Seeking Advice on Whether to Use a Toddler Bed

We have had 4 children and all of them went or are going through a toddler bed. What I have learned though is if you do decide to get one to let him shop with you. I bought a Thomas bed because my son loves Thomas without bringing him and he was very upset and scared of the big train and still favors his brothers race car bed. The Thomas bed sits empty most nights and my boys sleep in the other room. Another suggestion so the bed gets used longer is Little Tikes makes the race car bed to take a twin mattress verses the crib mattress. It looks cool and he can grow in to it for years to come.

3 is old to be in a crib, I would definitely let him enjoy the feeling of being a big boy and getting a bigger bed! I personally, wouldn't bother with the toddler bed, as you said, wont last long. I just got the girls each a twin bed. But, if you want him to have something special for his bed, like his sister did, you could look for some Thomas and Disney Cars wall stickers....they sell the Cars ones I believe at Walmart. You could put the bed into a corner of the room, and decorate the wall all around his bed with the wall stickers he will adore. And maybe with the money you will save on not buying the toddler bed, you could get him bedsheets and comforter to match...he would be happy to see his new big boy bed all decked out like that, and to have those stickers at his level to look at around his bed.

Based on my experience in with my own son, I’d say keep him in the crib for as long as you can! My son had the Little Tikes race car bed. He played on it more than he slept in it! Thankfully we got it second hand.
Check out craig’s list to buy one second hand.

Both of our kids went straight from the crib to twin beds, my son at 2 and daughter at 2 & 9 months. We did have some problems with my son getting up repeatedly but it didn't last more than a couple of weeks and my daughter never did. She got to pick sheets for her big girl bed (Diego) and was thrilled to be there. There are some cool toddler beds but wouldn't have been worth our money.

My daughter is 3 1/2 and we just had to move her out of a toddler bed b/c she was too tall for it and kept hitting her head on it. They are the same size as the crib so if you think he looks too large for that skip it and go for a twin. I doubt you would get more than 1 year max use out of it. We had a crib that turned into a toddler bed or I personally would not have bought one.

My son is only 2... we make decent money, are good savers and enjoy our life... but I have to say, my husband and I both think the toddler bed is a waste of money. If you are millionares or this will not impact your child's school or wedding fund... or your retirement fund, then go for it.

Our son has periodically climbed out of his crib, but not regularly and he hasn't harmed himself doing it. When we move him out of the crib, we will move him to a queen size bed pushed up against a wall with a rail and lots of pillows and stuffed animals. I like all our beds in the house to be the same size, so that I can interchange bedding as needed.... keeps the linen closet neat and simple.

get him a twin bed instead. let him choose the sheets. he is 3? wow he is a little old for a crib. my kids were out of their crib by the age of one, but my kids were climbers and it was safer for them. good luck

We have always used a toddler bed for our kids. It is a nice transition from a baby crib to a big kid bed. An alternative to the cost would be to find a toddler bed at a consignment shop, or to buy a less expensive bed that does not have all the bells and whistles. They have really cute toddler bed sheets now also (I bought Thomas ones at Target for my 3 yr old), so if you get a bed that is not Thimas or race car you can make it fun by letting him pick out his own bedding.

my 2.5yo sleeps in a regular twin. i don't think toddler beds are unnecessary. some cribs convert into toddler beds. ours did and we used that for 6 months but when we moved she went into the twin. we do not use a box spring so if she falls it's a short trip to the floor. she fell twice at the beginning and hasn't since.

H.,

Our pediatrician told us that we needed to move our daughter out of her crib when she turned 3, even though she still had lots of room and hadn't figured out how to climb out yet. Anyway, since she shares a room with her little sister, that meant that both needed to be out of the cribs...Rough few weeks. We went with toddler beds, because our girls are tiny (at 3 1/2 and almost 3 they are only 26 and 27lbs - and that fluctuates). We figure we can get a good couple of years out of these beds, and still use some of the crib sheets, crib mattress. If your son is getting too big for the crib, I would think that he would be getting too big for the mattress itself no matter what frame you put it on. I think that it would be a waste of money to buy something that he is almost outgrown before you get it, just because it is super cute. Go all out and decorate his ROOM in the theme that he likes with his new big boy bed, and use mesh safety rails to keep him from rolling out in his sleep. They really work well. We use them in hotels for our girls when we travel without any problems. And, If he can safely climb on and off of your sofa, he should be able to climb on and off of a bed. Hope this helps.

