2 years old to a twin. He was restless sleeper and actually slept better in the twin with more room. We took the bed off the rails initially so he could climb in and out with ease. We put the bed in the corner with one long side and the head both against the wall and got him a side rail that you position between the matresses. He has never fallen out and is now 3 years old.

We started him out with naps and I would lay with him for the first while to get to sleep and we kept the crib up. We tried to give him a choice whether he wanted in the big bed or crib each nap and followed what he wanted. If he got out of the bed twice we would put him in the crib to sleep the third time. After awhile he didn't get out anymore. We also read him stories about going in the big bed.

We tried first taking the side off the crib to transition it to a toddler bed and that freaked him out much more than the twin bed we already had on hand.

First let me say congrats on the new baby. I would look at grage sales, craigs list, ask friends if they might have one. If you have attic space or some other kind of space you can keep it for your next baby. Good luck with you toddler bed hunt.

Hi Lis,
What I did 3 yrs ago was we bought a twin size bed. Along with the twin bed we also purchased a side railing. My daughter never fell down. Personallly I think toddler beds are a waste of money.

Elisa

Hi there Lisa,

I have have 2 children. My oldest just went straight to the twin bed and my youngest used the toddler bed first. With my oldest child, I did not forsee having another child (hence the 9 yr age gap) so I opted for her to go straight from the crib to the twin bed. There had always been one in her room since that's where I would sleep if she had a rough night. Now with my 2nd child, we were very fortunate to have most of our infant & toddler furniture given to us as our circle of friends seemed to have babies around the same time. Had a toddler bed not been passed down our way, I doubt we would have purchased one ourselves. My situation, however, is different from yours. You have 2 children close in age that will be able to benefit from a toddler bed. To me, that makes financial sense to pass that bed from one child down to a sibling. I guess you should evaluate the size of the room and see if the room would be too crowded with both a crib and a twin bed as they take up more space than a toddler bed.

Good luck & congrats on your new addition!
A. W.

I agree that toddler beds are just a waste of money. I moved my son to a "big boy" twin bed at 15 months and just used the side guard rail you can buy at wal-mart for about $15. He has never fallen out and trained himself not to roll off. He only used the guard rail a few months, but I'd much rather waste $15 than $100. As far as getting on the bed, we just put him up there and he learned how get slide off backwards. That may not be the "safest" thing in the world, but who had toddler beds when we were little? By the way, my son is now about to be four and still sleeps through the night on the same bed.

To my knowledge, Toddler beds are designed to look like a real bed- but accept the crib size mattress. This works if you no longer need your crib mattress. Since you have another one on the way, I suggest going with a twin size bed. I would place it on the floor since your toddler will be only two yrs old.

We bought a toddler bed from Wal-mart for about $50 and she loves it! We moved her at about 18mo (she's 30 mo now). We plan on using it for our youngest who is now 6 mo, so I feel we will get our money's worth out of it.

I wouldn't waste the money on a toddler bed. I bought bunk beds when I found out I was pregnant with another girl and I have since put two of my kids at 18 mos old in regular twin beds. I just got a "Safety-First" rail from Walmart. It slides under the mattress and is really sturdy. My kids never once fell out of bed.

Hi Lis,

My granddaughter transitioned very well to a twin bed at this age. We had a one side pushed up against the wall and a bed rail designed to fit under the mattress to protect her from falling off.(You can buy these at Walmart in the bedding section) Toddler beds are cute, and they do work...it all depends on your budget and what you are willing to spend. You would have to purchase another crib mattress for the toddler bed...you'll need yours for the new baby.
If your child was a boy, I'd say LEAVE him in the crib as LONG as possible LOL...my son has never slept all night since we put him in a big boy bed at age 18 months. He is now almost 5. Good Luck with your girl and your new one to come.

Congratulations! Here is what we did. When I was pregnant with baby #2, we took our daughter to the furniture store to buy her a BIG GiRL bed, let her help pick it out so she could get excited about the situation. She was 22 months at the time. We opted to get a full size bed so she will have room for friends to sleep over as she gets older. Once we had the bed and got it set up we started tranisitioning her into the new bed slowly. First she would fall alseep for naps in her crib, then Iwould move her to the bed so seh would wake up there and think it was neat. BTW - we also purchased bed rails so she wouldn't fall off the bed, 29.99 at Target - great thing. We also bought fun sheets with characters she likes so she would want to sleep on them.
Hope this helps! Good luck - or and one more thing I recommend doing the trnsition before baby comes so your daughter doesn't think the baby is taking away her crib.

Lis,

Due to the fact that you have another one on the way, by the time the new baby will need a toddler bed, the older child can be moved to a twin sized bed. This will help minimize costs for you and works out very well in respect to the older child getting a "bigger" bed and feeling important without the fear of her being overwhelmed by the larger bed or having to buy an apparatus to keep her confined into the bed that is automatically provided by the toddler bed.

Also, the cost of a toddler bed with mattress will cost you under 200 bucks, rather than a twin or full size bed, that will cost several hundred.

