question for 'babies' in toddler beds.

[BabyMamma93]

M was in a cot in his own room from about 5 month, then we took the sides off the cot and made it into a bed when he was about 9-10 month old and i dont regret it one bit!! M is now one, not confidently walking yet so im just wondering..

do you have a gate on the door, or a actual door?
do you keep toys in the bedroom?
are there other bits of furniture in there?
also not really related to babies in toddler beds but do you leave a drink of water in there too?

 

[MommyJogger]

M was in a cot in his own room from about 5 month, then we took the sides off the cot and made it into a bed when he was about 9-10 month old and i dont regret it one bit!! M is now one, not confidently walking yet so im just wondering..

do you have a gate on the door, or a actual door?
do you keep toys in the bedroom?
are there other bits of furniture in there?
also not really related to babies in toddler beds but do you leave a drink of water in there too?

We're usually in the same room, but he's always had a room he could go to.
We don't gate his door, instead we gate the places we don't want him to go in the night (so a gate on the stairs, in our case). If our bedroom door were closer to his, we would probably just gate off the area past our door, but we want him able to reach us.
We don't keep toys in the bedroom.
He has a bookshelf and a diy 'couch'.
He has a sippy cup of water next to his bed.

 

[MindUtopia]

Our daughter bedshared with us (well, still does) when she was a baby and slept in a toddler bed in the evenings in her room shortly after she started walking, so it's not quite the same, but I think it still sort of applies.

We have always had an actual door which we keep shut, whatever room she was sleeping in, but that has always been more so she didn't hear us making a lot of noise than to keep her in. Shortly after she started to walk, she could open the door and let herself out anyway. I wouldn't have put a gate on as I would have wanted to respond to her when she woke up and tried to get out anyway, so there really was no point having a gate up, plus a gate would have made it difficult and noisy to shut the door, which is the main thing we care about anyway.

We actually don't really keep toys in her bedroom, just because she's only in there to sleep. Once she's awake, she's in our room (usually she comes in our room during the night away), so we have a basket of toys in there. But we're almost always downstairs or outside during her awake hours, so we've just never kept toys in her room because they wouldn't get played with. The only thing she has in there are two soft toys that she sleeps with.

Yes, we have furniture in there, just a wardrobe and a rocking chair (plus her bed obviously). But I don't keep any furniture next to the bed, in case she fell out, which she does from time to time, and I keep a clear pathway between the bed and the door, so that neither of us trip over it during the night.

No, we've never kept water in there for her. If she needs some, she'll wake and ask me and I get it. When she's sick, she does often want water and then I keep it next to my bed so it's easy to give to her during the night. If I left it in there, she would just be distracted by it or want to play with it, rather than drink it.

 

[BabyMamma93]

Quite a bit different to us,
In Ms bedroom there is his bed, a chest of drawers, a book shelf and a small toy box.
we also have no door just a baby gate. the reason we put the gate up and took the door down was because Malakai wasnt walking at the point we put him in a 'bog boy bed' we thought it would be safer to have just a gate up, he is right opposite our bedroom so i can hear any noise he makes, but i was thinking about it and once he is walking more confidently we will probably move the gate and put the door up so that he can come in our room if he wanted to BUT the reason we havent done that yet is because all my upstairs apart from Ms bedroom is literally piled with crap, crap and more crap so its not very safe for him to be walking around, i guess thats more insentive to sort the crap out lol!

as for the toys, on the first night we took M to bed with his bottle and went down stairs, he played a little then went to his bed and went to sleep, he did this for the first week or 2, but now hes started crying for one of us to go up stairs, once we do he goes straight to his toys and plays, thats all he wants, us to watch him play even though hes really tired this can go on for a good 2 hours lately im thinking whether or not to take them out of his room completely,
BUT on a morning when he wakes up he doesnt cry for us straight away even if there are no toys in there, so rather than him sitting there possibly messing with things he wouldnt otherwise we leave toys in there. do you think this is a bad idea?

in regards to the water, i dont always leave it, even when i do im sure he doesnt drink it but as he cant walk to our room and actually ask us for water, i thought it would be better to leave it in there, but then i thought we will begin potty training soon, and i know nights are the last stage of potty training, maybe letting him get used to water being in there will make it harder?

