Toddler Bed or Twin?

Twin mattress on the floor. When he's older and regularly staying in the bed ( not rolling out) then you can move to the frame/box spring.

Definitely go straight to a twin bed with a bed rail. The toddler beds usually don't last very long at all because they kids outgrow them quickly (it's the size of a crib) so they are a waste of money. Plus, you will have to deal with a second transition. You are much better off just moving him straight to his new "big boy" twin bed.

I went straight to a twin for both my girls. They were moving from a crib. No issues. The first we put it against a wall and put up the little side rail thing ($30 from Target) for the first year. For the second kid its not even against a wall and we only have the side rail on one side. She sleeps close to that side. I think she fell out of he open side just once like the first week (we had a soft landing down there in case).

When I nannied for a kid who co slept in his parents bed, they put him straight into a twin bed around age 3. I don't recall it even having a rail and it was pretty tall and not pushed against a wall either. I do recall myself reading to him and lying with him til he fell asleep, I don't know if the parents did that too. But I do that with my kids now as well and they didn't cosleep.

Twin.
It's easy. It's where they will sleep until they go to college.

Twin bed. A toddler bed is a waste of money.

We went straight to a twin bed, and I'm glad we did!

I would go with a twin. For one because it is bigger and helps the learning curve of not falling out.

One odd side note, I expected my kids to fall out, all four never did....

we also went from a crib to a twin bed. She is 8 years old and she still has the same bed. She was 2 when she switched. We just got a bed rail so she didn't fall out and removed it when she got older.

Twin, place it in the corner of the room.

Our daughter never fell out of her bed until she was about 4 years old. The first time she woke up crying, but was fine.. The next time, I just found her on the floor asleep in her blankets.

We already had a twin bed so when our son was 3 1/2 we put railings on the bed and he used that.
He really loved me being able to read his bedtime story in bed with him.

We transitioned from crib to bed around 18 months, during the weaning process.
We went straight to a twin mattress on the floor, cozy and no worries about falling out.
My kids always started the night in their crib, but usually ended up with us to feed, so this transition worked well, because they were already used to a real, full size bed/mattress :-)

I say twin bed. I dont know how old your son is but your son will eventually outgrow the toddler bed. Put the twin bed against the wall and use the guards for the other side.

The only reason we did a toddler bed was because the crib converted to one. If I had to buy one I would have just gone straight to a twin bed.

Depends on whether you want to buy one bed or two. If you buy a toddler, you will have to buy a twin at some point in the future. Why not just start with that? If you don't like the idea of him on a tall bed with no sides, put the twin mattress on the floor to start.

If you have the room just move straight to the twin and save yourself the extra step and hassle. 2 of our 3 went into toddler beds first due to space problems. I would have rather had them go into twins to save all the extra steps in the middle.

Twin. Toddler beds are a waste of money.

I think it's a waste of money and resources to buy a toddler bed...they don't use it all that long. I say go for a twin bed. You can put a railing on it if you are nervous about your son falling off. Buy the bed he will use throughout his teenage years. It might be a bunk bed or a captain's bed. Then you save money. Both my kids did just fine switching from a crib to their real bed.

I would normally say a twin bed. But if you think you're going to have trouble getting him to stay in his bed, you might consider a toddler bed with the mattress on the floor beside your bed at first, eventually moving it into his room.

I didn't co-sleep with my kids, but I did go straight from crib to twin bed for both of them. I felt that it was cheaper and I was able to do my decorating easier.

Good luck getting him out of your bed.

I went to your profile to see if it mentioned how old he is. So he's right at 2 years old?

If he is very very very small for his age he could go in a toddler bed for a few months if you already have one on hand. BUT they are for toddlers and usually just don't stand up well to older kids.

So at 2 years old I would have already had them in toddler beds for at least 6 months. I moved all my grand kids into their toddler beds between 15 and 18 months of age.

I worked a lot of years in child care and we started putting the baby's on cots at around 10 1/2 months or 11 months of age so they'd be used to sleeping on them when they moved to the toddler room at age 1.

They also went down to 1 nap per day so they'd be ready for the toddler room schedule.

The toddler room in child care is for children ages 12 months/1 year old up to age 24 months/2 years of age. Then they move to the 2 year old preschool room.

So it was a natural progression to me for them to be in a toddler bed very young. But I never had issues with the kids wandering or anything. They just used the bed as bed since that was all they knew it was for and they stayed there.

I moved them to big kids beds between ages 2 and 2 1/2, I have 7 grandchildren so the next one usually needed it by then plus the toddler bed is just not built for bigger kids.

One thing we did do with one of the kiddo's is put the toddler bed at the foot of our bed. He didn't like to sleep alone. This way if he wanted to crawl in bed with us he didn't have to go far. Once he was in his big kid bed he stayed in there. Well, I say that and he's in bed with grandpa right now, he's 6 1/2. He is just a snuggler.

Odd one out, but I did a toddler bed. My son was 3, and he used it until he was 5 or 6. And he is tall. I did it because he has a VERY small room and I was trying to keep more open space for playing.

As far as the expense, I got a second hand one. He liked it. It was a plastic one with glow in the dark stars on the headboard. Not fancy, or one you would see in a decorating magazine, but HE liked it, so it worked :)

Twin....we do have a toddler bed and have used it. However, our son didn't seem to sleep very well on his toddler bed. One day he crawled into the Queen size guest bed and really wanted to try sleeping there. We let him try it, and he was stuck ever since.

One thing that most people don't think about with toddler beds (and we didn't either at first) is that the mattress is usually the crib mattress, which has a vinyl-like cover. As the child gets older and sweats more, that mattress makes sleep so incredibly uncomfortable; whereas most twin mattresses do not have this type of cover. Just a thought.... :)

We've got ours in a toddler bed. His crib convered into one (thank you IKEA). It is very low to the ground, and we get a bit more use out of the crib bedding.

Do whatever suits you and your child's needs and preferences best. If money is a concern though, you can probably forgo the toddler bed. It will only see a few years use at best.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

I did do a toddler bed with my daughter and then my son since I used her old one. If I could do it over, I would have skipped the toddler bed and gone straight for the twin, no doubt about it!

Twin for sure! We didn't bother with the toddler bed, our son is very tall for his age and he'd barely fit in one for long.

Don't waste your time or money with the toddler bed.