Transferring from Crib to Toddler Bed!!! She Doesnt Seem to like It... Why???

Once the lights go off she might be afraid of the canopy. Its just different and she will need time to adjust to the new stuff.

It is a huge change. She may feel like she is going to fall out of the bed. You can place it against a wall and get a side rail (portable) or you can back up to chairs with backs against the sides till she gets used to it.

Most children do have a transition. It just feels all new.. Also in her crib did you have her "tucked into a sheet" or did you just lay a blanket or sheet on top of her? Our daughter liked to sleep on top of the bedding with a light cover or blanket on top.. She did not like the feeling of being "in the sheets"..

Also it is a new bed time procedure to sleep in a bed. You all will need to come up with a new routine, since you can sit right next to her and read..

Give it a while to transition.

Hi H....
congrats on the new bed...some humble thoughts:
why not also put on the bed some things from the old bed so that the new bed has some familiar scents -- stuffed animal, pillow case, pillow????

maybe also let her pick out one set of sheets so that she can take 'ownership' of the bed..

good luck. jilly

My son did this. We have a convertible crib and he watched as my husband converted it to the toddler bed and was so excited to have a big boy bed.....until bedtime. He kept asking for Daddy to "fix it" (meaning, make it a crib again). He got used to it after a couple of days and was fine. My daughter is a very laid back kid and just goes with the flow. My son, on the other hand, doesn't handle change quite as well. It's just his personality. After a couple of days of explaining that it was his new bed and that Daddy wasn't going to change it back, he did just fine. Give her some time.

We had a really hard time making this transition...but my crib was recalled so I could not go back (or I would have :-) ). My only guess is they miss the cozziness/feeling of security/saftey they have inside of their crib. With my son, we could not keep him in his bed for more than a month after the switch. He was really tired, but something about having the ability to be able to get out of bed made him think he had to try over and over and over again. With all changes, it just takes some time for them to get used to. Good luck.

To her it's not "her bed". It's cute and fun, but when she's done playing there she wants it all to go back to "normal".

If you already took the crib away, then you're kind of stuck with this transition.

When we switch to toddler beds, we leave the crib up and start by taking naps in the "big boy bed". Preschool/daycare used cots so our kids had a taste of using a "bed" for naptime.

Since you're going coldturkey, your going to have to get her good and tire during the day, run the energy out of her so she can't wait to get to sleep, do a nice warm bath, read some books and hopefully she'll be so close to passing out you'll skip the tantrum and she'll just crash.

thats a big difference to her. We just moved my two year old to his toddler bed (I am 20 weeks pregnant so its something we needed to do soon!) and i knew he loves his routine. So I bought one that was the same color wood as his crib and had bars on the side similiar to his crib. I let him keep his old sheets and matress. We haven't had any problems, in fact he helped disassemble the crib (because after 2.5 hrs of putting together his toddler bed I find out his crib doesnt fit through the door so i had to take that apart to get it out!) and when he saw his new bed he screamed "woah!" and wanted to go to bed right away.

when we switched my son out of his crib, we put him in a bed tent on the floor. He was about 2.5 and would have happily stayed in his crib until high school, but we needed it for his baby sister (who had been sleeping in a pack 'n play in our room for 9 months). The bed tent was great because it helped him to still feel confined and secure, even though he could have easily gotten out by himself. You can google "Pacific Play Tent" and see if you think they might work for you for transitioning your little lady. Good luck!

My daughter had a hard time, too. I let her sleep with her old crib blankets until she herself told me she was ready for the big girl blankets. That helped.

My guess would be that its just a different setting and she will eventually get used to it but for now it is not her normal surroundings and when its bedtime she is expecting the expected. When we switched our daughter over she was still quite young (15 months) so the transfer wasnt so bad except for the new found freedom and trying to keep her put but we also had a crib that converted to a toddler bed that I swear helps immensly with the switch because it allows them to have the bed that they are used to with the slightest change made to it
Im sure it will work itself out soon
Good Luck

I'm having the same issues right now with my 2 year old. It's been three weeks so far and the convenience of getting out of bed is wonderful to him. We can't keep him in his room/bed. It's tiring and it's, I think, becoming a game now. It's really tiring and stressful for us parents but I have hope that "this too shall pass".