S.

H.,
Little Tykes I believe also makes their race car bed in a twin size so if you want to spend the money you may want to look at getting a fun twin size that he will use longer. Personally I never did the toddler bed, I went from crib to twin, I figured if they were to big for the crib they would rather have more room in a twin.

In general, I think that the money would be better spent on a bed he could stay in for a long time, like a twin or full. My dd moved from a crib to a full bed at 2.5 years old. We had guard rails on the bed and she was fine with the transition. In fact, and I know that not every kid is like this, it took us 6 months of persuading her that she could get out of the bed herself - she didn't have to wait for us.
That being said, I just bought a toddler bed for my almost 2 and a half year old. I wanted to hold out and get a twin bed with a trundle underneath it, but it looks like we may be moving sometime in the next ten months. I'm not sure of what the layout would be in a new room for him and figured the toddler bed would buy us a year or two of cushion. I paid $40 for it on Craigslist and it's in good shape with no recalls. Because we don't need the crib for another baby, we will use the crib mattress for him in the toddler bed. If it's still in good condition when he's done with it, I can always turn around and sell it on Craigslist myself and probably get back at least half of what I paid for it. FYI, as of last week, there were a number of the car toddler beds on there for under $100.

For that long, I would get a plain bed. Our boy had a plain toddler bed, and he didn't care a lick. It was just the thrill of being out of the crib.

We just bought our 2 1/2 yr old son a racecar bed and I am so glad we did. We also couldn't afford the $300-$500 for a new one that he's only be in for a few years so we went to Craig's List and found one practically new for $50! When we met the woman to pick it up she had forgotten the mattress so she dropped the price to $30!!(Which I felt better using his own crib mattress anyway)There are good deals to be found. These types of beds are made from a durable hard plastic so a little bleach water will sanitize them and they're virtually indestructable. We figured by the time he grew out of it, he'd have marked it up himself so I wasn't picky about a few marks.
We had the same concern about him getting out a hundred times a night but at this age he could climb out of his crib anyway so at least this is safer.
A pleasant side effect was that he actually enjoys going to bed at night. Before he'd have to fall asleep with me (through all the distactions this was taking way too long)and then I'd have to move him so my sleep was interrupted. Now, we do our routine and he goes to his own bed willingly, what a concept!
Good Luck and Happy Shopping!

My husband had the crib to toddler bed debate a few months back and chose to leave our son in his crib a little longer then about two months ago we decided it was time. Our son will be 2 and 1/2 next month and he was just looking so big standing in his crib that I could just see him climbing the rails or possibly leaning and falling and hurting himself. We opted to start with a toddler bed versus a twin bed b/c they are lower to the ground and I wanted him to get comfortable with the idea of a "big boy bed" before actually getting him a twin or full bed.

We found a very cute sleigh bed at walmart for $50 bucks and so far it has been a wonderful purchase. The first day we let him see his "big boy bed" but he napped in his crib then that night we asked him which bed and he said his big boy bed so he slept there and never once got out of the bed. The next morning we completely removed the crib. He has never really gotten out of his toddler bed when he goes down for his nap or at bedtime. Only once did we hear him making lots of noise in his room on evening and so we walked in to find him playing with a truck but we removed the truck and told him he had to stay in his bed. Never has he climbed out of bed in the mornings either - he always waits until we come in to get him.

I would suggest a toddler bed just for the transition from crib to a twin bed. Our son is very particular about how everything is done and doesn't like change so I felt the toddler bed was still the same comfort of his crib mattress but with the feel of a "big boy bed!" The toddler bed was well worth the $50 bucks!!!!!!!!!! Good luck!

