The Dudeling just figured out how to climb out of his crib. *** THUMP *** There’s little in it to climb on, and watching him in action it seems as if he doesn’t need the extra boost. Solutions we’ve thought of so far include weighting him down with lead shot in his jammies, electrifying the top rail, coating the floor with Flubber, turning the crib upside-down, and showing him a key scene from the movie Misery. However, most of these have a few flaws.
If nothing comes up, we go the toddler bed route—but at two it feels a bit early to let him run loose and unsupervised in his room; it’s where we store our broken glass and rusty nail collection. Oh, and given that we find him in all sorts of odd sleeping positions, the likelihood that he’ll fall out of bed won’t cut down on that annoying*** THUMP ***sound.
So, I figure we can’t be the first to face this dilemma. I’d love to find some sort of rail-height extenders, but unfortunately, my Googling has come to naught. Any Doper parents out there find such a thing?
We just let ours go unrestricted in his room. We did limit his room to room activities, but within the room he did whatever he wanted. One room, totally babyproofed, it’s like a giant playpen.
Oh, and big floor pillows in front of the bed to cushion his inevitable falls.
And, really? A toddler bed isn’t that high (and I think most of them have a railing) so he isn’t going to do any actual damage to himself. If he falls out of bed more than twice (while sleeping), I’d be very surprised.
Considering how many fairly safe-looking cribs (and other products) have been found to be dangerous, I would be worried about any add-on; likely it has not had the full field-testing and reliability of full-crib solutions.
I agree, go with the bed and cushions approach. Make sure he can’t reach and climb out the window, for example. Kids falling through screens are a sadly common hazard. Also, that he can’t pull anytihng too heavy down upon himself.
Wait til he wants to borrow the car. Then you’ll look back on this phase with nostalgia…
Ah, the days (not that long ago). We put our upset daughter in her room in her crib and closed the door. Five minutes later she’s 1) out of the crib (a first) and 2) out of the room (working the door knob, also a first). We remain baffled as to how that happened. We never did find a “child proof” door knob that she couldn’t figure out how to open or destroy in 10 minutes.
I’d go with kid bed (same mattress that’s in the crib), or mattress on the floor if you’re worried about the falling thing.
You could try putting him in a sleep sack - that bought us a few more months
Or, when we finally did make the move to a toddler bed, we put a baby gate on the doorway so he couldn’t get out (but didn’t have the scary closed door issue). Then we babyproofed the room and he was good to go.
I must say though, we moved to a toddler bed shortly after age 2 and it seemed to work better for us than friends who waited longer. Our son still rarely gets out of bed until we come in the room!
We used a crib topper. It’s a tent like contraption with a zipper for access. The princess in the tower loved it after we began using. It was cozy to her and kept her in a crib longer- she was crawling out at 20 mos and really bumped her head.
When our younger son started using the crib rail for a diving board we went ahead and set up the twin bed for him. He didn’t really fall out anymore than he had been out of the crib. But if he had, we would have just put the mattress on the floor (with SHEETS, and covers, and lots of pillows…we’re not heatherns!) until he figured out that “big boys don’t take a nose-dive onto the floor.”
We had this problem when our first son was 18 months old. (He’s now 21.) I asked the pediatrician for advice, and he suggested putting him in a regular bed, with rails. So that’s what we did. I don’t think he ever fell out, but if he did, he wouldn’t have far to fall.
For our second son, we went the toddler bed route, which worked well because the crib mattress fit.
You do have to deal with the fact that they can get out of bed, but I think at two years of age, you just have to accept that that is going to happen. I would lie in bed with my son and read to him until he fell asleep, and then sneak out of the room. Did that always work? No way! But once they learn to climb out of the crib, I think you just have to give up the crib.
ETA: I never heard of a crib topper (described by IvoryTowerDenizen in post #9.) If I’d know about that when my kids were little, I probably would have given it a try.
Just give up. We tried the mosquito-net tent contraption over the crib but, within a week, he figured out how to unzip it and would run out of his room triumphant yelling, “Fwee, Fwee”. (He couldn’t pronounce the “r”.) With the next one we didn’t even bother.
Yup, once they can get out of the crib it’s time for a toddler bed. At least that way they fall 18 inches instead of 4 feet. Gah, that was a scary sound and twice in one night.
She used to climb out of that bed and fall asleep behind the door which meant we’d end up opening the door right into her head. So I spent the first month or so putting her to bed, then going back a half hour later after she fell asleep, pushing her away from the door so I could open it and putting her back in bed. Usually more then once per night.
Well, we took out a handful of so-called ‘dangerous’ objects from his room. I’m pretty sure he would have been okay with the old cleaning supplies and can of strike-anywhere matches, but we figured we’d play it safe (we removed most of the cleaning supplies).
And so he’s asleep on the floor. We took the mattress out, along with Piggy, Grover, (Evil) Elmo, and his blanket and made him a nice nest. Pushed a heavy chair against the closet door (and congratulated ourselves on remembering to remove the slidey-feet afterwards), battened down what hatches we could, and let him run around like only a two-year-old can run. He eventually fell asleep. On the floor. Next to the mattress. Ah, I love camping; maybe it’s in his genes. Or diapers. Whatever.
So that’s it then. The end of an era. We’re okay with that, it just shifts our plans about a bit.
No, wait.
How the hell are we going to travel? You tell my in-laws that they didn’t do a good enough job baby-proofing the room he sleeps in. I can barely get them to stop giving him cheap Scotch, let alone putting the sewing basket up high. Fortunately, the above-mentioned Tots in Mind crib tent is available through Amazon Prime (i.e. easy returns) to see how well it works on is [del]jail[/del]Pack-n-Play. Between that and the hopefully taller sides of the contraption, maybe we’ll get another few weeks of travel before he monkeys out of that.
Oh, and while we’re at it, when he rattles the doorknob and says “daddy helping?” it’s a trap, isn’t it?
Yeah, not much you can do here. Time for a proper bed.
FWIW Our son was born when our little girl was 20 months and we figured then was as good a time as any to make the move to her own room and a big girl bed.
We baby-safed the room as much as possible, baby gate on the door, then put the mattress on the floor for a week or so, then onto the bed. Seemed to work OK.
We went with the standard snap together doorknob covers, with a twist. Any kid worth his salt will grab one of those covers, pull down, and it comes apart. However, punch a hole on each side of the joint, thread through a zip tie, pull it tight, and he will need tin snips to get the thing off. 4 zip ties per doorknob, and you are good to go.
I took my son to a store that sold loft beds and asked him if he liked them and tested if he could climb it. I bought one second hand, and its been a huge success. He loves it. And if the Dudeling can climb out of a crib, a ladder to a loft bed should pose no problem.
Here is a picture when I had just bought the bed, and here is his finished room.
The railings are sturdy, the bed is high enough to change the kid or read bedtime stories without hurting your back. The bed is large enough so you can sleep in it with him if he’s scared without disturbing a spouse. Or use the bed for guests if the need arises. And the bed is large enough that the kid has room to fall asleep in any position and still be protected by the rails.
Oh, one more tip: buy a twin mattress without springs. Use cheap polyether or memory foam. Not only is it softer and better for kids as they are much ligther then adults, but a non-springy matress will also prevent them from using the bed as a trampoline and bouncing and falling out of it in a more spectacular and damaging way.
In case none of those links work, here is another