Almost 16 Month Climbing Out of Crib... Help!

I say time to crack down on this behavior before the next one comes!!! There is no getting out of bed and no reason for the bottles! Time to put an end to it! I know it is hard, but there are times they need a little tough love!!

My daughter did the same thing - a the same age. We made her show us how she was doing it and it was terrifying (but impressive at the same time) Crib tent didn;t work. She could unvelcro it.

I bought a toddler bed immediately and put her crib mattress in it. (You'll need the crib for the new baby anyway. The toddler bed had built in rails and I positioned it against a wall. My friends daughter broke her leg climbing out of her crib. Her leg got caught between the slats and snapped. It wasn't worth it to me. We started a reward system for staying in bed.

Definitely stop the bottle at night. If it was me, I would do it cold turkey. Milk twice at night is not healthy for her or her teeth. Kids can get overweight when they are eating all those calories in the middle of the night. I doubt you are taking her out of the crib after every bottle and brushing her teeth. If you continue the night bottle, that milk will rot her teeth and you will end up with an 18 month old and cavaties in her baby teeth. I apologize for sounding harsh. For the climbing out, you could try the crib tent, but it like you said it is a short term fix. I would move her crib matress to the floor and see how she does. Make sure her room is baby proofed and she can't hurt herself on anything.

I couldn't agree more with the poster that suggested stopping the night feedings cold turkey. Unless your daughter has some underlying medical need for these feedings, children older than 10 months old should be able to sleep 12 hours through the night without a feeding. Please check with your Pediatrician about this.

I'm not sure why you consider the crib tent a "short term fix." I have used a crib tent on my son's crib since he was 19 months old and will continue to use it until he transitions to a twin sized bed (after he turns 3). Is it because you don't want to purchase another crib for your new baby?

The crib tent has been the perfect solution for my family, so I always recommend it. My son is extremely strong-willed, and I have absolutely no need or desire to have nightly battles with him trying to keep him in bed. My son needs his healthy sleep -- not hours of battles, fighting, disruptions, etc! Once he turns 3 and has a better understanding of rules and consequences, I'll be able to more easily transition him to a real bed. Until then, he's in a crib -- and he's perfectly happy! I really can't see any benefit to him or to me by transitioning him to a bed any earlier. Plus, I won't have to spend the money on a transitional toddler bed.

Whatever you decide, best wishes!

Your pediatrician would probably second the idea that she does not need a bottle at night, she needs to be sleeping instead.
I recommend lowering the crib rail, so she doesn't fall over. I realize that now she can "escape", but you keep her door closed so that she can't open it, and her room baby proofed.
She is at the age where they wake up at night because the world is so exciting, but she needs to be sleeping.

First, you can rest assured that there is no need for your child to have a bottle at night anymore. Don't feel guilty, at this point it's just a habit and one she can easily do w/o.
Second, I, personally, do not think a child should be in a toddler bed until they are at LEAST 2 or 3 depending on the child. You don't need the added stress of wondering what your child is doing in the middle of the night--is she choking, getting into something, etc?? Also, if you do stop the night bottles, that is already a big transition for her and putting her in a big bed on top of that is just too much at once.
There is a simple solution. When I was a nanny the 18 mo old started doing this and so the mom got a crib tent. Totally secure and no worries after that. It is mesh/see-through and can only be opened from the outside. Problem solved! (the crib mattress actually goes inside of it so that there is no getting tangled up or strangulation)
Here's a link:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4726...

My little guy was good for the night time milk. He would call me hand me his cup and I would get him the milk. Cold turkey is the way to do it!! Good luck.

Go with a toddler bed and make it fun for her.

Yes, she is ready for the big girl bed. Our daughter was climbing out and jumping from the bed at about the same age. It's really a safety issue at this point. You may want to consider putting a gate up or some type of latch on her door esp if there are stairs nearby.

Re: the milk at night start weaning her off it by giving her less and less and let her know that she's a big girl now and big girls only get one drink before going to be just like soon she'll go potty before bed...

We did a crib tent for our 16 month old and it worked wonders. I was in no way ready to have her in a bed at that point. She loved it! It helped her crib feel nice a cozy. The only reason we stopped using it at 2 1/2 was because we went on vacation and she learned to sleep in a twin trundle so we didn't feel like we could put her back in her tented crib after the freedom of a bed for two weeks. As far as the night wakings, I'd say let her cry it out. Hopefully it will not take more than 1 - 2 nights. I do highly recommend the crib tent for peace of mind. It was recommended to us by our ped.

