My son is a wild child. He is 13 months and in a crib still, but the Tasmanian devil in him keeps surfacing. He goes to the far end of it, and starts jumping up and down on the mattress like a trampoline. There is pretty good bounce in that mattress and he is now bouncing till his head is above the crib side. He is clutching the rail for support and further pulling himself higher mid jump. I am terrified he will go head first out of it soon. We can't trust him in there. Is he too young to be in a toddler bed yet? any suggestions?
My kids were like that at that age. The crib was no longer an option. We put them in toddler beds.. even worse, b/c they could push the bed all over the room, one morning I came in and the bedframe is standing up straight against the wall! But then again, it was just a cheap bedframe. So, I ended up putting the mattress right on the floor. It worked for us! Try that and see what happens :)
we did mattresses on the floor for the first year at around a year old.
I'd tent him in before I let him out. If you put a 1 month old wild child in a bed you will never sleep again!
In child care babies are moved to cots at around 10 months to prepare them for moving to the toddler room. All of my grandkids were in toddler beds by 15 months and by 18 months they were all sleeping it all the time without any incidents.
If you baby proof their rooms, screwing the shelves to the wall is the biggest, and have a gate up in their doorway they can get up and play anytime they want to and be safe. If you use a baby monitor you can hear them if they get up.
The #1 piece of advice I will give you is to put doorknob protectors on every door that is in your home. Especially the door to the bathrooms and the garage. This way if he does get out of his room and wander he can't drown in the toilet or get into chemicals in the garage or even perhaps get outside.
yup twin mattress on floor in the same place the crib is now.. move the crib in a different corner so you can still put him in if really needed, but keep him on the mattress. After a few months put the base and a toddler guard on each side.
Forget the toddler bed. waste of time an money in my opinion, go straight for the twin. If he climbs out of bed and wants to leave the room, nicely tuck him in and tell him it is sleepy time... put a night light on, give him a toy or a book or a favorite teddy, and put one of those child proof knobs on the INSIDE of the room so he cannot come out. You will hear him if he cries, believe me.. put the monitor on if you are not sure about this.. watch him for a few nights...
It will get better... Keep trying.
good luck...
Try putting the mattress on the floor, but still in the crib. This bought us some time with our "wild" son. If you get rid of the trundle support, he can't jump as high.
I think that you have no choice but to take him out of the crib. To be honest, I'd just lay his crib mattress in the floor. And I'd be a fanatic about not letting him out of that room, even if it means locking the door. If you are so worried about him being "locked in", get a nanny cam so that you can see him. But if you let him come out and give in to that from the moment you take him out of the crib, you'll be writing on here asking how to keep him from wandering the house at night, coming into your bed, etc. And you will wish that you had bought a LID for that crib!!
Good luck!!
Dawn
For safety's sake, yes, it's time. Start with the mattress on the floor, he can jump to his heart's content.
And my advice is not to put a tent on his crib if you were considering that to prolong his time in the crib. Being that he bounces around he could collapse it and become entangled and be at risk for strangulation or smothering. This happened in a family our pediatrician sees, so very sad.
Give it a shot! My son did the same thing (still does on my daughter's crib), and he's never bounced out.
But, I have a suspicion that the earlier you can move them into a big kid bed, the less struggle you'll have with it.
Good luck!
