My son turned 2 today, and we have been considering for a long time to transition him to a bed. Specially since he already sleeps in a bed at the daycare.
I am afraid that he will not want to stay in bed once he makes the transition. What was your experience? When did you switch?
edit: I am looking for your experiences, and learn from them. As with everything related with children, every experience is different and will help forming your answer. This is not a math question. :)
I was once told keep the kids in the crib until they start trying to get out. That is kind of what we did. We switched our daughter to a bed at about 2.5 years and the main reason we did that is because we were preparing for her to share a room with her little sister and her sister needed the crib.
My daughter took right to it. She rarely ever gets out of bed at night and if she does, we just walk her back to her room.
I think this really depends on the temperament of your child. My daughter is very laid back and no one was really surprised about how she took to sleeping in a bed.
Kids vary. Some take to the bed without any real difference from how they went to sleep in the crib, and others are all "oooh, freedom!" and getting up every ten seconds for a cuddle or a drink or to see what you are up to.
For the "oooh, freedom!" type, here's what I do:
First of all, make sure a good, solid, consistent bedtime routine is in place. Put on pajamas, brush teeth, get into bed, read a story, have a special quilt, you get the idea.
Then, once the child is in bed, the child does not get out of bed. If he/she does, pick him/her up with a quick "it's bedtime honey, now you need to get some sleep" and put him/her right back. After about two times, stop saying anything, just pick him/her up and deposit back in bed. After a couple of nights in which you don't get nearly enough sleep, the idea catches on and it works well. Then, you can trust your child to go to sleep properly wherever you are.
Don't make the switch permanent. We bought beds for our twins when they were 18 months (must be a twin thing ;) ). They were over excited with the prospect of having beds. When it came to sleeping, the just wanted their old cots. Maybe it provided them some feeling of comfort of safety. We have just stored the beds for the time being. We got advice from friends that you should make the shift when your kids start climbing out of their cots them self, or when they ask for it. So the basic answer the change is up to them
I am pretty sure that in the beginning they will not stay in bed, but maybe it would help making a ritual out of it by reading a bed time story for example.
I think you generally have a "feeling" when to do it, personally i dont think theres a rush and its a battle id put of for a while. my daughters just turned two, have been thinking of putting her in a bed but just gut instint telling me wait a few more months, but agree that if she starts trying to climb out, thats when i will put her in a bed for saftey, and i dont think that moving a child to a bed because you need the cot for the NEW baby is a good idea, either do it long before baby comes or they will resent it and may cause dramas over bed time. make it a special thing, nice duvet, teddys etc, and take time first night
He definitely won't want to stay in the bed once you make the switch... but he'll get used to is.
You can always put a gate on his room so he can get out of bed, but not out the room, without your help.
My twins are 19 months, and are making the switch this month.
Since you are looking for anecdotal answers here, here is mine. We switched our son to a "big boy bed" (twin size) around 15 months. Did it before he was really old enough to care (I think). The mattress was on a box-spring, no frame. We put a body pillow on the floor in case he decided to get off -- or rolled off. The bed was in a whole different room. So not only did he change beds, he changed rooms at the same time. I think that helped.
To make the transition, one night we just took him out from his crib while he was sleeping and just put him into the new bed. We were there for him when he woke up in the morning in case he freaked out. The next night we just put him in the bed (made sure he was tired, but not yet asleep). He never put up a fight or anything. He took to it right away. By the time he felt "ownership" of a bed, he was already in the right bed. To him, we never "took away" the crib.
We kept the first one in the crib until she could climb out (around age 3 when her little brother came). Her little brother hasn't yet climbed out.
In any case, the kids will get out of bed anyway and you'll have that whole set of battles to overcome regardless.
I would just wait until either they start climbing out of the crib (because of the danger) or if they start to express interest in a "big bed". We pushed it a little too hard with the first child because we needed the crib and she started coming in our bed and not staying in her toddler bed. You may need to gradual ease them into the toddler bed (i.e. if they get out of the toddler bed, they go back in the crib), so keep the crib around a few weeks.
Don't wait until he is climbing out. Ideally, you should set the agenda so you can take the time to do it properly.
This was our procedure over a number of weeks. Our son was 18 months old at the time:
We were quite surprised with our success given that our son has always resisted change. Once he had that first afternoon sleep, he slept in the bed that same night and has continued to do so ever since then.
Our children were both in toddler beds from the day they were born. The youngest has shown a small propensity to get out of bed after bedtime, but he:
So, from my experience there's certainly no "too soon".
There's a good chance that your child won't want to stay in a bed once they move away from the Cot.
But, if you keep them in the Cot for too long, they will want to get out of that too - and it is much less safe for them to climb out of that, than it is for them to simply roll out of their bed - our son was getting out of his own cot before he was even 2!
So while it is a daunting task, it is well worth the effort to transition from cot to bed - you may have some wiggle room if they aren't yet trying to escape the cot, but if they are, it's definitely time to move.
My recommendation for this is simple - make the room itself as safe as you can. Put a child safety doorknob cover over their doorknob, remove any hard plastic or wooden toys from their room, and if you have an extra mattress or changing pad, I suggest putting it just under the bed positioned so if they do roll out, they will have a soft place to land. Keep all the outlets covered as well, of course.
Over time you will find other things that need child-proofing, and you will need to add additional child-proofing when you find those things. But in general, you can make your child's room a safe place for them to sleep, and while it may not be as safe as when they were kept in just their cot, it's the next step forward for them, and they will eventually have to take that step.