 

[lau86]

Weren't you worried he'd fall out? I'm considering putting my 16 month old in a bed as his brother keeps climbing into his cot then shouting us to get him out so I figure they'd both be better off in a bed (shame my eldest doesn't listen to us about not climbing into his cot!) but my fear is that he'll fall out. He can walk but he does daft things like sitting on the edge of the bed with no sense that he's about to fall off backwards!

 

[MindUtopia]

As for falling out, if it's a toddler bed, they're very low to the ground, so the fall is only like 6 inches. Still not pleasant, I'm sure, but as long as there are no hard surfaces like corners of furniture, chairs, etc. They can't really hurt themselves on much falling from that height. For the first few nights we put a cot mattress on the floor next to the toddler bed (we have one from a cot we used as a co-sleeper that isn't the cot bed), just until she got used to getting up and getting out of bed and not reaching and trying to stand up on the cot rails and then falling because they weren't there. She has fallen out a few times just rolling in her sleep, but never just by accident thinking she was in a cot. She wakes up, but is fine and I just tuck her back in to bed. Kids do fall out of bed sometimes, even when they're much older, but it's only happened a couple times and she doesn't seem to be bothered, just goes back to sleep.

To the OP, I think it really just depends how it's working with you with the toys. If bedtime is becoming enough of an issue that you need to take the toys out, that might just be what you need to do. It might be easier to have a quick stress-free bedtime and then get up earlier in the morning to collect him and bring him into your room to play or bring him toys in his room in the morning if it's really dragging on at night. I don't think it's a bad thing though if you feel it's working for you. We just found they didn't get played with, so was a shame to have them in there. As for water, I think it's fine. Nighttime potty training is more of a developmental thing, like they are dry all night when they develop the awareness and muscle strength to hold in the urine while they sleep. It won't probably matter too much that he drinks water before bed or during the night because it will just mean he'll need to use the toilet during the night, so he'll wake you up to ask for help using it if he's able to otherwise stay dry. It won't necessarily mean he'll not be dry if he's ready, just more nighttime potty trips for you. But most kids aren't dry at night until 2.5, 3 or even sometimes 4, so there's plenty of time to figure out if that's going to be an issue.

 

[BabyMamma93]

i was yes, so for the first week we took the cushions off the sofa and laid them on the floor at the side of his bed, more so because he gets out of it head first, but ive now took them away and he just has a little crochet blanket on the floor, i am going to get some of them square foam pads and put them down, he has fallen out a few times but he doesnt hurt himself sometimes he stays asleep, he also sometimes chooses to sleep on the floor on the blanket thats down, he did last night

 

[BabyMamma93]

i think i will try with the toys out for tonight, i will then this weekend sort all my upstairs out of all the junk, my last worry then will be whether or not he torments my dogs, all 3 of them sleep in a cage on a night in our bedroom (literally the only place it will fit, and malakai loves to torment them, so maybe i need to figure some space in the spare room for them to sleep in there so there really is nothing in our bedroom that could possibly hurt him

 

[lau86]

Ah great to know. I put my eldest in a bed at 22 months, he was forever getting out! I'm thinking my youngest will be more accepting as he's that bit younger.

 

[catty]

just out of curiosity why do people take the sides off the cot so early? I only ask as im considering taking my sons off and hes nearing 2. If there were reasons id be tempted to take my daughters off too but I think id be so scared id go in and she had got out in the night

 

[CaptainMummy]

just out of curiosity why do people take the sides off the cot so early? I only ask as im considering taking my sons off and hes nearing 2. If there were reasons id be tempted to take my daughters off too but I think id be so scared id go in and she had got out in the night

I took Paiges off at 19 months because she kept banging her head and waking herself up. Ella is 20 months and sleeps great in her cot, and will be staying there for as long as it continues!

