What Age for a Toddler Bed?

Mine were sleeping on twin bed and with each other @ 10 mos and 1yr...it all depends on the child and sleep tendencies.

I went with the 'stay in the crib as long as possible' school of thought and it worked great for me. That is, if you child fits in the crib and doesn't try to climb out, keep them in the crib. The benefits are that the younger the child is, the harder it is to keep them in their bed at night. Even if your child is a good sleeper, she'll roll over in the night and think, hey, I can go get mommy. If she's not a great sleeper, she'll be in your room even more, and then you'll have to go to a baby gate on the door or something like that.

I waited until my child was almost 3 to move him. It was great because he was old enough to explain that he needed to stay in bed and for the most part, he listened. And he thought it was really fun to pick out new bedding and so the transition from the crib to the bed was really easy because he was excited about it.

We moved our daughter to a bed at 12 months.
We knew she was ready because she could walk steadily, refused to sleep in her crib, and I got tired of her in our bed.
So we just tried it and it worked out perfectly with no problems (no wondering, no crying, no falling out of it, etc), she did and stil will occasionally get up in the middle of the night, and then we just put her in our bed....but for the most part she stays in her own bed.
People thought we were nuts for putting her in her own bed that early, but it worked for us.
Good Luck

Toddler beds are for toddlers. Once a child turns 2 they are already getting to big for the toddler bed. If they are that old they should go into their big kid bed and skip the toddler one.

IMO, keep her in the crib either until she starts trying to climb out or until somewhere around her 3rd birthday. If you do it too soon, you may have trouble keeping her in her bed.
When it's time, you might want to consider skipping the toddler bed and going right to a twin bed. That is what we did for our DD because we knew she would need one eventually, and we couldn't see spending the money on a toddler bed when in a couple years she'd need a twin. We put bed rails on both sides so she doesn't roll off, and she loves being in a big girl bed.

We put our son into a "big boy" bed when he was two. I realized it was time when I went in to get him out of his crib and he looked HUGE in it ;) I know other mom's who had to make the decision when their child was able to climb out of the crib, luckily I didn't have that problem. We looked into the toddler bed option, but went with a twin bed because they grow out of a toddler bed at 55 lbs and we didn't want to have to buy two beds in 2+ years. We just got the rails for the bed, which he's 3 and still using. Also, if you go with a twin it's a bed that can stick with them until they move out or the bed needs to be replaced (whichever comes first). For us it ended up being a cheaper option.

We had one of those convertible cribs that turned into a toddler bed. Personally I think buying a toddler bed specifically is a waste of money. But we turned my son's into a toddler bed when he was about age 1. He learned to climb into his crib so I know if he could get in he could also get out and could really hurt himself. He slept in that til he was about 3 and then we got him a queen size bed (his bed turns into a guest bedroom if we get company staying over). We also put one of those little kiddie fold out couches you get from Walmart for like $20 on the floor on the side of his bed so if he fell it was softer. Good luck.

My daughter never climbed out of her bed, but rather fell out reaching fro something on a nearby dresser. 3 times in one night. That was enough. Especially since about 5 months earlier she somehow broke her forearm falling INSIDE the crib (near as we can figure she was once again reaching for something on the nearby dresser...about 2 feet away..just a small pile of freshly washed blankets...and wrenched her little arm in the bars when she fell on her rump. The break was not discovered due to idiot Drs until it was too late to properly cast it...5 dr appts over 2 weeks time on my inisitance..many X rays of her wrist, elbow..all but the part broken..and finally a bone scan after they had me scared about juvenile arthritis).

But we had a toddler bed all set up in her room as it was given to us. Her dollys and stuffy animals slept on it and got tucked in by her each night. She was just about to hit 22 mos old. SO that night of falling out, we just pulled the crib mattress out, put that in front of the toddler bed (I was a nervous Momma)..so if she fell from the toddler bed, it would be onto the crib mattress in front of it on the floor =).

