My 21 month old has started climbing out of his crib. We're lucky to have made it this long since he's quite the skilled monkey :P Are there OTHER signs that he's ready to have his crib change to a toddler bed? He moves all around while sleeping so I worry he'll just keep falling out. What about HOW to transition him? Of course, we'll do the big boy talk, but are we doomed to a week of putting him back in bed repeatedly?? Do we give him a pillow now or before transitioning? Any advice would be helpful. We plan on moving his little sister into the room in the next month or so...she's 2 months old.
Edited to add: A twin bed is not an option whatsoever, due to room size.
I was going to suggest a twin mattress on the floor, but if that won't work you could just put his crib mattress on the floor. All three of mine did this around 18 months and it wasn't that big of a deal, as they had the same bedtime routine, blankies, pillow, etc.
The earlier he moves to the toddler bed the easier it actually is. He's actually almost too old for it. They are for toddlers and he's almost not a toddler anymore.
You'll have to figure out something within the next 6 months or so though. He won't be comfortable in the toddler bed for much longer than that. Baby bed mattresses are not made for kids over 2 years old. They just don't offer the support a big kids bed would.
So at this age moving him to a toddler bed is okay but he'll quickly outgrow it so if you can rearrange the rooms so he has a bigger room now would be the time to do that. Just skip the toddler bed all together since you'll have to make huge changes in a few months.
We knew our son was ready for a "big boy bed" because he was good at following instructions, he went to sleep easily without issues when we did the bedtime routine, and he was starting to potty-train so it seemed like a good time. We were right. We had one night of him getting up and such, and we sat down and explained the rules to him, and that was that.
Our daughter began climbing out of her crib at 15 months old. We knew she was NOT ready for a big bed yet, so we got sleep-sacks to make climbing out too difficult. Other friends have gotten tents. She is now 27 months old, and still not even close to ready. She just doesn't follow instructions that well, and when something interesting is going on downstairs, she doesn't go to sleep right away. We know if we moved her now, she'd be up and down like a jack-in-the-box. She DOES have her own pillow, though.
Hope this helps!
When my son was 17 months old, we took the front off of his crib (he had a convertible crib). The top of his mattress was only like 10 inches off the ground, so we didn't bother putting the toddler rails on the side. I just folded up an extra comforter so that when he fell out, it wouldn't be too hard. It was never a problem. I didn't give him a pillow for a few months after that, and even once I did, he didn't use it for a long time. We put a gate on his door so he couldn't get out in the middle of the night and wander the house. For the first few nights, he celebrated his freedom by playing instead of sleeping for an hour or so, and most of the time, he just fell asleep on the floor. We just let him get it out of his system, and after about 3 days, he slept better in the bed than he ever had in the crib. Good luck!!
Try to make it an event-and let him have a little say. We bought our first a race car toddler bed and he was excited to go to bed. He would get up during the night-but would go back. I did do the toddler bed for both because they are lower to the floor. My daughters toddler bed was the one from ikea with the tent-she liked that.
When my son outgrew the toddler we put it outside and I stapled a tarp to the bottom and put sand it. Then we bought him a slide bed with built in safety rails-that encouraged him to stay in bed because he got to slide down in the morning(bonus is that there is room underneath to play or store toys). The only downfall is that he is 7 now and still doesn't want to get rid of tge slide bed, lol.
Don't give him a pillow until he is out of the crib.
We put our 2 yo in a toddler bed the week before he turned 2. I gave him a flatened pillow at the time, but he didn't like it at first, which worked out great, as we just put the pillow on the floor for a while in case he fell out. Over the course of the past year (he's 3 now) he has maybe fallen out of bed 5 times? Maybe less. We also put a baby gate on the doorway to discourage nighttime wanderings. Not latched, just shut-looking. No problems, he stays in bed- unless sick or scared, of course.
Now, his little brother (1 in 10 days) will give us a run for our money, I have a feeling:)
we tried the toddler bed 3 times before my daughter took to it. And she was the one that said she wanted to do the switch. So yes, I think you will have some wake ups in the middle of the night. :) also- we gave her a pillow when she went to the toddler bed but I don't know if I would do that again- it made the bed even smaller for her (she always ended up below the pillow). She wasn't used to a pillow or blanket - so looking back I'd leave them both off.
I see you say a twin bed is not an option- but i agree with most on here that a toddler bed wont last long. We were late to transfer to the toddler bed and looking back i should have gone right to the twin. We just went from toddler to twin last night. She was way too long for the toddler bed and falling out of it cause she couldn't stretch out.
The twin bed is only about 1 1/2 feet longer than the toddler and about a foot wider....so hopefully you would have enough room for that extra bit.
We just put the box spring and mattress on the floor for now....she was stretched out from head to toe last night- think she lived the extra space! :)
Good luck!
Does he understand sticker charts? (For staying in bed until you come get him.)
Or how about one of those "ready to wake" alarm clocks with the lights?
Maybe you should try to teach him about staying his crib before you teach him about staying in a bed and in the meantime put a lot of pillows on the floor around his crib. I only say this because I wonder if he doesn't realize he is supposed to stay in his crib, he might getting out of bed is normal (since it is so easy to get out of.)
My son rolls around a lot and we got a twin with rails instead of a toddler bed. I think it is comforting to have the rails, (for him and for us).
We added a pillow later after his full transition. We did give him a small homemade pillow, just to make it more "bed-like" in the beginning.
I put a twin bed on the floor without box spring, up against the wall, and put the crib mattress next to it. If my son rolled out, he rolled onto the crib mattress - a whole 3 inch drop. Now he sleeps in a regular bed, no worries.
Toddlers and older children rarely fall out of a regular bed. You can put a railing on the bed until they're used to the bed. They cost very little. Have a wing that slips under the mattress and a side that stands up along side the mattress.
I, too, suggest he's too old for a toddler bed. A toddler bed uses a crib size mattress and he'll soon be too big.
My daughter used a toddler bed for her oldest but the next 2 went directly into a twin sized bed. The second child didn't use the railing at all. The first two never fell out of bed even tho they wriggled all over. Their mom took away the railing because it was in the way of making the bed and when they wanted to play on the bed.
I still have my 2 year old in her crib. She is short for her age, but she too is very skilled/coordinated and bound to be a gymnist when she is older. in order to prevent her from crawling out we got rid of the bottom frame of the crib so the matress lays on the floor thus dropping her another 6-8 inches lower. the bars of the crib are VERY low on our crib (they overlap with the matress thus there is no way she can get stuck between the matress and the crib frame).
as for the pillow I personally am still nervous about it so we took a small blanket and folded it making a thin/flat "pillow".
right now our focus is toliet training then we will move to transitioning her to a 'big girl bed' :)
Good luck!
I'd just go with a twin & bed rails.
I think people don't realize that unless sides are part of the toddler bed, it's unsafe to add rails to a toddler bed.
So toddler beds are kind of a waste of money.
I think with rails on a twin, he will be prevented from falling out.
