From crib to big boy bed

F

FutureHKmom

Registered User
Just this week my 18 month old started to teach himself to climb out of his crib. He hasn't quite mastered it yet and has been seen hanging on for dear life at the top of the crib side not really knowing how to get down. I find that quite dangerous and was wondering if it was time to put him in a big boy bed, though I'm afraid he would roll around and roll out of bed. Any thoughts on how to deal with this? Thanks!
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I would suggest that you get a low down bed and you can put the matress from the cot on the floor beside the bed for a couple of weeks, so that if he does fall out, it would be a soft landing for him. I had this concern when we put my son in to his bed but he never fell out of it. You can also get the side rails for a bed. Good luck!
 
I put my daughter in a big bed at 18 months as we were expecting. We have a little step ladder at the foot and she can safely climb up and down (it's actually quite high), and we have a mattress on the floor next to her in case she falls out (although she never has - there's a rail on the side of the bed that keeps her in). She did pretty well, but then it was a bit bumpy because she figured out she could leave her room whenever she wanted. We ended up having to buy a gate for the door of her bedroom and that worked really well. Although she often will play in her room for a while before going up to bed, but she's great about going to sleep by herself MOST of the time though. It was definitely a little while to get used to it, but overall she did great :) I'd suggest getting a gate for the bedroom right from the start though, I wish we'd thought of that!!
 
We started with only the mattress on the floor... mainly because we don't have enough room for a whole real bed !! We will buy the frame when we can move his bed to a larger bedroom.
 
We put our son in a big bed (not toddler size) at 20 months b/c he climbed out of his crib. We found the longest/highest bedrail (kidco makes a great one) and we put a gate up at his room. the bed is against a wall so on the other side is a long bolster pillow.

The best advice I can give is to treat the bedroom as a big crib. His room doesn't have many toys, mostly just books too. By having a gate at the doorway, you can sleep train as well. If he keeps getting out of bed, then you have to let him cry it out by the gate. if he falls asleep behind the gate, it's fine too as it's one step closer to getting back to him to his bed. He WILL learn :) My son was getting out of bed a lot so we let him cry it out and he learned in about 3 nights to stay in his bed.

We had a little step stool too that led him up to the bed too. Yes, it took some time, but now he is great in it. It took about a couple of weeks for him to transition.
 
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