Changing from a Crib to a Toddler Bed - Terre Haute,IN

We placed a regular bed pillow beside her (between her and edge of bed) initially, but recently I've just tucked the sheet in on the outer edge and she hasn't fallen out yet :-) Hope this helps!
J.

I am a mother of two younger children and a 8 year old step daughter. When my husband and I got together my step daughter was 3 and still in her crib. He had tried to put her in a toddler bed but she would not stay in it. He tried for about 3 months and felt that she just wasn't ready. We put her in a toddler bed right after we got together. She seemed to adapt well. However, with my son (which is now 2 1/2 almost 3.) I switched him over at like a year and a half. He was climbing out, shaking the crib, ect. I felt that he was ready. The first night that I put him in his toddler bed, we (my husband and I) went in there and we told him "this is you're bed now, you're a big boy and you have to stay in this bed." We had no problems out of him. He stayed in his bed, and has ever since. Now, my youngest (8 month old) I will probably do the same with, just depends if she is climbing out ect.

If you are afraid that she will fall out of the bed, then just put some blankets (thick) on the ground, I wouldn't go out and spend money for something when you can just use blankets. Hope this helps. :)

I agree with Gina H. Unless she is climbing out of the crib, I would wait. When my daughter was 18 months old she was able to get her leg on the top rail of her crib, since I was worried about her climbing out I went ahead and switch her crib to a toddler bed. I went to Babies R Us and bought a gaurd rail made by Safety 1st. It is meant for bigger beds, but because it fits on the mattress, I was able to make it snug. (you push it down till it locks on the mattress from the top and bottom.) that worked great till she was about two and we removed it. When we converted the toddler bed to the queen size bed, we were able to reuse it since the matress sat higher from the ground and I was once again afraid she would fall out. My son is now 15 months and I can't imagine him in a toddler bed. I don't think he would stay put for a minute. I hope I can leave him in his crib for a looong time. LOL Good luck.

If you go to like Walmart I know they have these net like railings that you can put on there it will keep her from falling out. I had to use one with my daughter. Good luck!

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They do have side rails for toddler beds. You can purchase them at Target or WalMart and places like that. I didn't use a toddler bed for my boys but I did have one of those rails for the twin bed that my boys moved into after the crib.
Hope this helps -
S. Vaughan
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I put body pillows on the floor next to the bed for my son.

My daughter (who is 14 now) stayed in her crib til she was probably 3. My son just turned 2 last week and has been in a twin size bed for almost 4 months. His crib was as low as it could go and he was starting to climb out. We have had no problems with him getting up and so on, he stays in the bed and cries at night when wants mommy just like he did before. We put a side rail up on the one side and the other is against the wall. Good luck.

I would say try to lower the mattress as much as possible and make sure the bumper still isn't in there, and don't try to put her in a toddler bed. At this age (my son is 15 months) you will be playing the in-and-out-of-bed game ALL night long! My daughter was 20 months when she could climb out of her crib, so we changed it over to a toddler bed, and for the first week or so it was good. But then she figured out that she could get out of bed whenever she wanted, and it was SO frustrating because they're too young to understand why they should stay in bed. With my son I'm going to leave him in there as long as humanly possible and get one of those mesh tent-like crib toppers. I used to think they were unnecessary at best and barbaric at the worst, but now I completely understand why people use them. Good luck!

Unless she is climbing out of her bed, I would not switch her to a toddler bed just yet. I would just lower the mattress all of the way down to the lowest level. At her age I would doubt she would be able to climb out of it at that level. Just make sure their are not many blankets/animals for her to use to stack to make a ladder. The reason I suggest waiting is once you switch her their will come a whole new set of bedtime trials....she will begin to wander out of her room at bedtime...it can be quite challenging and at her age she is not really old enough to understand that she must stay in her own bed. We moved my oldest when she was 2 years old and she was not yet climbing out of it, I felt like we should have waited a little longer, but I was having another baby and so we did not want to buy another crib. Anyhow, my youngest is now 19 months and is still in her crib. She puts herself to sleep well and I plan to leave her in it until she climbs out of it. She is a pretty efficient little climber but still can not master scaling the walls of her crib. Good luck to you. Hope this helps.

