my son is 19 months and is ready to have a big boy bed! we are looking at twin beds. any suggestions on making this a smooth transition?
Unless he is crawling out of it, I would say keep him in it. My son just turned 2 and he is still in his crib. As far as the transition goes it all depends on him and how he takes the change. You can try the mattress on the floor or the bed against the wall with a guard rail, but ultimately he will either stay or not.
Me personally, I'm keeping my son in his crib (which turns into a toddler bed) till he's at least 3 (unless he starts climbing over the rails and have to do it sooner)! Then we'll turn it into his toddler bed!
My only advice is to be consistant!!! My kids were out of their baby beds by the time they were 14 months old. Little climbers they were!! Lol!!! I just put them in their "big bed". I had to do it several times til they got it that they had to stay in... But they got it!! You just have to be very consistant with whatever action you choose.
Have a great day!
My daughter started climbing out of her crib around 18 months... the bed's long-way was against the wall which it made it easier for her to scale the rail. So I re-positioned it, with the head board against the wall. Of course, it looked odd in the room like that but it stopped the climbing.
She is now 32 months and still sleeps in her crib. My decision to keep her in the crib was because I've read so many articles that say children do not develop the ability to understand imaginary boundaries (like, 'Stay in bed') until age 3. Hence, we have not had to deal with any issue of trying to keep her in bed, locking the bedroom door, her being scared at night, etc. (But also, her bedroom is on the 2nd floor and ours is on the first, and the idea of her getting out of her room in the middle of the night and trying to navigate the stairs in the dark and half asleep was too much for this paranoid mama to handle!)
Our child wanted out of the crib at 1 year. We took the crib out while our child was not home one morning. We placed it in our storage shed so she would not see it.
We actually purchased a queen bed, since we only have 2 bedrooms. We placed one side of the bed up against a wall and borrowed a guard rail that sticks in between the mattresses.
The day we set it up, we sat in the bed and read books to her and played with some of her toys while in the bed. We talked about staying in bed at night just like her old bed.
We allowed her to pick the toys or books she wanted to sleep with. We also had her take her nap in the new bed. That evening, we sat next to the bed in a chair to read to her. She was excited and it took a little bit longer for her to get to sleep.
We had friends that did not actually set up the bed frame at first. They would just place the mattress on the floor. They were worried about their child rolling off of the bed. They also placed the mattress up against a wall. Once they were pretty sure their child would not roll off, they would set up the bed frame.
I've done the mattress on the floor as well. We did this for a few months until she was consistantly still on the mattress in the am.