We wrestled with this a few yrs ago with my daughter. We wanted to find one of those cute toddler beds secondhand because the shipping was almost as much as the bed and made a new one way out of our range. What I found is that some of them convert into a regular mattress size which makes the price a little more do-able because you will get more use out of it, and some are just the toddler size which use a crib mattress and if they look small in the crib, they will in the toddler bed as well. We couldn't find a second hand one so we just got her a big girl bed. We put a bed rail up and she only started getting out of it without us when she was about 4 1/2. But I think that depends on personality. My son is 2 and I plan on keeping him in his crib until he can get out on his own because he will be all over the house. I think you should take into account his size, personality, and if he will get a lot of use out of it.

We kept our oldest daughter in a crib until she was 3 and needed to move her into a bed for potty training reasons. We plan to keep our second in her crib until age 3 as well, depending on her needs. We started with a mattress on the floor for a couple weeks to make sure she wouldn't roll off (and to buy us time to find the bedroom set we wanted for her!). We got a full size bedroom set for her and told her she was not allowed to leave her room (she has a potty chair in there) and we would come get her when it was time to wake up. She gets to have special 'big girl' toys that her sister is not allowed to play with in a basket in her room that she can play with if she wakes up. We've never had a problem with her leaving her room but we did buy a gate to keep her in there since we have a lot of stairs and we didn't want her roaming around the house unsupervised if we were sleeping. The closed door worked well for us.

Playhut brand makes things called bed wraps or bed toppers. You can find them at amazon.com. They're like a little tent thing that wraps around a standard twin or full size bed to look like popular characters and sell for about $40 . I personally think a toddler bed is a waste of money unless you have another child of the same gender who will use it soon. Of course, if you can find a good quality second hand bed - more power to you!

We used a toddler bed for quite a while. My daughter got too tall for it but always sleeps curled up anyway so she still loved it. You certainly can look second-hand but do be very careful about condition and be sure to check carefully at www.cpsc.gov (Consumer Product Safety Commission) to see whether whatever you get has been recalled. You can search on the site for past and current recalls. Or you can go with a twin bed with bed rails - the online catalog One Step Ahead sells several kinds of bed rails and you can remove them and take them on trips etc. if needed.

I know a lot of families want kids to stay in cribs as long as possible, but at 3 he probably is able to climb out. If they are tall enough to climb out, whether they've started to do it or not, I think it's time to move them out for safety. What influences me is that a friend's child broke her arm climbing out of her crib, and I realized that the distance from the top of a crib rail to the floor is a long way for a small person to fall.

Yep, your husband is right: Your son will indeed climb out of anything that's not a crib. You'll have to walk him back to his room a lot at first and maybe even put a gate on his room door. But the novelty of getting up is normal (though a pain for parents) and it's a phase that does end. It's going to happen whenever you make the change so why not deal with it now rather than later? Good luck and I hope you find him a good bed he can use for a while.

Luckily our crib turned into a toddler bed but even so our son was out of it before he turned four and into a regular queen sized bed. I personally think they are a waste of money if money is the main concern for you though they are quite cute. My son was about 1 1/2 when we took him out of his crib since he had learned to climb both in and out of his bed and made it the toddler bed. He went into a regular bed when he was about 3 1/2 or so because the toddler bed just wasn't big enough since he was a really restless sleeper. Good luck

My daughter's pediatrician gave us the following three reasons a kid should be moved out of their crib:
1. The kid starts climbing out
2. You are expecting another child who could use the crib
3. When the kid is ready for college : )

Keep him in the crib as long as you think he will fit there and then go straight to a twin or full size bed. As another poster said, the mattress size in the toddler bed is the same as the crib. Plus you can get the bed rails to make sure he doesn't fall out.

You can still make getting a big boy bed really fun and exciting for your son though. You should let him pick out his whole bedding ensemble (e.g., Thomas sheets & comforter), etc. Maybe you can also add a few matching decorations (inexpensive ones of course) to his room and make a big deal about the whole transition.

My son is 3 and a 1/2 and is still in his crib. He doesn't try to climb out at all. We bought him a spiderman toddler bed awhile back and tried to get him to sleep in it. It worked for one night. Then he was up all night long. We finally put him back in his crib.

My suggestion, buy a toddler bed (or covert your crib if it's one of those). Try it out for a few nights. If he stays in the toddler bed then great, if not, go back to the crib!

Good luck.