Help! My 2 Year Old Twins Are Crawling Out of Their Cribs at Night.

Hi, Sheila. I think I spoke to you a few weeks ago when I was calling to get info on your two year old program for my son. Thanks for being respectful of my concerns about him being able to handle the longer school day. It was appreciated! Anyway, my son moved from his crib to a twin bed with bedrails the day he turned 2. About a month later, he realized that he could climb out of bed. The first time he did it, I had gone to nap while he was napping (I was 8 months pregnant) so I didn't catch him right away. So that day he kept getting out of bed and playing and never took a nap. That night at bedtime I was determined not to have a repeat of naptime. I told my son that he was not to get out of bed and if he did that he was going to get a spanking (I prefer to do timeout, but that's not really an option in this situation). Anyway, I put him in bed, said good night, and waited outside his bedroom door. He immediately got out of bed, I opened the door, spanked him softly on the behind and put him back in bed. This happened 3 times. The 4th time, I caught him midway out of bed and he crawled back in bed. He didn't try again after that because I had taken all the fun out of it. We did this for 2 days and he hasn't gotten out of bed when he wasn't supposed to since. Hope this helps with your situation. Good luck! I know it's probably harder with twins (I'm a twin myself) because they encourage each other and think they are funny when they do things like this (at least my sister and I did).

I just did this in May with my 2 1/2 year old. Grant it I only have one so it may have been a bit easier for us. As cheesy as it sounds I did the whole Super Nanny routine. The first night I put him to bed we read a story and I kissed him and left. He cried and got up a good six times. Each time I just picked him up with out saying a word and put him back to bed. It was about a two hour ordeal. Then the second night he got up one time and I did the same thing. I didnt say a single word, just carried him back and left the room and that was that. After two nights he was fine! We had to buy a toddler bed because ours didn't convert so we got his favorite, Lightning Mcqueen and before long he was super exctied to sleep with his buddy Mcqueen! Good luck!!

Our girls were in full sized beds at around 18-19 months and they have done very well. As infants we kept the door shut in their room, so they are used to it. When they asked themselves for the door to be open (around 2 years of age), we use some love and logic by saying "I will be happy to let the door stay open, as long as you stay in your bed." Now, they both know if they get out of bed, the door is shut until they go to sleep. We open them when we go to bed since we do not have monitors any more. This has worked. Every once in a while they are being turkeys and we take a lovey to sleep with us for the night; "poor lovey needs sleep so she will sleep with me tonight." Now they are 2 & 3 years old and do very well staying in bed with the door open (most of the time). When they started the "afraid of the dark" stuff, we bought two lil' lights that you push to turn on (suppose to be for closets and stuff). They slept with them and if they needed to see, they could push it on. It is set on a timer to go off either 1,2,5 minutes depending on what you select. So far so good.....

The answer to this is not easy with one much less two. There are guard rails you can put on the converted beds to keep them from falling out of bed once they are asleep. However to keep the boys from roaming the house and getting into danger You might consider putting a gate on their bedroom door.That way they don't feel closed in and you can see them.At first they may sleep on the floor before they find the bed is more comfortable. I don't know your schedule but you may want to read them a story and them sit in the room [kind of stare them down and don't engage in conversation] until they go to sleep. L.

Our twins were two when we converted their beds, and they were pretty good about staying put. However, we did put those child lock things around the insides of the doorknobs for a while. Eventually they just stopped trying to open the door and we were able to remove them. We also have video monitors in each of their rooms so we could make sure they were okay all the time...Good luck!

You may not have any issues. I was amazed that when we converted my son's bed to a toddler bed (at 25 months old)that he only tried to leave his room ONE time. We gently but firmly put him back to bed and haven't had any issues since. With that said, he sometimes does get up and play in his room, but always goes to bed to sleep. I have never found him asleep on the floor or anything like that. My advice is to remove any favorite toys so as to remove temptation. We only leave books in his room at night. And please child proof! Bolt dressers and large furniture to walls and tie up any blind cords way out of reach. Cover electrical outlets also. Those are the three most dangerous things in most kids rooms.

NO NO NO, DONT CONVERT THE CRIBS TO BEDS, THEY ARE NOT READY YET. get CRIB TENTS and put them on the cribs, the kids cant climb or fall out and your crib will easily last at least another year...my 3.5 year old just graduated to his big boy bed thanks to the crib tent and our 2 year old uses a crib tent as well... they are made by TOTS IN MIND we use the origonal crib ten reccomended by our peditrician and its great.
you can try to get them on EBAY cheaper or you can go to the tots in mind web site and its a lot cheaper to go the the PARTS section on the web site and buy the replacement poles and replacement nets seperately than buying a brand new tent in box... they will send you the poles and nets in packaging instead of new box but it is new stuff... and you save money that way.

GOOD LUCK
A. J

I think you are already going to do the 1st thing I was going to tell you, which is convert the crib to a toddler bed for a 2 year old. My son has been getting out of the bed every night for about a year, unless he played too hard that he forgot to wake up during the night :-)
My advise would be to hold him for a second & simply walk him back to bed. I guarantee that he will go back to sleep & be there for the remainder of the night. I think they just wake up & realize they are along around 2:00am. I'm not sure what else you will do, but this has worked for me.