 

[Itsychik]

just out of curiosity why do people take the sides off the cot so early? I only ask as im considering taking my sons off and hes nearing 2. If there were reasons id be tempted to take my daughters off too but I think id be so scared id go in and she had got out in the night

^^ I'd be curious to know this as well.

We didn't move my DS into a toddler bed until he was 28 months (2 yrs 4 months) old and I can't imagine if I'd tried to move him much earlier. DD is now 14 months old and definitely won't be out of a crib anytime soon. Just curious to know why someone would choose to do this earlier?

 

[BabyMamma93]

so that it made the transition easier, i have a friend who has a 2 year old and he will not sleep in anything other than a cot even though he climbs out, falls and hurts himself, but he literally stayed up all night with just little stretches of sleep in between when she took the sides off his cot, im not saying all babies are like that but i would rather avoid that if possible.
there is no reason other than 'to make our life easier' as to why i did it, i didnt do it because he can climb out, i didnt do it because he was hitting himself, i didnt do it because of any risks because there was none, and you know what? i really dont regret putting him into a big boy bed, i really dont, yes he has fallen out once or 2ce but he hasnt ever really hurt himself, the other day he managed to push his bed away from the wall and then fell down the side and was stuck between the bed and wall, he was fine when he got out, went back to sleep.

 

[Pearls18]

We waited until DS1 was 2 and 3 months no reason for doing it then really we just decided that was time lol, but I found the key was having a completely blacked out room, he wouldn't leave the bed until I came and got him lol, for years he would just shout for me to go get him, I think he only stopped at 4 lol! We had no issues.

 

[HoneyBee144]

We moved my Ds1 onto a single bed mattress on the floor when he was about 1 and then moved the mattress onto the bed base (with a bed guard thingy) by the time he was 18 months, if not earlier. The reason we moved him out of his cot was because he kept getting chest infections and the only way he would sleep was if we were with him, everytime we tried to put him in his cot he screamed until we took him out. So we moved him onto a mattress (in case he kept rolling off then at least he only rolled on the floor) and it meant me or DH could lie with him while he fell asleep. I've no regrets, it's worked out brilliantly for all of us.

Cant really comment on what to keep in the room etc as Freddie has never actually gotten out of the bed, not even when it was just the mattress on the floor. He knows how, just decides to sit and shout for daddy instead One thing we don't plan to do is put a baby gate on his door, we have one on the stairs so that's enough (we only live in a 2 bed and our landing is tiny).

 

[BabyMamma93]

we dont have a bed guard either, with one on M would stand up and lean on it and it was almost toppling over so we figured, for us, it was much safer not to have one

 

[BabyMamma93]

We moved my Ds1 onto a single bed mattress on the floor when he was about 1 and then moved the mattress onto the bed base (with a bed guard thingy) by the time he was 18 months, if not earlier. The reason we moved him out of his cot was because he kept getting chest infections and the only way he would sleep was if we were with him, everytime we tried to put him in his cot he screamed until we took him out. So we moved him onto a mattress (in case he kept rolling off then at least he only rolled on the floor) and it meant me or DH could lie with him while he fell asleep. I've no regrets, it's worked out brilliantly for all of us.

Cant really comment on what to keep in the room etc as Freddie has never actually gotten out of the bed, not even when it was just the mattress on the floor. He knows how, just decides to sit and shout for daddy instead One thing we don't plan to do is put a baby gate on his door, we have one on the stairs so that's enough (we only live in a 2 bed and our landing is tiny).

this also contributed to us taking the sides off the cot, M was starting to get in a habbit where i had to hold him to sleep, least now one of us can lay with him until he falls asleep