24 responses so far ↓

• 1 Naomi // Mar 26, 2008 at 5:08 pm

  My daughter moved into a big girl bunkbed at two. I didn’t see the point in a toddler bed for her since she would just have to move to a bigger bed again. Luckily, she said the top bunk was too old for her to sleep in!

• 2 Suzanne Bastien // Mar 26, 2008 at 5:40 pm

  **I don’t have any good answers for you, but I found these on BabyCenter today.
  I hope this helps a little!

  Good luck!

  Why it happens
  Many young children worry about being replaced by a new sibling, and their worries are made all the more real when they find out their crib will be going to a new baby. Even if you’re making the crib-to-bed change for other reasons — for instance, your child has started climbing out of the crib or has outgrown it, or you’ve started toilet training — an abrupt transition to an unfamiliar bed can be hard for a toddler accustomed to the safety and security of a crib.
  What you can do about it
  If the arrival of a new baby is the reason for the move, make the transition a couple of months before your due date so your toddler can get used to the new arrangement. Or keep your new baby in a bassinet and make the switch after your toddler has adjusted to being a big brother.

  No matter what’s prompting the move, take it slowly. Let your child help pick out his new bed, and encourage him to accessorize it with favorite stuffed animals or blankets from his crib (avoid stuffed animals if your family has a history of allergies). Be sure to put up a guard rail for extra security — falling out of bed in the middle of the night can be scary and dangerous.

  Also, stick with your normal nighttime routine. If the novelty of sleeping in a bed has your toddler up and about past his bedtime, gently but firmly lead him back to the bed, explaining that he must stay there until morning. Your toddler should get the message after a few nights.

  ______________________________________________________________________

  **Here is another link that has some great answers by parents who are doing the same thing.

  http://www.babycenter.com/400_how-do-we-transition-our-toddler-to-a-bed_500492_1001.bc

• 3 Amy // Mar 26, 2008 at 5:40 pm

  My older 2 children moved into big kid beds when they were 2.5. We also skipped the whole toddler bed. My daughter had a full size bed that was snug against the wall, so that she wouldn’t fall out.

• 4 Michelle B // Mar 26, 2008 at 5:52 pm

  As a mother of 7 we have done both a toddler bed and a big kids bed. The younger children have gone to a big kids bed and skipped the toddler bed altogether. They share a room with older siblings. Which ever you do my suggestion would be to set up the new bed with his favorite character or color or whatever he would be excited about. For my 4 year old he is into Thomas the train, Cars and his color is orange. So I put an orange striped sheets and Car comforter (I couldn’t find Thomas at the time) and Thomas pillowcase, a couple of Thomas throw pillows and a smaller Thomas blanket for the foot of his bed. It didn’t all match but it was all about him and his likes. He was excited. I have tried to do this with each of them and I make a big deal that we are preparing a bed for him, he is a big boy who needs a big boy bed and make it special for him. I have never had one who wanted the crib back. Also we have always had the baby in a cradle next to our bed and our babies have been able to stay there for at least 4 months than by the time they need the crib the younger sibling is use to the baby being around.

• 5 Aura // Mar 26, 2008 at 5:53 pm

  We bought my son a crib tent when he was 1.5 since he was climbing out in the middle of the night. He loved it but when he turned 3 and was toilet trained we decided it was time to move him to a bed. We were debating converting his crib to a toddler bed and buying the guardrail since he moves around so much but figured we’d like to keep the crib for the next baby (I was pregnant at the time) so we needed a toddler bed that had nice guardrails since my son has fallen off the foot of twin beds guardrails and low to the ground since he is quite short. We ended up buying him a second hand Step 2 fire engine toddler bed on Craigslist that he and all his friends love. It will be a pain if we decide to store it for his little brother or we can just sell it on craigslist. For now he’s the celebrity among his friends and since we live in a small apartment without a backyard it’s nice to have something all his friends can climb on. The bed is really easy to clean and very sturdy. I don’t know that I would pay full price to buy it new since it is so easy to sterilize but it’s definately really cute! We bought the trucks mobile from Pottery barn so he has a truck theme in his room but not too babyish. Congrats on your new addition and good luck!

