Toddler Bed??? - Dayton,OH

I never bothered with the expense of a toddler bed and went straight from crib to twin size bed and just bought the guard that you slide between the mattress and box springs. My son was about 18 when we did that and had no problems.

We put my daughter (who is now almost 7) into her toddler bed right at a year old, but that was because she was a climber and climbed out as often as she possibly could.

J.

I had the same delima. 18 month old and a new baby on the way. Let me start by saying her Doc told me to do it ASAP. That way she doesn't feel like the baby is taking her bed. My daughter was 18 months when we moved her into her new room with a new bed. Instead of getting a toddler bed we just put a twin matress and box spring on the floor. That way she can climb back in bed herself when she gets out. Also we put a baby gate on the door and safe toys and board books for her to play with. It has been 4 months and we have had tremendous success. There were times she got out and went to the gate and cried for us, but that only lasted a week or so. To this day she wakes up about 7am. Too early for me - and she will play for an hour or so by herself until I get up. Three things I strongly suggest, first, make the transisition ASAP. Second, keep as much the same as possible (doc's recommendation) like giving her a bottle or pacifier if she as been used to that even wall hangings she has been used to looking at. Third, try to keep a consistent bedtime routine. Try to continue the one you are using although it might have to be altered a bit. Good luck and congrats on the new baby.

We just put our son in a toddler bed at 20 months as his sister needed the crib. He had never climbed out of the crib either but he was starting to do the "leg up" every once in a while. I put portable bed rails on the sides of the toddler bed and have not had any problems in approx. 3 weeks.

Good luck.

J.,
I don't remember how old my children were when we took them out of the crib, but my two are 22 months apart and my son was out of the crib months before my daughter was born. It is best to take her out now before the baby gets here so that she doesn't feel like the new baby has taken her bed, just like another mom said on here. We never put our kids in toddler beds either. For my son, we bought him a bunk bed and he slept on the bottom with a bed rail. For my daughter, she got my old day bed and we put it as low as it could go and gave her a bed rail too. It worked out fine and we didn't have the expense of a toddler bed. Maybe over the weekend you could do the transition for her. She will probably really enjoy having a new bed, and if you are going to get something new for her let her help pick it out. It will help with her taking to it and sleeping in it more than likely.

hi J.! my daughter is 16 months old ( just a little over one) and this past weekend we changed her crib to a bed. she seems to like it alot. she can get in and out as she pleases. which could be crazy but we figured if we just keep putter her back, she will get it and she does. naps are so easy its just the bedtime that she gets back up. she never climbed out of her crib either, we just kinda thought why not give it a try. i love it! well good luck!!!!!!

Hi J.!

I switched my son into his "big boy" bed when he was about 15 months. He throws himself around a lot at night. And he kept hitting himself on the rails of his crib. We also have lots of sleep overs at my mom's. And the pack and play wasn't working anymore.

She bought a toddler bed for her place and I put him into a twin bed at our place. He's actually slept much better since the switch. I felt comfortable making the switch because he can climb up and down furniture, and knows to get down he has to go "toes-toes first", as we have been telling him since he was 9 months old.

If he happens to wake up in the night, he doesn't try to get out of the twin bed. He either puts himself back to sleep or if he's really upset, cries until I or dad comes in to give him a hug. When he wakes up in the morning, he does indeed climb down out of bed, and sometimes will play and read books. And then knocks on the door when he's ready to come out. I was prepared for this situation; all his outlets have plugs, he puts his toys away before he goes to bed, furniture is secured to the wall, everything that he shouldn't be getting into is put away in a cupboard with one of those door locker things or is up too high for him to reach.

In regards to the toddler bed at my mom's, he gets up out of that all the time. For some reason, he thinks it's his "play" bed. Part of it could be because his bed at home is much larger. So you might have better luck with it!

I don't think there's a certain age when a child just automatically gets moved into a toddler bed. Not all children climb out of cribs. So that can't even be used as a marker. I think it just depends on each child. If you feel your child might not be ready (like, she's not a solid climber, or dives off head first off things, for example), you've got a little under 2 months to work with her. It will just take patience, diligence, consistancy, and probably a little bit a humor.

Good luck! And congrats with the new one!

We put our daughter in a toddler bed when she wsa 17-18 months old., when we had our son. She did fine. She was excited to sleep in a big girl bed. Although sometimes she did fall asleep under the bed, with her blankets and stuffed animals. Which was really cute.
Good luck!
S.

We never used a toddler bed...at first we used a twin bed with guard rails and then a mattress on the floor (from our futon) when we moved. You may have to teach her to stay there (calmly put her back if she gets up) but that's not too bad.

We put our daughter in a toddler bed at 11 months and she's done very well. We keep the door closed at night though, because she would just follow me out after I tucked her in if we didn't.
We chose to do this so early because she would not sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time in her crib and now she sleeps 10-12 hours every night! (there was obviously a bit more to that process, but that's another story)
Anyway, that should work if you need to transition her early. I would just suggest making a big deal out of it. Like "look at your big girl bed!" etc. Get new big girl sheets and things like that, so it's fun and exciting for her.

