My son started climbing out of his bed at 16 months. We too put him in a bed for safety reasons. It was fine for a couple of weeks, then he started getting up...a lot. After a week of several hours each night of putting him back to bed, I couldn't take it anymore. I was working full-time and not getting to bed until 10:30-11:00 at the earliest, sometimes 11:30-midnight. I had to get up at 5:30, so these late bedtimes were taking their toll on me. The last straw was having him wake up in the middle of the night, and not hearing him until he was in the living room playing. That scared me a little bit, so we ended up installing a gate on his bedroom door. He stopped fighting at bedtime and stayed in bed since he knew he couldn't go anywhere. When we transitioned my then almost 2 yr old to her bed several months ago we just automatically put the gate up and didn't have any of the problems we had with her brother. She does get up and play in her room at naptime, but I am ok with that since she puts herself back to bed after a little while and goes to sleep. If you have been laying down with him until he falls asleep, he is definitely going to protest when you stop, but it usually only takes a few nights to break the bad habit if you actually stick with it. The biggest thing to remember is that if you say you're not going to lay down with him, then don't do it especially after he has thrown a fit, or you are just teaching him you don't mean what you say and that if he cries long enough, you'll give in. So once you make the decision, stick to it or it will be a long battle for you. (Listening to my son cry was so difficult for me, that I made this mistake, and it was a whopper). We did eventually get past it, but it was horrible and he screamed for an hour. (I had to go outside so it wasn't so loud and my husband stayed inside to monitor since I wanted to rescue my little guy). Good luck, just be consistent and he will follow your lead. Also make sure you have a very predictable bedtime routine, that helps them feel comfortable if they know what comes next.