Crib to Toddler Bed - Kew Gardens,NY

My oldest was, I think, around 14 months old when he climbed out of the crib and fell to the floor. My mom used to baby-sit so she was home when it happened and she put him back in. About 30 seconds later he tried again (never a fast learner, that one). So, we went out and bought a toddler bed that night. For the most part he didn't sleep in it and instead slept with me but at least I wasn't worried about him falling on his head from high up again.

I never knew of any guidelines. My one and only is 22 now.

At 17 months, she crawled out of her crib. We put her on a queen mattress on the floor that day. We would not take a risk with her climbing out and trying to come downstairs.

It worked great for us because there were no more worries of her climbing out and falling or somehow getting hurt.

I guess if your little one is not trying to climb out at home just yet it may be ok but I'd sure keep a close eye on him!

We never really used a crib, so that wasn't something we thought about. We coselpt, so we were eager to "try" having our boys sleep in their own bed rather than ours.

We put a mattress on the floor, and that's where they slept. Totally safe, as there's no where for them to go if they roll too far, except the floor which is only a few inches lower than the mattress.

If your toddler bed has sides of some kind to keep baby from rolling out, I would think you'd be safe whenever you decided to transition. Maybe put pillows or cushions on the floor just in case you think he'd try to climb out of that bed, too.

I think it depends on your child. Some kids never try to climb out of the crib and some are doing it very early. We did not make the switch till our kids were just climbing out all the time. It was about age 2. We had a toddler bed for our son, but I came to the conclusion that they are a waste of money. It's not long before you are buying a twin bed/mattress. I think by age 2.5 we had bought him a bunk bed. I would skip the toddler bed when your child is old enough and just get their big kid bed that they will use through high school. Another thing you can do is have your child sleep on a mattress on the floor if you are done with the crib but have not made the jump to a big bed yet.

Baby beds were made for babies and toddler beds were designed for toddlers. That means the weight of the child can make a huge difference in how long the child can sleep on that mattress.

In my honest opinion, yes, I know I'm weird, I have a lot of years in child care and I rely on my education and experience when I share some things. Such as toddler beds and what being a toddler means. Soap box....lol.

The baby's room must be completely baby proof. Shelves attached to the walls with L brackets and anchored into the wood frame behind the wall material. It has to be solid. Then any small toys from you, dad, or older siblings cannot be out within reach in any way. No Barbie shoes or hangers, no Hot Wheels cars, no Tonka Trucks with sharp rusty edges from being outside in the sand box in the rain, simple things most parents do naturally. But the room needs to be looked at through the eyes of a toddler.

A toddler is a child that is learning to walk, toddle around. Once they are past that stage and are walking and running well they are no longer a toddler, they are pre-school age both physically and cognitively.

A toddler is going to get up and wander around, go in the bathroom if that door isn't baby proof, turn on bathtub faucets (Let's face it, bath time is fun time), go through the garage door to go play outside, etc....IF they don't have a closed door or heavy duty baby gate across the opening. A baby monitor in the hallway directly beside their door where the slightest noise in that room will wake you up.

When the room is ready the toddler is ready to move to the toddler bed. We start infants around age 10 months to sleep on cots. So that when they move to the toddler room on their first birthday they are already used to sleeping on a cot and the move transitions better.

With my grand kids I put them in the toddler bed not too long after they turned 1. The latest was 16-18 months. All the rest were will within 33-14 months old range when they moved.

I followed what we'd done in child care even though I wasn't working in that field anymore. I figured that they need to be able to move and grow and have that independence before they figured out what that independence could mean. Our kiddos never wandered. They got in bed to go to bed. They laid down, we read and did bedtime, they were often sleeping before we left the room. Put the gate in place, turn on the monitor if it's off, go off and do our thing.

We didn't have any problems with them wandering but I still took precautions on bathroom doors and kitchen cabinets and cleaner stuff. Just in case the kids got out and into the house area.

It's pretty safe for them if you have it set up to protect them and to alarm/wake you up if they're up.

My younger son was an early climber. He was out of the crib by 14 months.

My firstborn hated the toddler bed, even though it used the same mattress from his crib. He would sleep on the floor, but not on the bed! We skipped even trying with the second and went for a twin mattress on the floor until old enough for a bed frame.

Our son fell out of his crib just once.
After that he could climb in and out at will.

I've heard 3 feet is when to start thinking about it.

Mine were not climbers so I left them until quite a bit older than yours. We could lower our crib mattress to the lowest setting, so closer to the floor and harder to get out. We just did that.

If he's doing it at daycare, perhaps their crib mattress is up higher in comparison to yours. Worth checking.

Then we switched to crib mattress on floor, pushed up against wall, with a baby safety/bed rail (mesh) to keep them in until that wasn't an issue any more. We had one crib where you removed a side and it became a toddler bed, but we still used the mesh safety side with that too (legs go under mattress to keep it in place).

my son was 11.5 months when he climbed outta the crib the first time. i then asked him to show mommy how he did it. and he hapily showed me. and while watching i saw he needed his legs apart to get out. so i confined his little legs to a sleep sack which kept him in his crib till age 2. he was not ready for a toddler bed at age 2 but we didn't ahve any options as he just kept climbing out. we switched, added padding to the hardwood flooring to give him a softer landing and called it a night! he eventually ajusted and was fine with sleeping in the todds bed. we switched dd around that age too ( she was a climber too)
another option is a mattress on the floor. then its no big deal if they "fall out" they are already near the floor.

He's not trying at home leave well enough alone. Never used toddler beds. Waste of money. When they were ready we bought twin beds with a good mattress that lasted forever.

i dunno. i think it's more about when the baby's escaping than any sort of rules.
when ours started scaling the crib, we left the side down. and shortly thereafter got 'em beds.
we never did toddler beds, though. they just went from cribs to regular beds, although my older had almost a year where he just snuggled on the floor in a nest of blankets and stuffed animals.
khairete
S.