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Toddlers: 24 Months+
cobi166
member
Age to move to toddler bed
cobi166
member
At what age did you move your LO to a toddler bed, and was there a specific reason??? I'm sure this is all over the board, but I'm still curious. My DS just turned 2 last week, but I don't know if I'm ready to move him yet. He sleeps great in his crib, never tries to get out, and hangs out awake in there in the morning until we go in to get him. He'll hang out for an hour or so if we're sleeping in. I'm afraid all that will change, and I'm not sure of a good reason to move him if all is going well in his crib. I don't know...how about the rest of you? When and why did you transition?
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Re: Age to move to toddler bed
Noel - August 2010
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DD#1 was 22 months. I wanted to use her crib for one of the twins, so to get ready, I put the toddler bed in her room so she could get used to seeing it. I thought she was ready but wanted to ease her into it. That night she hopped into the toddler bed and that was it.
My twins, now 21.5 months, will be in their cribs for 8-10 mmore years. Or until 3 , I guess.
My opinion, if it is not broke then don't fix it. If he sleeps great in the crib, then let him in the crib. We wanted ours to sleep in the cribs as long as possible. We made it to 2 1/2. I wanted to get closer to 3, but they started climbing into out of their cribs (not a big deal for me) and into their twins crib (this was a problem because they would fight in one crib). Once we put them in toddler beds they no longer nap. Probably would not be a problem if they were singletons, but as twins that share a room, they just play instead of napping. So bye bye nap time. Bedtime is a dream. They never get out of bed and go right to sleep, probably because they are so tired from no naps. I also gave them the bedtime rules right from the start, 1. stay in bed, 2. no getting up and 3. close your eyes. They would not have followed these rules before the age of 2 1/2.
I had decided if they climbed out before 2 1/2, I was going to get crib tents and keep them in cribs until 3. But once we made it to 2 1/2 it was not worth the money to buy crib tents for 2 toddlers that would be almost $160 for maybe 6 months use.
DH decided to convert the crib a few months back. She wasn't getting out but occassionally she would try to put her leg up on the top of the crib.
Starting on the first night, she's never tried to get out. She doesn't get out in the morning until we go in to get her. We've told her that if she needs something, she can come to us but so far hasn't done it.
If I were in your shoes, I'd leave him in the crib for now until you have a reason to change it. I think the older they are the easier the transition is.
That said, we converted DD#1's crib into a toddler bed a couple months after she turned 2 since she began crawling out of the crib. The transition went fine. I feel like having a crib that changed into a toddler bed made it easier because it didn't feel quite as different as a whole new bed would have.
Jen - Mom to Jillian (10/2008) and Hayden (4/2010)
My Blog
We switched him at 15 months. He was climbing out of the crib and we had a baby coming so we figured we'd try it see how it went before buying another crib. It went so well, he got the hang of it from the get-go. I don't really understand people making such a big deal out of switching to a toddler bed. It honestly didn't seem any different than him being in his crib except for the fact that he could get up if he wanted (which he was practically doing already climbing out of the crib..), but he still slept great (in fact, I think he started sleeping better). And honestly, I think it would have been harder switching him at this age since he's in a 'defiant' stage.
We'll probably try switching DD around the same age. You can always try it and if it doesn't work out, try again later, but really I don't see any reason to wait.
***Twin fraternal girls born at 35w6d in 12/2008***
We moved DD at 2 years, 3 months. The month prior she slept in a toddler bed on vacation and loved it, was super happy in the bed, didn't try to get out, etc. When we came home from vacation, she kept talking about the bed and how she was a big girl, wanted to sleep in a bed, etc. She kept refusing to get in her crib at night and would only fall asleep in our bed (without us in it, so it was totally a bed fixation). We talked to her a lot about the responsibilities of having a big girl bed (not getting in and out of it during the night, etc.) and finally took her to IKEA and let her pick out her own bed. It went really well from day one and we've never had any issues with her getting out or roaming around the house at night. If she wakes up before us (which isn't often because she tends to sleep late), she just grabs a book and goes back to her bed to look at it for a while. I do not regret our decision to get her a bed when we did. It was the perfect time.
Ditto. She still loves her crib and has never tried to climb out of it. I read somewhere that as long as they sleep well in their crib and don't climb out, you should wait until 3 to move them. The reasoning was at age 3 they are less impulsive and easier to reason with, so it's less of a battle to get them to stay in bed. They also said age 2 is filled with such huge developmental leaps, especially when it comes to independence, so it's good for them to be able to do all that during the day then at night kind of revert back to the safety and "baby-ness" of their crib. Makes them feel more secure while they're changing and growing so quickly. I don't know...totally made sense to me so I'm going with it
DS is 25 months old and never tried to climb out of his crib once...until last Thursday. He climbed out, fell and broke his leg in two places. Now he's in a cast for six weeks. If you think your child is capable of climbing out, switch or get a crib tent. I learned my lesson.