• 6 Belinda // Mar 26, 2008 at 6:14 pm

  My parents bought a wonderful Baby’s Dream convertible crib for us when I was pregnant. It was truly beautiful…and my daughter never spent one single night in it. (we used an Arm’s Reach co-sleeper, then when she was older, she slept in our king-size bed, between me and the wall)

  We coordinated the move to our new house with her move to the bed in “toddler-bed form”. Again, the bed was gorgeous, and since it looked like it was made just for a small person, we had a pretty smooth time transitioning her from our bed to her own. She was three years old at the time.

  For her 5th birthday a few months ago, we gave the bed its final transformation–into a standard size “big girl bed!” It’s still gorgeous, and sturdy as an oak tree, and will serve her for years to come.

• 7 Rachelle // Mar 26, 2008 at 6:32 pm

  Both my older kids were moved into toddler beds at 15 months. It didn’t seem too young at all. My third isn’t in one yet (at 18 months) because I don’t feel like getting it down from the attic yet!

• 8 Andrea Frost // Mar 26, 2008 at 6:46 pm

  We had a toddler bed and started to put our daughter in it at 2 years but we should have just skipped the toddler bed altogether (unless you have a crib that converts into a toddler bed) as it seems like a waste of $. I put my daughter into a twin bed with railings and she is still in it 3 years later.

• 9 Brit // Mar 26, 2008 at 7:13 pm

  We started the transition last August when my son started climbing out of his crib. He started climbing out when I was weaning him off his binky. He was 18 months at the time. So instead of him hurting himself, we took the crib apart and put the crib mattress on the floor. After that we graduated him to a regular matress on the floor and he stayed on in that for about 4 months. I know it doesn’t look pretty, but I didn’t want the extra transition from a toddler bed to a real bed (or the extra cost). So once he got used to the whole bed thing we put the whole bed together and put up one of those safety bed rails and we haven’t had a problem at all. Our hardest part was when we went from the crib to just the matress on the floor. He kept getting up and coming out of his room. My advice is if you have a binky for your child still then keep the binky until you transition them to a bed and then once their transitioned then take it away. I ended up weaning a binky and transitioning to a bed at the same time and it was just too much to handle. Good luck!

• 10 babyletsshop // Mar 26, 2008 at 7:51 pm

  I can’t remember exactly what age my eldest was when I made the switch but he was climbing out of his crib so I knew it was time, I think he was under two. I originally bought him a toddler bed which he hated and refused to sleep in so I decided for a double mattress on the ground. (I had an extra double, you could just get a twin) I think a mattress on the floor is a much better way to go, you don’t have to transition twice and since bed rails aren’t that safe for young kids (they can get stuck between the rail and the bed) you won’t have to worry about them falling that far if they do roll off. I did find though with a double that he tended to not roll off b/c he had a lot of extra room to squirm.

• 11 Christina W. // Mar 26, 2008 at 8:05 pm

  When I was expecting my first we bought one of those three-in-one cribs. It’s a captain’s style with drawers on the bottom, so it was already pretty low (which I discovered was kind of a pain when she was big enough to need the side all the way up and my short arms meant that she’d invariably wake-up two inches before she hit the mattress!) On the plus side, she couldn’t ever climb out of it, and we decided to switch her directly to a twin size bed with a guard rail a few months before our second child was due. We did it this way so that it never felt like he was “taking” her crib, and we made a big deal over how big she was. She loooooved her big-girl bed (still calls it that almost a year later) and the transition was pretty smooth. Honestly - I think that toddler beds are a waste of money, as they can only be used for a brief time, and with guard-rails, there is no real safety issue.

  But if you have your heart and mind set on it - may I suggest a look at Ikea’s adjustable length children’s beds?

