Rocking Crib?!?!?

Hi H.
If I were you, I would try the toddler bed. You never know until you try. My son was a little under a year old when we put him his toddler bed. He was climbing in and out of his crib and we felt is was safer to be in the bed. My daughter was also in a toddler bed by her first birthday. They did great. If you are that concerned about the crib tipping over, you should try it.

H.,

who says he is to young for a toddler bed. I would rather have my son in a toddler bed than going in and finding the crib on top of him. You could also just put the matrice(sp) on the floor with a bed gate on the side and a wall on the other side, this makes it harder for them to roll out on to the floor.

I think you should try to secure it to the wall if possible, or try putting him to sleep in a playpen. I wouldnt put him in a toddler bed unless there wasnt anything for him to get into and no stairs to fall down.

I understand the delema. When my daughter was 9 months old I had to move her to a toddler bed because she kept climbing out of her crib. It ended up working out great. She actually stayed in bed more with the toddler bed. I guess I took the fun out by making it easy for her. I put her bed against the wall, and got one of the first step single bed rails, and duct taped it to the toddler bed frame so that the whole side was covered. Good luck!!

Have you tried weighing it down with something? Or even using brackets to brace it to the wall? L brackets work great. Use with drywall screws. Should work fine.

If it makes you nervous to put him in a toddler bed, you could do what our physician suggested and just put a baby gate across his room and put the mattress from the crib on the floor. That way he won't fall out of a bed and there's nothing to rock. A friend of mine put her little one in a toddler bed and he rocked the protective railing right off and cut his eye by falling on it. that's just an isolated circumstance, but it scared me from putting my rambunctious son (now almost 2) in a toddler bed before he was ready to settle down and sleep in one. The mattreess on the floor worked great for us for a few months until he was ready to make the transition. Good luck to you!

I would recommend looking at Home Depot or someplace like that for furniture anchors. They are brackets that allows you to anchor furniture to studs in the wall to prevent them from tipping over. They are commonly used for bookshelves and such that a child could try to climb on and pull over onto themselves, but they should work to anchor a crib too.

My son did the same thing... he would actually "walk" his crib across the room. We just moved him to the toddler bed. He was about 12 months when he made the move. We put pillows, wrapped in a blanket on the floor by the rail opening so that if he rolled out, he would land on something soft. He didn't always sleep in the bed... even now,we sometime find him asleep with all his blankets on the floor, but he is surviving just fine. My son has never followed the "standard" practices or "norms." You have to do what is right for your kid.

You could get a toddler bed with the protective sides so he wont fall of the side!! Do you have the kind of crib that converts to a toddler bed?? If so whereever you bought it they should sell the sides that you can attach. Good Luck!!!

H.,

I think 10 months is definitely too little for a toddler bed. I know lots of people do it, but from a safety perspective, your peace of mind will be eased knowing that your child is safe in a crib and not exploring outlets or dresser drawers or getting fingers pinched in closet doors, etc. You definitely need to anchor that crib to the wall - I know there are lots of safety products that offer furniture tethers or brackets.

I don't know what's right or wrong... but raising children isn't black & white? My daughter was in her crib until she was 3.. but she never tried to rock it or get out. My cousin, however, had a little boy that she had in a toddler bed at 10 months. I was shocked, but it worked for them. Every child is different. Personally, I would rather have my 10 month old in a low toddler bed than having a crib flip on him... maybe in your sisuation it might be best to try it (just use other safety precautions like gates and so forth).

Good luck!!!

Have you thought of having him sleep in a pack and play. If it were me I would have my husband put weights on it under the crib on the frame if the springs in all 4 corners.

well it seems this is the first suggestion that isn't just put him in a toddler bed, even though you could my daughter was in one before her first birthday, but you could also bracket teh crib to the wall, most of teh furniture in my play room and in the kids' rooms are fixed to teh wall, you want to make sure you do it in a place that teh kids can't play with teh hardware or get hurt on it but depending on the type of crib you have small L brackets or even those half circle brackets that could say go around a spindle down where the mattress would hide them, would work well, just make sure you use wall anchors or that you are drilling into a stud or they will jsut pull right out of the drywall. good luck

Hi H.,
You can go to onestepahead.com. This website has some pretty neat stuff. They have a safety link you can click on and in that section they have no-tip furniture brackets. They look like they would work. They are for putting on the back of dressers and stuff but they should work for this situation too.
Hope that helps.
S.

IF you are not ready for him to go into a toddler bed you could try a play pin. My 4 y/o was able to crawl out of her crib at a much earlier age than she could get out of the play pin. If he is able to tip the play pin over it isn't nearly as big of a fall as out of a crib. Best of luck!

If he is not actually climbing out of the crib and you don't believe that he is ready for a big boy bed - try tethering the crib to the wall. If you do think that you son is ready for a big boy bed then go for it.

I personally don't believe in toddler beds - I felt that they are just another piece of furniture to buy, we went straight from the crib to a single bed for my son when he was 2 years old (mind you though that his single bed does not have a box spring under it, it just has a bunkie board so the bed is as low as a toddler bed would be)- we let him help us put it together so that he felt like it was really his. Instead of putting a gate across his doorway - we put it on the steps, shut the bathroom door put a childproof nob on it and kept our bedroom door open, just in case he needed us. Although, until he was potty trained he had a rule that he wasn't allowed out of his room unless we came and got him.

enjoy your little one,
Mel

I would look for anti-tipping furniture hardware available at most places that offer child-proofing stuff. There are some different styles and they're usually intended for bookshelves and dressers, but you should be able to use them on the crib. Maybe use a pack-n-play, the base is alot closer to the ground and would make it almost impossible to tip. Good luck!

H. M

Maybe you could try the big boy bed but make sure you get the sides to prevent him from falling off during sleep, but I see what you mean by being nervous since your son is only ten months old. Perhaps you could try somehow attaching the crib to the floor or the wall. Sorry I could not be of much help, but good luck.