Crib to Toddler Bed

M

MusketeerMan

Well-Known Member
OK..I know this is a fairly boring topic, but my wife and I are curious as to when other parents out there made the transition and how it went.

Our little one (21 months) once in a while will be in his crib with his leg up on the railing. He doesn't try too often, but I can just imagine hearing him as he thuds on the carpet one day. Several of our friends have had their kids climb partially out and then fall...maybe it's a learning process. :)

How/when did you do it? I can't imagine how we're going to get him to stay in a toddler bed when he can just get out of bed...that should be interesting.
 
When they can climb out, it's time. Have you lowered the the mattress as much as possible? Is he able to actually climb up, or just put his foot on there? Is there something in the crib that is helping him get a boost, like a crib liner?

You want to delay having a toddler wandering around the house, unsupervised, in the dark, at 3am, as long as possible!
 
Ahhh yes, the 'transition'.

If you really feel your little one is too small to be out of his crib, you can invest in a crib tent. They're about $50 online, or $70 at Babies R Us if you have to make an emergency "I need one NOW I don't have time to order one online" trip. These crib tents are designed to keep kids (and pacifiers :)) in, and keep unwanted guests, like pets, out.

Over Christmas, at my parents house, our little guy (who's quite a climber) decided to escape his Pack N Play. When we got home, he was climbing out of his full-size crib, and I was afraid he was going to get hurt. He's just too small for a regular bed yet, even though he is now 2. We want him to stay put for a while. We made the trip to BRU the next day and spent the $70. It took 2 nights for him to get used to it, but he's fine with it now.

Our older son was happy as could be in his crib. Never tried to climb out, and was comfy & content. We only switched him to a bed because Bill's sister was ready to give us their Little Tikes race car bed, and he was getting almost too tall for the crib! He was one month past his 3rd birthday when we made his switch. We set up the bed, and he had a grand time playing on it. When bedtime came around, he was really confused and wasn't really 'getting it', that he was supposed to sleep there! Poor thing curled up crying on the floor by his CD player, listening to the music we played for him at night. We took the CD player, put it at the head of the bed, and voila! He crawled into the bed, we put the covers on him, and he went to sleep. No problems since!

We put a KidCo walk-through gate at his door, so he couldn't escape his room. He could open the door, but not get out. He now knows how to operate the gate, but we leave it there because the latch makes a nice loud 'click', so we can hear him if he's leaving his room. He's really really good about staying in his room though, and the only time he ever leaves is in the morning when he's ready to get up. The gate will come down soon, but for now we like the audible warning that he's leaving!

As for our 2 year old, he's staying in his crib! I think it's really very individual as to when to take them out. Some kids get really cranky and unhappy in their cribs, if that happens, just switch them. Put a baby gate at their door so they can't escape, and the first few nights can be tough. Just keep putting them back in bed if they get out (and they will!). With consistancy and time, they'll figure it out :)
 
ha ha ha My three year old boy loves the crib. Has not tried to get out at all, Im not looking forward to the switch.
 
We transitioned our first child a little too early. We put him in a toddler bed just around his 3rd birthday. It would be something like 3 or 4 in the morning and I would for whatever reason wake up and he would be standing there next to the bed just staring at me. After that I worried about his safety so I put his crib back up for another few months and tried again later. I don't know how it finally worked out, but he's nearly 7 now and in a twin sized bed. Come to think of it we might have put a baby gate up to his room so he couldn't get out.

Our youngest is 2 1/2, and I'll probably delay the bed transition for a while and look for some other cues as to when he might be ready. I think the 2nd child is a little easier when noticing milestones after you have been through it once before. My only advice is to not expect to do things at a certain time because the consensus says it should happen at a certain age. My youngest son already knows the entire alphabet and I know that didn't happen with the oldest. They are ready when they're ready.
 
Safety is obviously most important. If they can get out, you need to prevent that. My little one transitioned at 20 months. He will occasionally walk into our room, but mostly just gets up and plays in bed for a while or gets out some toys before he starts to wonder if his parents might be awake.
 
We made the transition closer to 18 months.

The first one wasn't too wild about it -- she didn't like staying in the bed, but then she didn't like staying in the crib, either. At least she didn't fall out of the crib -- she only climbed out of the bed.


The rest of 'em had no problem moving to the beds. With the last ones, we even bought the toddler bed frames that use the crib mattresses. If I had it to do over again, that's how I'd transition them all. Same mattress, same bedding, etc -- just lower to the floor, and very inexpensive. Takes up less space than a twin bed, and makes for a smooth transition.





Yes, that makes 'em more mobile. Get used to it. :)


(You can't leave 'em at the kennel, either.)





.
 
Boy, this is one I can really relate to. My wife and I were faced with the same situation about 3 months ago, when our son was 20 months.

I remember vividly, one night we were going through our normal routine. Quick bottle of warm milk, into the crib, and off to sleep (Our son, of course). After that we would kick back on the sofa and have a snack or watch a bit of T.V.

However, about 20 minutes after putting our son down we heard all kinds of strange noises coming from his room. We didn’t think much of it, until we heard a loud THUD! Oddly enough, the THUD was not accompanied with any crying, so we were at a bit of a loss. A few seconds later we hear footsteps, and then the door swings open. There stood our son, half asleep and rubbing his eyes.

As it turns out, the noise was him struggling to get over the top of the crib, and the THUD was him falling onto the carpet. Lucky we have carpet in his room, as the hardwood floor would have certainly hurt.

At that point we had a bit of a dilemma, we knew that we could not keep him in the crib now that he knew that he could climb out, but we thought he was still too young for a toddler bed, as he still flipped around like a fish at night, and we didn’t want him to possibly fall out of a normal bed.