  The one I recommend is in the Leksvik series, with bed base, the cost is $149. Here are some stats:
  Extendable. Length can be adjusted as the child grows taller.
  Mattress length: 74 3/4 ”
  Mattress width: 37 3/4 ”
  Solid wood - not from intact natural forests.
  Solid pine, Stain, Clear acrylic lacquer
  Bed base: Solid pine, Plywood, Clear acrylic lacquer
  Bed base slats: 100 % polyester, Solid pine
  Supporting rail: Steel, Galvanized

  Hope that helps!

• 12 Romelaine // Mar 26, 2008 at 8:14 pm

  i don’t have any advice, but something to possibly compare to. I am currently 7 months pregnant with our second baby and a 2 1/2 y/o toddler. my little monkey still sleeps in our bed, and my husband wouldn’t have it any other way. one main reason is we live in a 1 bedroom apart ment, with no room for another bed…(we have a european king bed, solely for the purpose of having more room to sleep for all 3 of us) but we don’t plan on getting her a new bed until we move to a bigger place, preferable with a 2nd and 3rd room. we are looking to buy a little bed for her, that pretty much sits on the ground or just the mattress alone, because she is pretty active when she sleeps. I hope this somehow helps.

• 13 Melanie // Mar 26, 2008 at 8:59 pm

  We got our son at 2 yrs old the wooden toddler bed you have photographed. he would end up upside by the morning or after a nap or worse… on the floor! it took one week to get rid of it—
  we got him the stock car race car bed from walmart. we are still at 3 years old using the crib size mattress with the bed but it will also fit a twin mattress. the crib mattress and high sides do not allow him to fall out!

• 14 ampmmom // Mar 26, 2008 at 11:40 pm

  With my daughter, she was in a crib until 2.5 since I didn’t want to change her as we were moving into a house with stairs. We put both her big girl bed and crib in her room and during nap time, I took the side of her crib off. Sometimes she went in the crib and sometimes into the big bed. After about a week, she was always in the big bed for nap, so we started doing the same for night time. She has only fallen out one time, but I think that was due to all the stuffed animals she tried to sleep with! I don’t know if it helps, but we are planning on the same approach with our son next summer

• 15 Donna // Mar 27, 2008 at 10:51 am

  My oldest was 18 months when her brother was born. We had a cradle in our bedroom that he stayed in for 2-3 months, but then it was time to move him into the crib. My daughter has always been small for her age, so she looked too little to move into a big twin bed. So, we bought a toddler bed…nothing fancy, just a white plastic one…and moved her into in around 20 months. We put the monitor in her room so we could hear her. The first night, my husband and I put her to bed and then went downstairs to relax. About 5 minutes later, we heard animal sounds coming from her room. She had gotten out of the bed and started playing with one of her books that made noises! But, it didn’t take her long to adjust and she did great in her new bed!

• 16 RachelV // Mar 27, 2008 at 3:28 pm

  We moved our little ones to twin sized beds before they turned two. They did extremely well. With each one, they were moved a little quicker from the crib because with both, a new baby was coming and would need the crib.

• 17 Sandy // Mar 27, 2008 at 8:02 pm

  Get used to trusting your mommy instincts. Every day a mother is faced with challenges, roadblocks and milestones when it comes to our children. You have successfully reached one. Congratulations!

  We made the transition to a toddler bed for my youngest right around 2 years old - but I remember my older child waiting until about 2 1/2. Trust your instincts and know when they will feel most comfortable with the transition. It will go much smoother when everyone is enthusiastic about the move. Expect a few visits during the night though. You seem like a planner and I’m sure will be able to deal with the milestone - and it truly is. Kudos to your little one (and yourselves) for reaching it. Embrace these moments because they will be grown before you know it.

  I was on www.tangledandtrue.com earlier today and noticed that they are highlighting a line of furniture by spot on square (www.spotonsquare.com) that is not only delightful but also eco-friendly. Check out their site. Clean and beautiful lines.

