Transition from Cot to Bed

[jemma's dad]

I am a little bothered here, DD is 10 months now, but almost 80cms, and looking at her lying in the cot, it seems that its not going to be too much longer before we have to move her into the bed.

What sort of age did everyone start the change from cot to bed, I don't want to start too soon, but can't leave it too long at the rate she is growing because then she may not fit back into the cot.

Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated

Aaron

[Leeny]

Im in the same boat as you but DD is 16 months. Im gunna be buying her a bed in the next week or 2. Good luck :D

[cobysmummy]

i moved coby at 9 months.. only because he hated his cot with a passion and after our holidays and he slept in our bed (the portacot they let us use was cr@p!) he wanted to be in our bed so we got him his own bed an dproblem solved!!! now i have trouble getting him out of it

[talon]

I just did the transition last week. DS is 19 months old and we haven't had a problem. We did have to put a baby gate up at his door as he knows how to open the doors and would've wandered around the house in the morning without us knowing about it. We also got a bed rail (Safety 1st) so that he can't roll out of bed. We also put a mattress on the floor sticking out under his bed just in case he manages to fall where there is a gap that the bed rail doesn't cover.

He loves it!

[mum2bubba]

Hayley is almost 2 and she is still in her cot (she is a small bubba) I know people who had there baby in a bed at 10 months (actually it was a matress on the floor) and she was fine.

[mumma_jessy]

My DS was 2 years, but we had NO trouble at all so i think we could have done it earlier. We bought him a car bed, it has sides on it so he can't roll out and it is low to the ground, plus he loves it!

If anyone is interested they sell them on e-bay, cost us only $200 (which is cheap for a car bed!)

Good luck with the big bed move!

[Mahjong]

Wyatt started in his toddler bed at around 20 months. He just decided one day that it was his bed, we bought it when he was 14 months old and he hated it back then.

My advice, if DD is 80 cms long now, just go straight to a normal bed, maybe just the mattress on the floor as it will be easier for her to get in and out.

[our little treasures]

My dd was 16mnths and my ds will be around the same... I don't reccomend using the safety barriers as they climb on them and tobble over and it would be a bigger fall, IYKWIM. You shouldn't have any problems I think the idea of the barrier on the door sounds really good for peace of mind!!

[FourAngelKisses]

I moved Jacob at 10mths, Brooke at 12mths and Matthew at 7.5mths, simply because I didn't want to have to deal with a toddler who kept getting out of bed to play, get a drink, not want to sleep etc.
Making the first move at night worked better for me, if I did it in the daytime, they cried, but at night they didn't...probably too tired to I guess. I also took them shopping for sheets which helped, and then I made a big deal out of making the bed in front of them.

[Lil X-men]

I just moved DS 17months into a bed (a big one too, double :eek:!!! on the insistence of DH that it will last him till he leaves home lol!)
NO probs at all, he loves it snuggles in and sleeps all night, I probably could have done it sooner!!

[becstar]

My son was very tall (90th percentile on the growth chart since birth) and he was in his cot until about 2 years and 3 months.....with no problems!! He was scared to move intoto his bed and so we didn't pressure him. We started off just having story time there and then a few months later he just did it when ready.....unless you have to move your baby to use the cot for another baby then I wouldn't stress to much about it.....I know a 3 year old that still sleeps in the cot.

Bec

[Ky]

Both of my guys went into a bed with a bedrail at around 15 months. Ds was way to long for his wooden cot by 5 months old (huge bub!) and I ended up putting him in the portacot for the next 10 months.

I used door barriers too as they helped the kids realise that when it was bedtime, they stayed in thier room until Mum or Dad said it was ok to get out! We just made sure that there was no unsafe furniture in there (ie. bookcases and tallboys bracketed to the walls) and only had safe (without constant supervision) toys. They learnt really quickly that bed was where they slept and I would let them play for a while before enforcing the "sleeptime now" in a stern voice part of the routine. Most of the time I didn't even have to go in as they would climb up onto thier beds and nod off without reminder!

I put a sturdy box at the end of the bed until they could climb up easily without it ... this seemed to be all of the help they needed.

Both of my kids now happily go to bed when told ... I think it is because we always made thier bedroom a good place to be - they will even go to bed as early as 5:30pm without protest if we have a big day ahead of us!