Hello moms,
My two-year old son seems ready to transition to a big boy bed. He's tall and rolls around a lot. We converted his crib to the lowest setting, removed the drop-side, and currently use a guard to help keep him from rolling off. We've ruled out the toddler-size bed because he'll just grow out of that too quickly, right?
Does anyone have some advice about buying a twin-size mattress? Do we need the box spring? We like a lot of the wood beds with drawers/trundles beneath for storage (like at Ikea or Pottery Barn Kids), but aren't they still too high for a toddler? Should we just buy a mattress and place it low to the floor (and get a wood bed later)? Any good recommendations for mattress or department stores? We don't want to spend too much but figure it will last way into his teen years. (We have a small home and his room is quite small) Also, we'll be potty-training soon so he'll need to get in/out quickly. I'd love to hear about what other moms have done. Thanks.
All three of my kids started with a twin mattress on the floor. Easy and fun!
With both of our children we bought a twin headboard attached to a metal frame and instead of getting a box spring which is approximately 6" thick we purchased a "bunkie board". Bunkie boards are used in place of a box spring on bunk beds and are about 1" thick. We also chose a good mattress that wasn't very thick. There are mattresses on the market that are less expensive, not as thick and are good for children. This option allowed us to get our children a big kids bed but was low enough for them to get in and out of it easily and I didn't worry about the fall. Both of our children were out of there cribs and into a twin bed by about 18-20 months. I hope this information is helpful. It worked great for us.
you may just want to try a twin mattress on the floor to start with.
I'll be going down that road soon, and believe I'll be just getting a mattress on the floor first too. I remember that's what my parents did for me and my siblings and we thought it was fun. I'll probably do the same with my son too since he is so active! I'm dread the idea of him jumping and falling off a taller & bouncier (if with a box spring) bed!
We bought a trundle bed from Pottery Barn and kept the lower mattress out so my 2 year old daughter could use it as a step to get in and out of bed. Then we just but the bedrail on the upper half of the bed so she wouldn't fall out. It worked out perfectly! She's now 2 and a half and we recently removed the bedrail and just keep the lower bed out in case of any falls. The mattresses that came with the bed are really comfortable as well. It's also good because she has a small room so can use the underneath bed when she's older and has friend over.
