Hi Mamas... Just wondering what age you guys moved your children from a crib to a toddler bed? My daughter is 18 months.. so far has never climbed out of her crib.. but she probably could if given the chance..
Thanks & have a great day :)
Thank you everyone for your great opinions :)
Do a crib as long as you can up to age 3. Then don't worry about a toddler bed - start off with a mattress on the floor or a twin bed with a railing. This is what we have done with both kids. You can order a safety railing for toddlers off of amazon. There is no need to waste money buying a toddler bed.
Crib until 3, or until she climbs out. :)
We just switched our 31-month daughter to a toddler bed this weekend. I would have kept her in the crib longer but we needed the crib for the baby, he has gotten too big for his bassinet. She did climb out of the crib about 6 mos. ago but only once and never again. The switch went well, it took her about a day to get over the new freedom and she has stayed in it to sleep for two nights now after we put her to bed.
My first was 2 1/2. He never tried to climb out of the crib, but was ready to night potty-train, so we converted his crib to a toddler bed at that time. My second was an escape artist! At 20 months, he was climbing out of the crib every single morning, so after a week of that we converted to a toddler bed and he did great with it. I would say if she isn't climbing out yet, keep her in the crib as long as possible! :)
By this age all of my grand kids were sleeping in a toddler bed full time. I honestly think the younger they go to them toddler bed the easier it is. They don't think of getting up and exploring just because they have the freedom to do so like an older child does.
This is also a good age to do it because toddlers are ages 13-24 months. After that they are considered to be pre-schoolers and may be getting too big to start in one. At that age they need to transition directly to a regular bed. The toddler bed would get too small for them very quickly.
my daughter never tried to climb out of her crib - her crib converted to a toddler bed as well. on her 3rd birthday i took the side off and put on her Dora bedding and she loved it :)
If not climbing out I would leave her in the crib where she's secure and safe. If you do move her out I would skip the toddler bed and go to a twin bed. I've written on here many times how we got a bed frame, board cut at Lowe's or Home Depot to fit instead of box spring and put the mattress on top and they can get in and out easily, make the bed when they're able, store toys in pans under the bed, etc. We did that with most of our kids. I would leave her in the crib though if it was me. It's a whole different thing when they're 'free'.
My daughter was 3 when we finally took off the front rail of her crib and turned it into a daybed. For a while, she was able to climb out of her crib and we didn't want her to get hurt so we took off the front. She flipped! She did not like it, I guess she felt exposed without having the protection of the front rail. We let it go for a few months and then took it off. She will be 4 in a few weeks and we have been wanting to get a full size bed for her but she doesn't want it, she still likes her daybed. My son is 2 and has not tried to climb out yet, thankfully! I'll leave him in there until he's 5 as long as he's not climbing out. If you don't need the crib for another baby, let her be. We dealt with my daughter constantly coming downstairs after bedtime because she could. It took us a good month to break her of that and I KNOW my son will be worse.
My kiddos were around 3 years old. The crib was a convertable, but I needed it for my on-the-way baby, so I just moved my oldest straight to a twin bed. It worked well, so when my younger son was crawling out. I let him use the convertable for about 6 months, then put him in a twin bed too.
Wait as long as possible.
We moved my son shortly after he turned 2 because he began potty-training, but with my daughter, I hope to wait longer. She's such a climber that it may not be any option, but I think closer to 3 is best. As soon as they're in the toddler bed, you can expect them to be climbing into bed with you at night whenever they wake up!
We moved our youngest into a toddler bed at 10 months because she climbed out of her crib. Now we've graduated to a bunkbed and I've got all sorts of problems from that. :)
Hi J....we just moved my 20 mo old to a toddler bed last weekend. Her brothers have been giving her ideas on how to get out, and she has no fear. :) If she wasn't a climber, I would have left her in as long as possible. She's actually done better than the other two, and we leave her door cracked with a baby gate up. Good luck!
i think my son was around your daughter's age. i had heard, switch them before they try climbing out. we got a good deal on a firetruck bed (which my son loved) on craigslist, so we went for it. it was never a huge issue for us - probably we could have switched to a twin with no trouble. that darn red firetruck bed was just so cute though lol. i think we paid like $50 for it...and we already had the right mattress from the crib...
if we did it again i would probably go straight to a twin bed.
We went straight from crib to a twin size mattress on the floor with all three of ours, starting at around 18 months, no need to buy an extra bed or rails :)
