Aaron has recently decided that he hates his crib. He throws a fit when we put him down for a nap or to bed, but he does just fine if we put him down in our bed.
I don’t want to introduce him to a big-boy bed until he’s ready for it, but I think he is. He doesn’t thrash around like he used to, and he naps at school on a mat on the floor.
And, is there anything in particular I should be looking for in a big-boy bed?
Robin
Rollout prevention. My friends little guy seems to have excess gravity in his bedroom.
They have side rails you can buy, one end slips under the mattress. Just put the bed longways against the wall and put the rail on the other side. I don’t recall them being hard to find.
That’s worked for ours as well. Also consider starting with a mattress on the floor, graduate to box springs, then graduate to real bed.
We started our guy with just a mattress on the floor, then after a few months, slipped a box spring under it. This past week, we graduated him to a full size bed, complete with frame and headboard. He didn’t show a tendency to fall out of bed, and since this new mattress is much bigger than he needs, I’m sure that it will continue to be a non-issue.
The only drawback is when it came time for the bedtime story. He liked to read along (well, mostly look at the pictures), and being 6’3", that mattress is a long way down. I’m not as young and spry as I used to be, and getting into reading position generally took some effort and was accompanied by the creaking and cracking of getting-old bones.
Small price to pay, though, to see your guy take a big step like getting his very own big boy bed.
My boy defied all known laws of physics by hurling himself out of his crib, with the mattress lowered to the lowest rank and crib-rail raised to the highest rank mind you, at the tender age of eighteen months. He most certainly did not want to take a nap right then!
Once I got the bleeding stopped and realized his mouth didn’t need stitching, I busted down the crib and set up the tubular metal frame-y bed that used the crib mattress, I think it’s called a ‘toddler’ bed. It was substantially cheaper, having the mattress already and just buying the frame and it was way more comfy to perch on for story-reading than one of those weird racecar beds. We had a slip-underable side rail, but he quickly figured out how to push it out so we just went without. The toddler bed was much lower than a normal bed, so even if he did thump out onto the carpeted floor it was never a big ordeal, the stuffed animals strewn about cushioned the fall.
He was much happier with the freedom of movement and it all worked out just fine. Stayed with the toddler bed until he was nearly five and had no issues graduating to a regular twin-sized one after that.
Perhaps you could take Aaron shopping with you for a readiness check, let him see the big-boy beds on display and see if he gets geeked?
My son just turned 14 months. He was in his crib today taking his morning nap and I heard him start to fuss. I went in there and he had dropped his blankie over the side and couldn’t reach it. He had one leg up over the rail, trying to get out. I gave him his blankie and he went right back to sleep, but I think we’re going to have to put the mattress on the floor pretty soon. I don’t think he’ll stay on it, though, nor do I think he’d stay on a toddler bed. I can just picture it…3 a.m. and the sounds of “Old MacDonald” sung by a toy duck wafting through the air.
I’ll 2nd or 3rd or 4th the matress on floor/box springs/full bed progression. That’s what we did with my daughter. When I was young, I always smacked my head on those rails. Apparently it was bad enough to still remember almost 30 years later, so I never put them on my little girl’s bed.
I believe you can get padding for the rails.
One advantage to them-when I was a child, I used to line up all my stuffed animals along the sides of my bed.
Or what about a futon?
My kid climbed out of the crib at around 12 months (he walked at 9 months :eek: ). Mommy had thought he was down for his nap, and he sneaked up on her while she was in the bath and scared the bejesus out of her.
We got a crib cover, which kept him inside the crib for 4 more months (yes, yes, I don’t like keeping your kid locked up, but he was clever enough that he might go find the kitchen knives, or open the front door and wander out on to the expressway and start chasing semis; we have to sleep sometime, darnit, and still know our kid is safe.).
The next step, once he was unzipping the crib cover and wandering the house at 4am, was getting a toddler bed, as described above – it’s basically a small, cheap bed built close to the ground, with rails so he won’t roll out and injure himself while sleeping. I’d definitely recommend this.
He’s 5 now, and in a loft bed with a slide. And he stays in his bed when it’s nite nite time, and goes pee on his own when he needs to. Almost always in the toilet. 
My brother found a big boy bed with railings, which detach.
Yup. Big boy bed with railing(s). I don’t think two-year-olds have to be out of the crib, but if it works better for your family, then do it.
An alternative is a toddler bed. Their main advantage is that you can continue to use the matress and sheets from the crib, so they are cheaper in the short-term. They also take up less floor space if that’s an issue. However, in a few years you have to move up to a normal bed. All other things being equal, I’d go for a twin bed with a railing.
We put our daughter in a toddler bed when she started climbing out around age 2.
We made sure her room was totally safe to play in and gated the house so that she could play in her room or come into our room but she couldn’t go anywhere else.
She now has twin bunkbeds and we have one of those under mattress rails for her.
I’m a big fan of doing what works for your kid. Just be prepared for him to prefer your bed to his own.
My niece graduated to a twin bed a little before the age of 2. No rails, no toddler, no graduation, just a twin. I did hear that she fell out of bed a couple of times, but she didn’t seem flustered about it, nor did her parents. She was never hurt.
So that might work - just a suggestion.
The oldest kid went to a regular twin bed at about 15 months. we put lots of blankets on the floor in front of the bed for extra padding. I don’t think he ever fell out of bed.
The two younger kids had a toddler bed with rails.
There is no such thing as too young for ‘x’. If the kid is ready, then go for it. My son went into a bed at about 15 months because my daughter was brewing and we needed him out of the crib.
'Course, my son could get out of the crib whenever he wanted anyway so it having him in a bed did not result in any “freedom frenzies”. That’s what I get for having a kid walk at 8 months.
[hijack]
Hey squeegee, did you find that, even though your boy got mobile early, he did not understand cause and effect? My son had no idea that running around could result in him getting hurt. My nephew walked later (just over a year old) and he seemed a lot more cautious. Could be personality but my daughter walked at 10 months and she was\is reckless too.
That’s our plan when we move … he’ll hit 15 months around then.
This is after we put the screen door on his room, though. Or at least barricades (screwed into the wall) at the stairs.
Absolutely. In fact, it gets better – the only reason he learned to crawl was so he could walk. He crawled for about a week then walked. And the only reason he wanted to walk, was so he could climb. Within a couple weeks or so of walking he was climbing over the LR couch. We’d put stacks of pillows behind the couch so he could kamikaze over the back. Over and over.
Been wondering about the same thing with my 2 year-old actually. I think we’ll go with the toddler bed, but since she’s not escaping her crib yet I wonder if we are ruining a good thing. I’m not sure that she’ll stay in bed once she can get out on her own. I worry about her wandering the house at night or ending up in our bed every night.
Twiddle
There are also really cool toddler beds that look like race cars and such (made out of the kind of double-sided plastic that Little Tykes toys are made of). The bed sort of has a “well” built into it that the crib mattress goes down into. This discourages rolling out of the bed. In fact, Robin, there’s a store right down on the corner from me that has one used. You’re gonna be here in a couple of weeks, so you might plan on coming an hour early and looking. They also have a regular toddler bed as described above. Lots cheaper than buying new, and they have nice stuff there.
Slight hijack, I couldn’t add your name to my evite list because your email addy isn’t in your profile. Could you maybe drop me an email?