I graduated both of my children this way, from crib to toddler to full size beds...in fact, I just bought them a bunk bed since they are 2 1/2 years apart and needed something that they could grow into, but also save me space, time, and money.

Hope this helps.

A.

I have two toddler beds. One for my 3 year old daughter and one for my 2 year old son. They love their beds! I bought them from Walmart online and with shipping it was about $100 and I just used the mattress from their crib. I don't have to worry about them falling off the bed it is 5-6" off the floor. When my daughter started climbing out of her crib at 13 months, we tried to turn our daughter's crib into a toddler bed, but even at the lowest setting, the matress was pretty high off the floor and the rails that were included, didn't keep her from falling out and we were trying to make her safe. We had purchased another crib believing she would still be in hers for a while, but I was about 7-8 months preg when she started climbing out and by the time my son was born was in her toddler bed and sleeping fine. I did have to start locking her in at night because I worried she would try and go to her brother's room and crawl in with him. So, it really makes for interesting situation when you add another baby to the house. Plus during the day she would climb up and play on her bed and accidently fall out. After falling 3 times she never would get back in bed on her own and when we put her in it, she climbed out and slept on the floor. I finally just put her matress on the floor and she slept like that for awhile. I then got her the toddler bed and we have had no problem with it. Now that my son is older and they play or rough house (which I do not allow, but they seem to do anyway) they don't get seriously hurt. I highly recommend them especially in a multi child family. I feel there is less chance for injury. Now when my kids turn 6 and start big school then I will let them have a choice if I can for their new beds and maybe re-decorate the room more to their likes instead of mine and it will be something special for them. Hope this helps you.

HI I have two girls ages 7 & 4, both the girl went straight from crib to twin bed! It worked fine put the side rails on and they thought they were cool! Let your little one help pick out linens or the bed if possibel it will make the transition a little easier.

My two year old is a jumper therefore a toddler bed was a perfect solution. She can stay in the toddler bed until she reaches 50 pounds. I bought the princess bed from wal-mart and its working out great. Once your child is ready for a twin you could pass it on to the new baby. Also, with a toddler bed you don't have to worry about rails on both sides that need a bed frame to stay attached safely. On a toddler bed the rails are molded into the bed frame. Good Luck!

If you want a low to the ground twin bed, check out Ikea. They have this really cool bed that is very low to the ground, and has a canapy type thing. When they get older, you flip it over to be a bunk style, with space below for a desk! Plus, it's very resonably priced.
We tried a toddler bed for our son, and he hated it. As soon as we got this bed, he happily slept!
Good luck!

Lis '
go ahead get a toddler bed you do have a nother baby coming so you will get your use out of it
L.

When my kids were this age, I got them a twin bed and purchased a bed railing from Kids R Us. Then I used the railing on one side of the bed and pushed the other side of the bed to the wall to prevent any accidental falls during the night. The railing could be lowered in the daytime. Never had a problem with it. It was very easy to attach to bed.

I don't think that it matters if you get a twin or a toddler bed. It is all about what you prefer. I got a toddler bed so that it didn't take up too much space because my girls are having to share a room for the time being. Not to mention, I didn't think that it was a waste because my youngest will be able to use it as well when she gets old enough. We did find her on the floor a couple of times in the beginning (not sure if that was choice or from falling) but either way it didn't phase her any.

A toddler bed requires a crib mattress. That means you would have to buy another crib mattress. I say go straight to a twin mattress.

I would switch over to a twin bed. If you were not going to be using the crib, then I would say use it as a toddler bed. Since the crib will be going into service, then I would not waiste the money on a little bed. The bed rails work great to keep your kid in bed. If you are really worried about her falling out, you an put the twin mattress on the floor until she is a little older, or put a big pillow on the floor near the bed.

I agree with Allison. That is what we did for your daughter.

It was to us an un-needed transition when your just gonna move them to a twin bed anyway.

Hi Lis, make it easy on yourself and put her in a twin without the frame. HTH C.

I would definitely skip the toddler bed. Get a safe railing, or even a trundle bed (use the trundle as the low bed to sleep on) and perhaps a step and she'll be fine. Otherwise, you spend money on bedding and a bed, when it will only be temporary. I think the toddler beds use the crib mattress anyway? If so, she'd have to give up the mattress for the baby anyway.
Save yourself some money and extra transitions and just do a twin.
Also, be prepared for the child to keep you up all night getting out of bed, so you might want to leave the door open to make her feel better and even put a gate on the doorway of her room, to make her feel safer and turn the room into a crib. Worked wonders for us and we got our sleep back. Our child LOVED the gate on the door and we NEVER used it as a punishment/container.

I have a 2 1/2 year old and I am due in September w/ #2. My toddler had a crib that converted to a toddler bed. He's been in the toddler bed for a long time now. I just switched to a twin and moved the crib into my room. I wanted to do the transfer at least 3 months prior to the new arrival, so my toddler didn't claim ownership of the crib.
I recommend a twin mattress on the floor for that age. But I also recommend that she pick the first set of sheets.