She never fell out, loved her little bed, and never got up either! We had a pet gate to put in the doorway (steps are almost right outside her door, so I gated her doorway)...but she stayed in her bed and called out "Momma..I'm WAKE now" in the morning...and everyone after that for years, never getting up until we drilled into her it really was OK to get up and go potty on her own , etc.

To this day (she is 16 1/2)...she loves her own bed and has rarely slept with us thru her childhood..a few times when ill and thats it.

With my daycare children, its somewhere between 2 and 3 that I move them to a toddler bed (I have several), or a mat on the floor.

I would say between two and three years old.

I got my info on how to do it off this site too. :) What I learned from other moms, and what worked for us:
First child was 18 months old. We childproofed his room (no strings from the blinds where he could get them, outlets covered, safety gate at the door, etc). We made sure his bed was at the corner of a wall, against one wall, not near the shelves or dresser or anything else (no temptation to reach and fall). He had 2 toyboxes, a train table, and a dresser, but they were at other areas in the room. We got him a toddler sized racecar bed, which rocked his world, and new bedding, and he was thrilled. We had already established his bedtime routine (and no nightlights) well before time to get his toddler bed, so after he played in his room that day and knew all the stuff was "his", we just went about our normal bedtime routine and put him in as normal. We explained this was a big bed for a big boy, and we knew he would be good and go to bed like a big boy.....or else we'd have to put him in the baby bed again, but it's not as cool as this one. We gave him a kiss, turned off the light, stepped over the gate, closed the door, and sat there quietly with our stomachs in our throats waiting. He cried for about 3 minutes and that was all. We played scrabble quietly in the living room and when the game was over we snuck to the door and checked on him, he was sleeping. Being against one wall left less opportunity to fall out we thought, and we'd laid his big stuffed animals (Bob the Builder, a frog, and a dog) on the floor to hang out with him while his little Scooby slept with him. We thought if he fell on his stuffed animals (bigger than him) it wouldn't hurt because the bed was only 1 foot high anyway. He's never slept with us since then, he didn't fall out of his bed but once when he was 2 (but didn't cry....we heard the thump and came to get him, lol). Like someone suggested to me: not having the nightlight helped because he didn't get up out of bed in the dark. Then the safety gate was on his door so that when he woke up he was free to get up and play with toys or whatever but still be safe and I knew exactly where he was. Everyone liked it. I would get up early and open his door a little so I could hear him stirring, but would give him about 10 minutes on his own to be "big" and play by himself. He was proud of that!
We took the safety gate off the door and put in a nightlight later when he was doing the nighttime potty training (one for his room, one for the bathroom nearby) so he could get to the toilet without being scared. That was almost a year later though, and he was in the habit of sleeping in his own room by then.
My second child is 16 months old and has just inherited his brother's car bed. He's happy because he's seen his big brother sleeping on it many times so he knows it's "cool". We're doing the same thing with him, but he's a little more of a "rough" sleeper so I lay 2 pillows on the side of the bed "just in case".

My daughter is 16 now but she came out of her crib at 17 months.

We just put a mattress on the floor for her so if she rolled off, it would not be something bad. She loved it. When she got a bit older we set up the bed frame. At the time, we had a Queen mattress set and that is what she used. She still sleeps on a queen bed.

It seems to me that most parents wait until their child is climbing out of the crib. We did not. We never liked the crib (and often co-slept with our little guy), so around 18 months we put a twin size mattress floor and put him to bed there every night. If he woke up in the middle of the night, he would join us (we were ok with that). Once we were sure he wouldn't fall out, we set up the bed frame and box springs. We were happy with our arrangment and never spent any money on a toddler bed.

Both of my girls went into a regular "big girl" bed at age 2. We just pushed it against the wall and put up a bed rail on the other side. No need for a toddler bed. If your crib converts then that's one thing, but I definitely wouldn't spend money on a separate toddler bed. My older daughter had issues transitioning to the bed. I would've kept her in the crib, but little sister was coming (when older one was 26 months) so I wanted to get her used to being out of it. We had her big girl bed all set up but for about 3 or 4 months she wanted to sleep on the floor. So I made a little "bed" for her with blankets and a pillow on the floor and she was happy as a clam! You never know what's going to happen :)