IF you are not ready to get rid of the crib. You can use a crib tent. It keeps them in the crib safely. We have one because we have a cat and we were not sure if he would use the baby's crib as a place to sleep. But after my son being home for about 2 weeks we took it down and when he starts to climb out we will put it back up. It is about $70.00
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3712127

The tent we have has a zipper so they can not get out. I see now that you do not want to get that, but I know my friend used one and it kept her daughter in. It took a few days, but she grew to love it.

We had the same and our daughters are 25 mos. apart so there was no way I was putting her in toddler bed at that age. We followed Weissbluth's advice to end the "jack-in-the-box" syndrome and dedicated two nights to "putting her back" in the crib. Yes, they were looong evenings, but eventually she stayed in the crib. Then when the time was right, we transitioned her to a twin and skipped the toddler bed entirely.

For the night wakings, we had the same also. We let her know ahead of time that no mattter what she was only getting water in the night. When she still woke we realized it was about the "visits" and the what was in the bottle. Our pediatrician said this is the prime age for seperation anxiety, so we again followed Weissbluth's advice on how let her cry it out and brake the habit.

good luck!

Our son did the same thing, same age. But he had a very, very nasty fall! We went out and bought a bed and a really good gate for his bedroom door. He's been in the bed ever since. He also was still waking up for drinks of milk at night. He would call out for us. We'd go in with a drink, sit with him for a few minutes and he would fall back asleep. It took about month for the transition. But all in all it was definitely the thing to do. Several mothers I knew at the time had tried those crib tents... total short term fix and a huge waste of money. They all said that their kids figured out how to get out of them right away. Now I've read in Weissbluth's book that you can duct tape them into the crib tent.. but come on, really? That seems wacky. Even our doc at the time told us to just go get a bed... she said that the average age to move into a bed is 18 months. I'm not sure why people tent to wait so much longer than that these days, but that does seem to be the current trend. We have hard wood floors, so I was not going to wait for another bad fall! Good luck : )

Hello,

My response may seem like a no brainer but have you tried just lowering the crib mattress, this is what we did when our daughter started climbing out of her crib. If her crib doesn't offer this feature , then you probably need to look into getting a toddler bed. I hope this helps let me know.

I feel your pain. My son did the same thing at 2 years old and we put him in a bed. What a big mistake! He got out of that bed anywhere from 10-100 times a night. And I am not exaggerating. It did finally get better, but he continued to get out of his bed until he was 3. So with my second child, I will not put him in a big boy bed until he is at least 3. I would recommend a crib net. I know, it sounds crazy, but I am telling you, it is better than being up ALL night, especially when you have another on the way. My second son is 18 mos old, and I stopped his nighttime feedings at around a year. I just decided one night, that he didn't need to eat during the night and I just closed our door and let him cry. Believe it or not, he only cried for about 30 minutes and that was the end of it. So it might not be as hard as you think. You definitely don't want to be getting up w/ a newborn and still be getting up w/ your daughter...It will drive you crazy! Good luck, I hope some of this advice will help you.

I haven't read all your resposes so sorry if I'm repeating, but I put my girl in a daybed at that age.(all my kids transitioned to a daybed- we never used a toddler bed). She had learned how to climb out of the crib and I didn't want her getting hurt, but I also had my second one on the way and we transitioned about 3-4 mos. before he came so that the baby could have the crib, and she wouldn't feel like the "baby stole HER bed". It only took us a couple nights of putting her back in bed, but we found with both my kids so far they like sleeping on the floor? My daughter is now 4 and has grown out of it,but when we check on them before we go to bed 98% of the time we have to pick up my 2 1/2 year old and put him in bed.
As far as the bottles at night go... I haven't had that problem, but it really needs to be stopped. If your child falls asleep with milk in her mouth each night the sugar in the milk will sit on the teeth and can rot her teeth. People will say it's only her "baby teeth", but it can also effect her permenant teeth in the long run. We got in the bad habit of giving my daughter a sippy cup of water every night (wich in itself isn't bad, water is 100% ok), but it caused problems when it came to potty training, because if we give her a cup of water at bed time, then she would wet during the night. I doubt you are at the potty training stage yet, but just something to keep in mind for the future. It will probably be a long couple of nights, but if it is truly just a "routine" than it can/will change in a few nights. Good Luck!

Your daughter is capable of sleeping through the night. I would crack down and simply not give her a bottle of any type during the middle of the night. Super Nanny just has the parents keep putting child back in bed, no conversation. Might be hard to do, but it always seems to work on the show. I think you need to address that battle before the crib/bed issue.