I came up with a solution that met in the middle, and it worked like gangbusters. I removed the two center bars of his crib. This allowed him to be able to crawl in and out of the crib at will, so there was no fear of him trying to go over the edge anymore. At the same time we didn’t worry about him falling onto the floor at night either.

I have to admit, for about a week after removing the bars we had to contend with him getting out of the crib rather then going straight to sleep. After about a week of picking him up and putting him back in each time he would find he way out he simply stopped, and now goes straight to sleep at night. Every morning he is the first up and comes happily into our bedroom to say good morning.


One thing about kids when they try to go over the top of the crib, once they can do it then it’s game over, they won’t stop! It is kind of like after they take their first few steps, within a couple of week you never knew they couldn’t walk. We let about a week and a half go by before I took action on the crib, and within that time he climbed out every night.


I don’t know if this might be a viable solution for you, but it worked wonders for us.

Good Luck
 
We transitioned my daughter at about 23 or 24 months. My wife had a heart attack when she walked in and there she was standing on the mattress with one leg propped up over the side of the crib. Since we couldn't set the mattress any lower, we bought a toddler bed. Fortunately, if sometimes when she's tired she'll climb in the bed herself. It's been almost a year and we may start looking at twin-sized beds cause she is always climbing in ours, when we aren't in it.
 
Wow, most of you are lucky to be able to do that transition so young. My boys are a real handful (don't ask my wife where they get this), so I can guarantee I will be delaying this one at least another 4 to 6 months. I think it's great if you can do it sooner though!
 
My wife and are dreading that transition too. Our little girl is 21 months and quite the climber. but hasn't tried getting out of the crib yet. Her pediatric doc said to keep her in the crib as long as possible. It is the safest place for her right now (unless she is trying to climb out).

On another note, if you do decide to get a toddler bed make sure every piece of furnature in the room is anchored to the wall. You don't want anything getting pulled over.
 
Crib tents. I'm tellin' ya, they're the Mack Daddy for keeping climbers in there. It was worth every penny.
 
Thanks for all the input! I've heard about the crib tents, but I'm hoping we won't have to go that route. He hasn't really tried much lately, but I'm sure it will happen one of these days and we'll be faced with what to do then. I like the idea of making a safe way for him to get in/out of his crib, but I'm not sure how that can be accomplished with his crib. This kid has so much energy, that I'm surprised he's not already found a way out. I thought he had bailed over the edge today, but when I went to check on him, he was asleep...who knows what the thud was. I'll be happy if we can get to his 2nd birthday with him staying content in the crib!!!
 
For us the transition was fairly easy. Two days after my son turned 18 months, he climbed out of the crib. We had a double bed in the room already and he had seen guests and us occasionally sleep on it. I went in to wake him up and found him sleeping on the bed instead of in his crib. After two nights of that I stopped putting him in the crib and just let him sleep on the bed. A week later we took the crib down altogether.

I kept meaning to get a bed rail for him, but just never got around to it. I think he fell out once. We just used the old fashioned and cheap method of putting a backwards chair against the bed. he'd bump into the back of the chair and roll the other way. The bed was in the corner of the room and we would put him in it with his head at the side instead of the traditional "head" end of the bed. That gave him a lot more room to move around as well. We used a twin size comforter that just covered the top of the bed instead of a double sized one. It wasn't quite so heavy and he could move around under it better.

We also childproofed his room as best we could- bolted furniture to the walls (already done b/c we lived in an earthquake zone anyway), got door griper things so he couldn't open the doors easier and put a gate in the door.

I think if he hadn't started sleeping on the bed on his own, we would have eventually gotten him a twin bed and put the mattress on the floor. I'm too cheap to invest in a toddler bed when the goal is to get them to outgrow it and get into a bigger bed.

We also went through a phase when he liked to sleep on the floor UNDER the bed. The first night I went in to check on him and couldn't find him led to a major freak out.

Kim
 
surreal1221 said:
I'd look at some of Ikea's cribs that transition to toddler beds.
Click to expand...

About 2 years too late for that...after spending $300 on the "perfect" sleigh bed (wife's words)....

You can actually take off the one side on his crib and it can double as a little bed, I just am not ready for him to get out when he wakes up. He's content in there playing right now, which gives mom and I about an extra hour of sleep! :)
 
We did my son at 2 1/2. I would have kept in the crib longer, but with a new baby coming, he needed to get used to a toddler bed so she could have the crib. He was short though, so climbing out wasn't really a big problem until right about the time we made the switch. We did the toddler bed, with the crib mattress, used his same bedding, and he little Ocen Wonders Aquarium. The first night I laid in the bed w/ him until he fell asleep. The second night I laid w/ him for a few minutes and then left, he got up and followed me, I put him back in bed and left again, I think we did that about 4 times, and then he realized that getting up wasn't getting him anywhere. After that, he'd just stay in w/o any problems. He'd get up in the morning and play in his room for a bit before coming in to get me for breakfast. My sister-in-law couldn't get hers to stay in his room, so she turned his door knob backwards and locked him in, so he wouldn't wander the house and hurt himself, or scare someone. I wouldn't do that if they are potty trained, which my son was, or they'll end up peeing on the floor or the bed! But if they are still in diapers and you end up really needing to keep them in the room so they "get" it, maybe that would help? Whatever you do, I think it's important to be consistent and firm, and avoid the negotiating and stalling tactics by planning ahead for all of it and then making the getting into bed a very silent process.
 
Gotcha MusketeerMan. Funny thing is, my wife is the one insisting on it when we bring a little liberal one into the world. :)
 
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