Toddler beds are good for transitioning a child to a big boy/girl bed, but yes, wasteful. I have 3 children ages 8, 3 and 2. All 3 kids have slept in the same baby bed that turns into a toddler bed, so i never had to buy one. But, my two youngest are 13 months apart, so I had to get my little girl out of the baby bed early. The youngest one slept in his bassinet for about 3 months, so my daughter had to get in a big girl bed at 16 months old. We just got her a twin bed. She loved it! Now, my son who is almost 3 (the baby) is sleeping in the baby bed/toddler bed until next week when my husband has time to put together the new bunk bed for my daughter and we can give the twin bed to my son. They share a room too. I think toddler beds are cute, and save room, but definitely a waste of money!

Just a note on my situation, when I was expecting #2, I moved my son into a twin bed with box springs and everything. I pushed one side against the wall and the other side was open. The first night we put him in his big bed, he slept the whole night. Never had a problem with his bed. My daughter was about 10mths old when she threw herself out of her crib. Her older brother would come into the crib in the mornings when she was awake and then jump out when he heard us. After that, I couldn't keep her in her crib, so a twin bed we got. Now she fell out of the twin bed twice the frist night. Unlike her brother, she is a restless sleeper and moves all over the place. We bought a rail from walmart that goes inbetween the mattress and box spring. She used the rail until about 2 years old. We've never had a problem with the children coming out of their rooms or falling down the stairs. They have both done extremly well with the twin beds. When my youngest who is 10mths gets ready for a bed, we'll be buying a twin bed too.

We already had a toddler bed from our older son. We too are going through the same transition. We have our 20 month old now in a toddler bed to make room for the new baby that is coming in September. The sooner you get started the better that is for sure. Our toddler bed makes into a twin bed but even if you go with a toddler bed no worries because the baby you are going to have can always use it. :)

I was in the same boat a few months ago with my daughter. We bought her a twin bed, put Cinderella sheets (her favorite) on it and never looked back. We actually never put a rail on it. Instead of buying a box spring we got a bunky board to put under the mattress, which allows the mattress to be lower to the ground.

I never used a toddler bed. My older son started jumping out of his crib at 15 months, I put him in a regular bed. When my 3 year old was about 2 and a half, we got the twin bed, bought a Thomas the Train mattress tent, set it all up, not with the intentions that he would sleep in there right away, we just wanted to get him used to the idea of it in his room. That first night, he wanted in there, and has slept just great in it since. I have the bed rails set up so he can't fall out. I put one on the foot of the bed as well. Toddler beds just means another adjustment for them to deal with in a few years. FYI, if you live in Austin and your daughter loves her crib, I still have our crib that I want to get rid of. It is a very nice crib. good luck!

Hi! I am a mother of 2. My son will be 3 the end of June and my daughter is 20 months old. They are both in toddler beds. I dont think it is a waste of money, I got both of my kids' beds for about 50 dollars each and they are cute and the perfect size...they both love their beds. I know in a couple of years they will need larger beds, but I think they are perfect for the transition from crib to bed.
I hope this helps you make your decision!! Have a great weekend!

When my kids started climbing out of their cribs, I moved them into toddler beds. It was a great transition from the crib, it was low to the ground, and they loved them. Plus it was cheaper than buying a new bed and mine slept in theirs' until they were 5. They make some great looking ones and you don't have to buy new bedding, etc, unless you'd like to. And when it was time to graduate, they had a big bed to look forward to. And since it was so easy to get in and out of their beds at nap and bed time, I put a baby gate on their door so they couldn't get out of their room. I did the toddler beds because of space and ease of changing sheets. I still allowed them to pick out a new sheet for their beds. Good luck.

Moving to a big bed is a milestone. I moved my kids around a year in a half to a toddler bed. I liked how i could use the same bedding and such. It made it a little easier and then when they were 5 I moved them into a twin. We redid the room as well from a nursery to a big boy's room. My three boys did very well with the transition.
If you are worried about expense you can probably find one at a resale shop. Plus you can use the same toddler bed for your second one when the time comes along.
Hope this helped.
God Bless

My youngest daughter is now 20 months old and has been in a "big girl bed", since she was 14-15 months old. We put her on twin mattress' on the floor and put a mesh railing on the bed so that she couldn't fall off. You can buy the rails at toys-r-us for about $20. She loves to be able to climb on and off her bed and if she does happen to fall she won't hurt herself. Toddler beds are a waste of money in my opion. We had one for our oldest daughter, why buy a bed that they are only going to use for a short amount of time? Hope this info helps.

Try looking at www.exclusivefurnitureus.com I purchased this one for my two year old daughter. Check out the link: Kids Korner and look at the EFIC13293. This bed has a trundle at the bottom and a bunk at the top, not to mention it also has a lot of storage options, which is great since the kitchen set we bought her takes up half of her room.