Recommendations for Bedrail for Toddler Bed

My son was about the same age when I took him from the crib to the "big boy" bed, and all went well with a couple of steps. First, does he sleep in that room now with the crib in it? If no, I would say put his crib in there, read a book to him in the "big boy" bed, and then move him into the crib to nap do this for a few days, then move to having him take naps in the bed, play in the room with him to make him comfortable, but mainly whatever you do you need to make the room a safe and happy place for him and not one of forcing (for a lack of a better word) to sleep in the bed. We used to have a parade every night when it was time to go to bed (just being in a line one behind the other and humming) we would walk all around the house (the parade route), that way it was fun every night and my son went to bed on a happy note and had happy dreams.

We moved our son into a twin bed when he was just two years old. Instead of getting the bedrails we put pool noodles under the mattress pad to prevent him from rolling out. It's worked great and is only about $1 per noodle. We also don't keep any toys or books in his room when he is sleeping and put a gate at his door since his bedroom is on a floor above ours. It has worked out great. It has helped with the temptation of getting out of bed for him.

I think it is a good idea to have options for him since he is a little young so you may want to put the pack -n- play in his room too. That way if he is feeling unsure of the situation or is not behaving you can use that instead of the bed.

Good luck :-)

To be perfectly honest i would either buy another crib or keep the new baby in a pac and play for at least another year. 15 months is way too early to make the transition to a big boy bed. The problem isn't them rolling out of bed the problem is them GETTING out of bed and getting into god-only-knows-what while you are sleeping. My three year old was just transitioned into a bed and we are having an awful time keeping her in the bed esp in the mornings.

Hi K.,

I know the rule is 3 years old in a crib if they are comfortable. My son was crawling out of his crib at 18 months - no matter what I did I could not get him to stay in it and I was worried about him getting hurt. I put him in a toddler bed and told him if he didn't stay in bed then he would have to go back in the crib. There were only a couple nights he ended up coming out of his room and after about 2 weeks he stayed in his bed all night. Good luck, I know my situation is not the normal.

One thing that might help saftey wise is to put a gait up at night. We had to do that with our middle child because she would wake up and wander around at that age.

Hi K., Congratulations on your pregnancy. I had the same problem. What I did was borrowed another crib from my sister. If you can borrow or purchase a second hand crib, that may work better until he is older for the toddler bed. If that doesnt work, you might want to use a pac n play for the baby after he/she is too big for the bassinet. Once he is in the toddler bed, he will be getting out and wondering around the house. If he falls out, he won't get hurt because the toddler bed is low to the ground, we actually have the same toddler bed. If you don't hear him getting out, and he doesn't come in to your room, who knows where he will go? Not to scare you, but I found having another crib around I was able to sleep better and so didn't everyone else in the house. Good luck. S. G

We tried to do the same thing. My son Layne was 20 months when Andy was born. We set up a toddler bed in his room and we were going to transition him into it and eventually put Andy in the crib. We realized pretty quickly that we are going to keep Layne in a crib AS LONG AS WE CAN!!!!!! He would get up and come out of him room constantly, and say "mummy, I'm all done sleeping!" and that was that. We borrowed a crib from my friend and now each boy has a crib.

We put our daughter's bed "on the floor" (base on the floor rather than on legs) so that if she fell out of bed she wouldn't fall far. The bedrail that we used was the soft mesh one that expands to almost any size. Actually, we still have it - if you haven't yet purchased one, you're welcome to it! We only used the rail for a month and she hadn't fallen out of bed at all, so we took it off. :-)

We had a similar situation in which our two boys were 15 months apart, so rather than buy two cribs, we transitioned our older son into a big boy bed at around 18-20 months (after our youngest was out of his bassinet).
To help with his adjustment, we had him help us take the crib down (temporarily), and we let him pick out some of his favorite bedding and a new stuffed animal. We tried to make it as fun as possible.
We took the cross bars out, that hold the mattress and box-spring up out of the bed frame so that they sat lower within the bed frame. At the point when we felt confident that things were going well, we purchased one bed rail at Toys r Us called Safety 1st, that we love! We have the bedside against his bedroom wall, so we just use a Bed Bumper for Big Kids on the wall to prevent him from bumping into it.
Just remember to play up the excitement of being a big boy and having his very own big boy bed. There is usually a short adjustment period, but they always get through it.
Good luck!
raelynn @ http://www.kidzcomfort.com