Need a Crib Solution

J.,
My son is also very tall, he is 34 inches now and is 17 months old. He started sleeping in a toddler bed at 12 months because he is going to be a big brother in about 6 weeks. I would suggest getting a toddler bed and start having him nap on it, then move to having him sleep nights on it. If he starts getting up too much in the night, put a gate across his doorway so he can not get out and run around the house!!

My son tried to climb out 2 times. But he understood that he fell and it hurt, so we really talked a lot about how we don't climb out because it can hurt! OUCH!
We also took out the bumper pad.

I also know that many friends have loved the crib net/tent.
I have not had to take that route yet but I would definetly try it before moving to a bigger bed!

My child is 17 months and she can't pull herself enough to get over. My oldest DD is now 3 was over the 75% for her age and she moved to a toddler bed because we needed the crib. She transitioned when she was 21 months or so. I don't think you have to worry about it for a few more months. If your boy can pull himself up or can hook his leg over the top railing then I'd worry.

My son is a big boy too...He was 30lbs at 12 months (he is 17 months now). I worried that he would climb out too, he climbs every thing else. I took out the bumper pads so he couldn't get a foot up on them. He hasn't tried to climb out...he likes it in his crib. When he wakes up he just sings to himself until I get him. So I guess you have to ask yourself how bad does he want to get out. You could lay some pillows around the crib and make sure there is nothing sharp (a corner of a table ect) near to hit if he does fall down.

I have a "crib tent" over my 6 month old sons crib. You can find it at Babies R' Us. They're not really cheap but it should help you out. It attaches to the outside of the crib and then it zips up in the front side of the crib to keep both the kid in and cats/dogs out.

My son never slept in his crib. When he was about 10 months old we took it down and had him sleep on the mattress on the floor. Since he wanted us to lay by him at night, we ended up buying a twin mattress and putting it on the floor at 13 months. He got a twin captain's bed (very low to the ground) at about 17 months and we put up a bed rail to keep him from rolling out.

The only thing I wish we had done differently would be to have gotten a nicer bed rail that folded down; I ended up getting rid of it before he was really ready because he always wanted someone to lay by him and there wasn't enough room with that rail on the side.

A lot of the moms in our ECFE classes are struggling with switching their toddlers (ages 2-3) to big beds because they're so attached to their cribs. We never had that issue because he was too young to really know what was going on--or to care.

Best wishes!

I'd just use the crib until he actually tries to climb out of it. My son was large too, but he stays in (and he's 3 in march -- he's 37.5 inches and 35 lbs) still. He did fall out (the side was down -- our fault) when he was younger and maybe that's made my son more cautious, but I'd say just keep him there until he climbs out. Then into a bigger/lower bed!

I would keep him in the crib and add one of those mesh tent like things over the top. I never had to use one for my older 2 but a cousin of mine did and she said it was a saving grace to keeping her little man in his crib.

My son was in his crib until about his third birthday. When he was younger he would never crawl out, even though he climbed on everything else he could. At some point, he would crawl out if I tried to put him in for a time out. Some I stopped time outs in there. He then started only crawling in the mornings when he woke up...I did not worry because he had down to a science and was not worried about him getting hurt. I finally took it down when he started getting out at night. Then I was worried about injury if he was half awake and it was dark.

On the other hand my daughter was out of her crib by her first birthday.