What is a good age to switch my daughter from a crib to a toddler bed?

Question

Shes 1 1/2 now. I wouldnt want to switch her to a normal bed quite yet. I'm afraid she would wake up in the middle of the night and be around the house or something. About what age is good? How did your child handle it?

Answer 1

I would wait until you know that she will come straight to you in the morning. Or keep the baby monitor in the room and just put a gate in her doorway or shut the door. Baby proof the room first if you haven't already. That way she can get up and play or whatever and you'll hear her. I switched my daughter when she was 2 and she did great. However, I think she is an exception to the rule. I have never had a problem with her getting into stuff or going in a room she wasn't supposed to. I didn't know she could turn a door knob until she was 3 1/2 because if the door was shut, she knew she wasn't supposed to be there, so she didn't try. If you put up the gate, I think 2 is a good age. Just get one with sides and rememner that it may take a week or two until she gets used to it. Good Luck

Answer 2

I have 4 kids one that is still a baby. 2 of them were switched at about 1 1/2 almost 2. my other child believe it or not I had to take her out of the crib and 12 months she was climbing out of her crib, and I didn't want her to get hurt. She did pretty good.I got very lucky. what I did with my other girls was have them in a crib at night I was sleeping there for I can't watch them while I was asleep. But I also had the toddler bed in there.During the day (nap time) I put them in the toddler bed with the gate up in there door way of course. this way I could see how they did sleeping in the bed. I did this for a bout 2 weeks and if I thought they were ready then I switched. Good luck!

Answer 3

Don't take her out of the crib until she tries to climb out. That is what we did with all three of our kids. Our oldest loved the toddler bed, the middle one wouldn't sleep in it (she kept getting into bed with big sister so we just let them share a twin bed for a few months til we could get a second one) and the baby went straight from the crib to a "big girl" bed (twin like her sisters). We did use a baby gate at the top of the stairs to keep them upstairs with us during the night. And we used the baby monitors...but we never had any problems with them wandering around in the dark.

Answer 4

If theres even a doubt in your mind that she can climb out of the crib on her own,, its time for a bed!! If your worried to her running around the house, put up a gate in her doorway and make sure you have a monitor on near where you sleep so you can hear if shes moving around. I tried one of those little toddler beds and it didn't work!! Too small! I got my daughter a single bed and put it against the wall and bought a bed protector(it folds down when you don't need it) so she couldn't roll out at night.. It even helped with keeping her in the bed while she was falling asleep.. Its a big step for both of you, but at least you know she won't harm herself in a "big girl" bed!! Once their walking,, the crib's gotta go!! lol.. Good luck!!! ;)

Answer 5

I think 18 months is the perfect age to at least try it out. Let her know that "big girls" sleep in "big beds" and that she is now a "big girl" and how proud you are of her. Also, remember that at that age they can crawl out of a crib so it is probably safer for her to start sleeping in a toddler bed or twin bed. Even if she got up in the middle of the night she would most likely just come into your bedroom and you would have to put her back to bed in her own bed. Good Luck!

Answer 6

We just switched my 2 1/2 yr old son from his crib to a twin bed as he was waking up at night .. not enough room for the roamer! He was the same when we moved him from the cradle to the crib at three mths, he didn't have enough room to turn around and kept waking up. Once he was in the crib he went back to sleeping through. So far it's been the same with the "big boy bed" and it's great. He loves it, tells everyone that he has a new bed. He had tried to climb out of his crib twice, once he got his foot stuck on top of the rail and couldn't get it down and once he got stuck between the rail and the wall. After those two instances he never tried again, even with the rail lowered. We lowered and kept it that way for almost 6 mths, he still wouldn't try to climb out. He would climb in on his own and stand and wait to be taken out. Once we moved him to the big bed with the bed rail, he did the same thing for about 2 weeks .. just stood in the bed and waited to be lifted out! Now he gets up in the morning and comes to get one of us out of bed; if it's after a nap he comes downstairs looking for us.

Our pediatrician said he should be out of the crib by age 3 .. I didn't do it any sooner because there wasn't any need. Once he started having trouble sleeping through it took me about 3 weeks to clue in that he needed more room ... presto, change-o, baby sleeps through once again!

ps: we skipped the toddler bed and went straight to a twin .. lots of room and no need to make another purchase in a year.

Answer 7

I waited until she started trying to get out of the crib (around 2) Our crib converted to a toddler bed, so it was a pretty easy adjustment. We put her in a twin size bed when she was about 3.

Answer 8

my daughter fell out of her crib at 15 mos, so she was immediately put in a toddler bed. my oldest son was about 1 1/2, as well. my youngest son is 22 mos old, and is NOT in a toddler bed just yet, however... he's the one that likes to roam the house and climbs over gates to get down stairs, so we got a "crib tent" and it keeps him safely inside his crib until one of us gets him out. but, if i would've had been raising him on my own, i'm certain i'd have at least tried the "big boy bed" w/ him by now.

Answer 9

I moved my daughter to her toddler bed at 2, she is now 4 1/2 and we just got her twin bunk beds about a month ago. She sleeps on the bottom one and we keep her stuffed animals and dolls on the top. She loves it. She feels like a big girl and sleeps better, and cant wait to go to bed at night. If your daughter still wakes up at night she is not ready. When she is ready you will know. Kids have a funny way of communicating that they are growing up.

Answer 10

We switched my boys over at about 2. They still got up and got into things, but they were big enough that they could climb out of the crib. So it was either leave them in the crib and chance them falling out and cracking their heads open, or just putting them in a toddler bed so they won't crack their heads open.