When to move from cot to bed

[ladybug]

Hi ladies,

My DD is almost 15 months old, and she sleeps in her cot without needing any help. Do you think it is early to move her to a bed or remove one side of her cot? I'm worried what if she fall down from her cot at night and hurt herself. Any suggestions?

Cheers
May

[babytoo]

I took the side off the cot first around 15 or 18 months I think it was. I also put a side rail on this which helped keep him from rolling out but gave him enough room when he was awake to get out by himself. I think this is a good start and I will definatley do it again the next time as well! He then went into his big bed a little after 2 years...good luck

[Baby Girl]

We moved house when DD1 was 21 months and instead of putting the cot back up we put her bed in her room instead, she went into it without a problem. She has never rolled out. Maybe because we moved it was easier for her to associate the new bed with a new house.

I just re-read what I wrote and it sounds like I am suggesting you move... I'm not but that is just how our cot to bed swap happened.

[Ky]

My daughter went into a cot at 15mths as she could climb out of her cot and it was just asfer to have her in a bed.

My son was 17mths old as he was too big for the portacot he had been sleeping in from 5 months when he outgrew his wooden cot! Seriously, he was so long limbed that he only had to wave them about a bit and he was tangled in the bars! Thats why we put him into the soft portacot!

I had no trouble getting them to stay in bed ... I just adjusted thier routine so that they were really ready for thier daytime sleep (ie. dd used to sleep at 11am and then 3pm - changed this to one sleep at 1pm of 4 hours). I have clposed thier door at night from birth and they are used to the dark, so when they were put in bed at night they just went to sleep! At daytime, they would often play for ½ an hour or so and then crawl back into bed to go to sleep ... I just figured that even when they were playing they were getting a quiet rest, so didn't worry about it. After a month or so, they just went straight to sleep in the daytime.