We put one of those mesh rails on our daughters bed(even though they are all made for bigger beds, you just have to tie it real good on the back reals) and you can leave a spot by the feet for her to climb in at. Until she grows enough, use some sort of step stool(we used her potty chair in the closed position.) Then when you start to transition from removing the mesh. We used a big down comforter that we wern't using anymore and folded it and placed it at her bedside. She did roll out a couple times the first few nights. But I think it took that for her subcontious to keep her in her bed. But she never got hurt. What's funny is half the time she didn't even wake up and ended up somewhere else in the room sleeping on the floor(she is a restless sleeper).

I think that 14 months is a little young to put her in a toddler bed. If you are concerned about her falling out..they make these mesh tents that you can put over the top of your crib that helps keep them in. I know when my 23 m/o starts climbing out we are getting one of these. I just think that your LO might be to young to understand that she has to stay in bed. I have know a few people who switched their children too early and had this problem. Good luck in whatever you decide to do :) A.

Of course I am going to be the different answer here. My youngest is 2 1/2 and 2 months after she turned 2, I went ahead and changed her crib to the toddler bed (it is one of those 4 in 1 cribs) because I know she was ready. After that first night, I would not recommend anyone doing it. I thought I had my bases covered, though it felt odd. The mattress had been on the lowest setting for months, and I put as much stuff on the floor as I could for padding in case she did happen to fall out. Not long after she went to sleep, I heard one of the most painful screams in my life out of her. We ran in there and found her bleeding and of course within just a short bit, had the biggest black eye (and side of the face) that I had ever seen. She fell out but the bed busted open her face upon falling out. It got her right in the eye and the sensitive skin on the side of the eye. I don't recommend that ANYONE use the 'toddler bed' change of a crib. The next day I bought a Dora toddler bed and she sleeps in it just fine. Granted I do have the issues (sometimes) when she just wants to fight going to sleep and will get up and play etc, but for the most part, I don't have that much trouble. I would rather have to fight with her to get back in bed and go to sleep like a big girl, than to wonder if she is ok using the other bed. Just my two cents and I hope you take those dangers into consideration.

Hmmm, I'm not quite there yet but I'm sure I'll be there soon. My 19 month old luckily is still willing to sleep in her crib without climbing out. I'm holding out as long as I can. But have thought of this problem as I understand that no reason to pay for an extra mattress if you don't need one. I have two ideas. First, how about one of those blow up mattresses that are used to lay down on in the pool or lake, maybe wrapping a sheet or a few blankets on it and put it beside the bed for night time. then you could just shove it underneath in the morning. Or just forego the mattress and just use a couple blankets, comforters or quilts and then just roll them up underneath in the morning. If you fold them and double them there'd be padding there incase she falls. Hope that helps.

we put one of those mesh side rails on our son's bed. if you leave it open a bit at their feet, they can still climb in and out of bed but won't roll out in their sleep.

here is one for less than $20 at target.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-2/qid=118218938...

I understand your concerns. I had them too when my oldest moved to his big bed(twin size). I personally haven't used this but I'm thinking of ordering it when time comes for my youngest to switch to a big bed...
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...

If you're definitely wanting to use a toddler bed, you can put a mattress, blankets, pillows or something on the floor just in case. Also, you can tuck their sheets tight on the outer part of the bed and put a stuffed animal there under the sheets. I personally don't like toddler beds. I think that kids have enough transitions already to go through, without adding any unnecessary ones. I had one of those conversion cribs also, and ended up just selling it and buying a regular bed. I switched both of my kids from their crib to a regular twin bed at 15 months. It wasn't for any reason except for I figured "why not?" Since they were young, they didn't skip a beat with the switch. They both went to bed that first night and slept the whole night through. I hear about people waiting until they're 2 or 3, but I think that by then, they've grown attached to it, whereas when they're younger like mine were, they don't know the difference. I used those rails you can buy and for the first few months or so I stacked big pillows and blankets around the sides with no rail. I never had either one of them fall out of bed.