My son is 21 months old right now, and has climbed out of his crib twice in the past month. My problem is, other than climbing out of the crib, I feel like he's either not ready or not comfortable with his new toddler bed.
Here's how I handled it: I put in the toddler bed that we had stored in the garage for awhile now. Then my son and I took a trip to target and I had him pick out bedding for his big boy bed. I tried really hard to make it fun, and seem great and that it was really his choice and everything. I emphasized that we got this big boy bed from his cousin, who he loves and looks up to. He lays there and we read books with the lamp on, or sing soft songs and cuddle on it so he knows that it's for sleeping and quiet time.
But still, he throws a fit whenever I try to have him lay on it for bed time. We've had the bed in there for about a week now, but he only sleeps in the crib. I wouldn't mind him doing so, except I'm terrified of something bad happening if he trieds to climb out again.
Any advice to make this transition go smoother? Or any advice on this subject at all? Am I doing this wrong?
You need to take the crib out of the room and buy a bed rail. Right now he's the cat that keeps going back to the old house you moved from.
You could drop the side of the crib. He can't roll out, and if he decides he wants to sleep in the other bed, he can get out of the crib easily. Unless you need him to change beds for another baby to use the crib, I wouldn't push it. My second one slept in a crib until she was past 3, even though she could get out of it by 10 months. He really isn't going to hurt himself getting out of the crib, so why push the toddler bed?
When my daughter was that age and climbed out of the crib, I put the crib in the middle of her room. Sure it looked odd, but who cares... Once the crib was entirely off adjacent walls, she couldn't climb up the rails anymore (because the wall helps them get up). I suggest you try moving the crib before you transition him to a toddler bed.
Toddler beds can be challenging if you do it before the child has hit the developmental milestone of understanding imaginary boundaries "stay in bed"). If you do it before they understand that the edge of the mattress is a boundary, you will be fighting him getting out of bed until he does reach that milestone. And another reason. Is that at 21 months, he is probably still flipping directions; if you put him in bed with his head at one end and you find him with his head at the other end, you'll know he is still prone to flipping--which means he is sitting up while asleep and then falling (full force) in another direction. If his toddler bed has wooden footer, header, or side rails, they could be dangerous if his head/chest/limbs were to fall full force onto them. Safest place for a child who is still in the phase of sleep flipping is in a crib with the side rails totally up.
Good luck!
My daughter turned 3 in August and is still in her crib. She gets in and out of it without any difficulties and has never hurt herself. She likes having blankets draped over the top - I think it makes her feel more cozy and secure, like her own little "tent".
I've heard that often, before the age of 3, children cannot distinguish between "real" barriers (like the crib) and "imaginary" ones (the edge of the bed mattress), which sometimes makes it a challenge to get them to stay in bed. Your son might just find his crib to be more secure and familiar. If you are worried about him hurting himself if he climbs out, you can always put a mattress next to the crib for him to land on. You can also put a baby gate across the doorway so he can't leave the room and wander about while you guys are still sleeping.
My son was in his crib until about 3 years old.
He LOVED his crib and slept SO well in it.
Sure, he at a certain age of about 2 years old, climbed out. I told him "no, you will get hurt..." well one day he climbed and fell out. He cried, and got a bump. NEVER again, did he climb out of his crib.
Then, one day HE told us he wanted to sleep on a 'bed.' So we did. And he was fine. He was ready.
OR have your son sleep on a mattress ON the floor. So he won't get hurt.
all the best,
Susan
I like what Nancy said about taking off the side of the crib so he could get in and out easily. You can buy a bed rail to put on it so he doesn't roll out in the middle of the night.
Another option would be to completely take the crib out of his room. If he sees it, he knows it is an option and will obviously pick the more familiar, comfortable bed than the new, unfamiliar one. If you do this, you are going to have to have your mind made up that you are going to follow through with it until he becomes comfortable. With our son, we put him in a whole new room and bed. He went from his crib to a full sized bed pretty easily. We did the same as you, read in it and made is seem really cool. The night we decided to put him in it, we knew that if we turned back he would never want to go in it. So, we did our normal routine: bath, book, bed. When we put him in, we left the room. He ran out crying. We put him back in bed quickly, without any talking. He ran out only five times and then he layed down and fell asleep. Since then, he loves his new bed and I can't imagine him in a crib anymore. Good luck!
He's not yet two. He knows he isn't ready for it. Our kids climbed out of the crib with the bar up. He's athletic. Put the bar down on the crib and let him climb in and out at will.
If he's in a separate room it won't help to put a gate over the door as he can climb that too.
Just let him come into your bed in the morning and he'll be soothed enough so that in a few months the toddler bed will look just right to him.
Well the switch for us was no big deal. I put my two younger kids in a twin bed when they both about 20 mo. They had no problem what so ever staying in the bed. However my niece who was about 2 1/2 yrs when she visited us she could NOT stay in her bed and ended up in very peculiar positions. I think she grew out of it.
I just put a gate on the side of the bed to keep my kids from falling out.
don't switch....get a crib tent. I just did this a few weeks ago. It works WONDERS. it is mesh and safe and baby cant get out so she is safe
Get rid of the crib. We transitioned our daughter at around 19m old (same problem, climbing out of/on the crib) and we took the crib down, with her watching and "helping". We had made a big deal of the big girl bed for a few weeks beforehand and she had come with us to IKEA to pick out her bed. Once the crib was down we put together her bed, again with her "helping" and once it was ready she seemed pretty excited. With the crib gone there was nothing to do but sleep in her bed. It went fine from the first night. I believe if we had left the crib up with the bed there we would have had the same problem you are having. We decided to just remove the temptation.
