When did you move your LO to a big boy/girl bed?

[kschick96]

I have a 21 month old who seems very happy in his crib. I know we will be needing to move him to a toddler bed coming up, but I'm just not sure when. What age(s) did you move your kiddos from the crib?

[3timesoccermom]

Both of my oldest 2 moved to the toddler bed when the crib was needed for the next one in line. So that would be at about the age yours is right now give or take a few months.

I don't remember having any problems with keeping the oldest in her bed (not saying there weren't any, just that it's been too long for me to remember!!) but the middle one! Geez! She would not stay in her bed. After a while I put a gate up. No problem, she climbed right over it. So I put another gate up above that one. That kept her in the room but she would climb up onto the gate and be hanging there 5 feet in the air.

The youngest too would often get out of her bed once she was out of the crib. One night she came into our room in the middle of the night screaming and crying about something so I ran to see what the problem was and it was a big fat raccoon right outside the back (glass) door happily eating the dog's food. She was screaming about the "rat coon." LOL, we still laugh about this.

During this time was also when she started coming into our room and getting into our bed. I didn't mind - she was extremely quiet and still and I didn't even realize she was there but Hubs minded. A lot.

[JulieDB]

My daughter rarely used a crib. She had a bassinet and she slept in that for longer than she was supposed to. I did buy her a portable crib for the living room. Then a big crib for her bedroom when she was about 7 months I think. She only slept in that until she was about a year old. No longer because she was able to get out of it. So I decided I might as well get her the toddler bed. She slept in that until she was 4. Then we moved to a regular bed.

[Jen1]

gosh, i think my oldest was about 18 months, maybe.. and youngest was about the same. neither cared for the crib. Once they were old enough to climb over it, it was time to move on. we moved to an in between bed, close to the floor - it used the same crib mattress, but was added into a kids design bed. low to the floor is key while they learn not to roll out of bed

[foggierbard9]

My son was in a toddler bed at 18 months. My daughter was on a crib mattress on the floor at 13/14 months and toddler bed at 16 months.

My son is now 4 and got his twin size bed just before his 4th birthday. DD will be in the toddler bed until she is about 3. At that point our 3rd child will be just shy of 1 or turning 1 and the 2 girls will be sharing a room and having bunk beds.

[amylynne01]

DD1 went to a toddler bed just after her second birthday. We didn't rush her out of the crib when DD2 was coming (they're 17 months apart) - we bought another crib. DD1 got a twin bed a couple weeks ago at just turned 4. DD2 went to a toddler bed a couple weeks ago at 2y8m. This time we did push her out for #3 because she was more than ready to move into something else.

We have conversion kits to change the cribs to a toddler bed and a full size bed. So a couple years down the road, DD1 goes to the full size bed, DD2 goes to the twin bed, and baby goes to the toddler bed.

[CouponQueen23]

My oldest boy had a crib the converted to a toddler bed, he was quite the escape artist so once he discovered he could climb over the sides of his crib to come to my bed during the night I figured I may as well take the side rail off making it a day/ toddler bed. This was about 13 to 15 months. Thankful the place were were living was really small at the time and he would go right to my room when he got out of bed.

My second boy was about 15 months then we took the side rails off the crib, Then Ds 3 came along and he used just the crib. We never converted that to a toddler bed. Ds # 2 and Ds # 3 share a room.

Ds #2 has a bunk bed he was using the upper portion of the bunk bed and when Ds# 3 turned 2 we added the lower portion of twin size bed on for him. The 2 boys co sleep together 3 out of seven nights of the week.. It is really funny I check on them during the night and they look like they are fighting with each other over the bed but it makes them happy so for now I allow it. They are 3 and 6.

Sometimes the 3 year old will get out of the lower bed during the night and go to the top bunk. They look so much alike when they sleep because the top bunk is the older boys I once woke the 3 year old up for school, and he looked at me kike Mom what planet are you from.. I didn't realize it was the 3 year old until he sat up to look at me.. Dh still thinks that is funny!

[lady_hlh]

My DD loved her crib and we didn't ever have manage to have another kid so I finally told her that she had to move to a bed when she was almost 3. The funny thing was that my BIL and SIL had given us the crib because they were all done after 3 kids. I thought I should ask if they wanted the crib back because it an expensive one and they said yes which seemed odd. When my BIL came to pick it up he told us that they were having a surprise 4th kid in their 40s. So luckily we were able to give them back all the baby items that they had given us three years earlier.

[Macaela25]

We put DS1 in a toddler bed at about 24 months "just because" - I guess we were overly eager. He had sleeping issues and still does...could have been the switch, maybe it wasn't. DS2 is 27 months and happy in his crib...we'll move him when circumstances change or when he wants to move.

[lazy1608]

My DD went in a twin size bed at exactly 2 years old. It has bed rails on either side of the bed. It is part of a bunk bed set in which my DS sleeps on the top bunk. Once in a while she will get out but overall it was a great move for her and me and DH. Before that she was sleeping in a pack and play since she broke the crib's slats and couldn't safely sleep in it anymore.