  Best of luck!

• 18 Betsy // Mar 27, 2008 at 8:58 pm

  We moved our oldest to a toddler bed before he was 2 because he was climbing out of the crib. We bought a Little Tykes Racecar toddler bed secondhand and because the bed was SO FUN, he stayed in it just fine. Our 2nd son was also less than 2, but it was necessity because I was not supposed to lift (bedrest with our 3rd) and we couldn’t always find people to come early enough to lift him out. DISASTER. It totally depends on the child’s temperment.

• 19 Jennifer // Mar 28, 2008 at 3:44 pm

  I moved my older daughter to her big kid twin bed (on the floor for a couple of months) around 20 months - she was refusing to sleep in her crib (screaming, crying fits - a child who normally you put down and was fine) - it took awhile to transition her because she kept getting out and wanting to come see us downstairs…with my baby, we will see - she is only 7 months

• 20 Debbie // Mar 28, 2008 at 4:59 pm

  We moved both of my kids when they were just under 18 months old & in both cases it was a really good change. My son, in particular, had been really frustrated with the cagelike crib and his nighttime routine got a lot better once he could get in and out of bed himself.

  We made his room completely safe and put a gate on his door. He’s allowed to do whatever he wants after we leave (read a book, get out of bed, etc), but he has to stay in his room.

  Each child fell off the bed a handful of times, but the drop is so short that they didn’t even wake up (but move toys from around the bed before bedtime so that they don’t fall on them)

  We like the toddler beds from ikea (they have a really sweet white bed with sheep on the headboard right now) because they’re long enough for us to lie down comfortably with our son or daughter if they are sick. A twin sized fitted sheet fits them (you just tuck it in on the bottom) and I had a custom quilt made at quiltbaby.com (it turned out great)

  I hope this helps
  Debbie
  http://www.deliciousbaby.com

• 21 Resa // Mar 28, 2008 at 7:54 pm

  We moved our oldest to a twin bed after we moved into a new house. He was just 2 at the time. There was no way i was putting that crib BACK together AGAIN! We just put the mattress on the floor, a month or so later i think we added the box spring and a side rail. When he was 3 we added the bed frame and he was a champ by then. It took some getting used to for him and us. Keeping him in the bed was a bit of a struggle by we “Supper Nanny’ed” it and just keep putting him back with out saying a word. Eventually he got it. I think in retrospect, a few more months would have been helpful, he was young, but it all worked out. Oh, and we didn’t have to use the alarm clock any more b/c he could just come right in our room I’M still trying to get over this. Someday they won’t want to get up, right?

• 22 Erin // Mar 29, 2008 at 6:35 am

  We put my son in a toddler bed when he was about 16 months old and he loved it! We put the side rails up for a few nights and then took them off because I wanted to be able to lay with him. He’s only fallen off the bed once and it’s very low to the ground that he wouldn’t get hurt. We got him the blue one from Ikea. He has the whole room set and it’s adorable. Aidan will do great in a toddler bed!
  Good luck!

• 23 NerdMom // Mar 30, 2008 at 10:17 pm

  We have put the older 3 kids into a toddler bed a little before 2 because we had new babies on the way. (3 kids born in June and 1 in July) I have to say we would have probably been fine just throwing a mattress on the floor. We were real careful to transfer well before the baby was in the crib so it wasn’t being taken by the baby.

• 24 Melissa // Mar 30, 2008 at 11:47 pm

  We bought our son a toddler bed when he was pretty close to two. It was the little tikes car bed. We left it in his room next to his crib and let him choose which one he wanted to sleep in. He almost always choose the car bed and after about two weeks we removed the crib. He didn’t even notice.

  Now he is sleeping in our old queen bed but we just left the mattress on the box springs so it is low. He likes the space and he constantly would roll out of the car bed. I was really surprised by how easy the transition was from crib to bed. The hard part for us was always getting him to stay in his bed in the middle of the night.

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