Hi J.,

I had my second child 5 months ago and my odler daughter is 18 months older than my youngest. I also did not want to by another crib that might only be used another half a year or so. In January of this year, we went on a vacation adn she had to sleep in a different bed than she was used to. When we came back we already had taken down her crib and moved into another room and put up a toddler back. For the first few weeks she slept in it wonderfully, as if there was never a crib. Then we had some issues, that were related to development steps and the I do not want to nap any more, but we got over that hurdel and I am very glad I did not waste the money for a new crib.
The only thing that we did when she had that developmental related sleep problem is add a baby gate to her door to keep her from running out of the room. Which might be a problem since you are having your kids share rooms.
As my pediatrian said it, it doesn't matter where intheir room they sleep (comfy chair, bigger other day bed we have intheir or floo, as long as they sleep and understand that sleep needs to be in their room).
One very important factor though was to transfer her somewhat before the baby was there so she wouldn't think of it as the baby took away her crib.

Good luck with everything,T..

J.,
Hi my name is K....just wanted to let you now that I put my 23 month old in a todler bed, he is doing fine in it. I understand your concern to have her free to get into things, my little man is into everything.He also shares a room with our 3 year old. I have a routine for bed time so they know it's bedtime. Then I tuck them both into bed and keep the bedroom door open. When he tries to get out I tell him to lay down and for some reason he does. Soon he falls asleep and then I close the door. Keep a monitor in there so you can hear if she should wake, if you want to go that extra mile try a baby cam to put in the room to keep an eye.Now is a good time to start so she will be use to the toddler bed before the new one comes.Usually toddler beds come with a side rail so she should have no problems with falling out of the bed.Good Luck!

My daughter was the exact same age when we got her a toddler bed. We toddler-proofed the room (outlet covers, secured the furniture to the wall so it wouldn't tip, put away most of her toys in the closet so she wouldn't be playing when she should be sleeping) and put a baby gate on her door so we wouldn't have to worry about her getting up and wondering around. We also kept a baby monitor in there so we would know if she was up and moving around. Some nights we had to go up and put her back in the bed several times but it really wasn't a big deal. She loved it and actually slept better in there. I think it was actually safer for her because she was starting to climb out of her crib. Congratulations on your little one on the way!

Now's the perfect time to switch to a toddler bed. Make a big deal that since the new baby is comming she gets to get a brand new big girl bed. She'll feel like she's special and put's the focus on her instead of the new baby, and she should take to the bed right away because it's "special".

Hey there J.! Well, to be 100% honest... I put my son in his toddler bed around 14 months - and my daughter Zoey who is now 19 months, She's been sleeping in her's for almost a year! :) Since she was 10 months old, I transferred her to a toddler bed - mainly b/c her big brother got a bunk bed and his toddler bed freed up, so I figured why not? She had never attempted to crawl out of her crib. So for the first week or 2, I put her in bed and she was fast asleep - no problems. I had the baby monitor cranked to the highest level (she was already walking by the time she was 10 months old) to make sure if she did attempt a stunt like getting out of her bed, I'd hear every little move she made. It kept me up every now and then at night, but after the first week or so, I trusted her enough to put it back at normal volume. She's done wonderfully since! I guess, basically you know your child the best, and it sounds like she'd do 100% fine - especially if she's already going on 2 years old. You gotta trust them sometimes and let them prove it to you - as long as you're safe about it (baby monitors, outlet covers, all breakables out of reach, not dangling cords, etc.) then she's do great! Please let me know how it goes!

-S.
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J., I have 3 kids 12, 10 and 17 mos. With my first two I didn't put them in beds till they were 2. This 3rd child is much different, he started refusing to stay in her crib about a month ago. First we tried a mattress on the floor, that worked ok but she kept rolling off. lol! of course she couldn't get hurt since she was so low to the ground but then my sister gave me her toddler bed and that's where she sleeps now and she does just fine. I'd say go ahead.

S.

Hi J.,
I'm pretty much in the same boat. My daughter will be 19 months old when we have our 2nd baby in November. We, of course, will be using the crib for the new baby and I'm a little nervous about making the switch to a toddler bed. However, it has to be done.

My sister switched her oldest to a toddler bed at about 22 months and he did just fine. I think all kids are different so it's hard to say how yours will react, but I say go for it. Just cover the outlets and put anything "dangerous" away. I would either start the switch now, before the new baby comes, or wait awhile and keep the baby in your room for awhile if that's possible. That way, you daughter won't feel like she's lost her bed/room to the baby. My husband & I plan on keeping our newborn in our room until she's 8-12 weeks anyway so that will give us extra time if we need it.

Let us know how it goes!