So we had to take the side off the cot

[Coconutfeet]

20 month old ds climbed out of his cot and fell on his head so we took the side off the cot. It's a nightmare. Last night he was up and down until after 10pm (he's normally asleep by about 7.30). I kept returning him silently but he just climbed out again, every few seconds. Tonight seems to be the same and I can hear dp beginning to lose his patience. I remember doing similar with ds1 but I swear it wasn't quite this bad. Has anyone got any words of wisdom? How long will it take for him to get the message?

[Auntierosemary]

Can you baby-proof the area of your house or flat around his bedroom and then just ignore him? Eg close all bedroom doors and put stair gate on so that he has nowhere to go but bedroom and landing? Or maybe get stair gate for his bedroom doorway? Then the hope would be that he would get bored and decide to go back to bed himself.
We used a travel cot as a kind of threat when my daughter was a similar age! She had to stay in bed or sleep in the travel cot (harder to climb out of and not a "big girl bed" so v undesirable in her eyes). We only ever had to leave her in travel cot for ten mins max and then she would gratefully get back into her own bed. That was after weeks of nonsense - us sleeping on mattresses beside her, holding her hand til she fell asleep etc etc etc.

[AlarmOnSnooze]

Do yuo think he would climb out again?

my 19 month old ds climbed/fell out of his cot a couple of months ago. being old, knackered, and a very jaded mum of 3, I waited the next night (and several after) to see if it would happen again (I did put cushions down to break his fall if he did!) and so far it hasn't.

I could not contemplate having a 17 month old in a bed and able to get up whenever he wanted (not least becaue he didn't even start sleeping through until about 16 months!) and so this was the least worst option for me. We do have a gate on his door in case he does do it again (his door opens right onto the stairs).

It might be that he wouldn't climb/fall again, which would save you all a lot of hassle.

[Coconutfeet]

Thanks for replies. Sorry for lack of names. I'm on my phone so can't scroll back.

Yes, I did wonder about just letting him roam free and hope he would get bored. The trouble is, he shares with his older brother and his rampaging around is keeping him awake and he needs to be alert for school.

I'm not sure whether landing on his head has put him off attempting to escape again. I think it could be worth trying him with the side back on and putting down something soft in case he does. He's only just starting sleeping well too so I'm really not happy at jeopardising all our efforts.

Do you think the transition to toddler bed is easier when they're older or is this just a rite of passage that we have to somehow ride out?

[AlarmOnSnooze]

I can only say how it was for my older two.

dd1 was in her cot until she was over 3. Never tried to climb out (and she was tall - she could easily have got out from about 15 months). In fact, she was so settled in the cot (and we were so fearful of rocking the boat too much) that we bought another cot when dd2 was due, rather than turf dd1 out... then, when we did bite the bullet and put dd1 into a bed, it was all fine (we thought we would have major issues, as dd1 has severe ASD and so just the break in the routine terrified us) - dd1 took longer to get to sleep, but stayed in her room - either on her bed or curled up in the armchair flicking through books.

dd2 was in a cot until just past 2. by this point, the dds were sharing a room, and dd2 got frustrated that dd1 could get in and out freely but she couldn't. dd2 was a tiny little thing, and so had to work hard at climbing out , and we were worried she would fall awkwardly, so we took the sides off. it was ok-ish. going to bed was more or less ok, but the mornings were hell as dd2 is an early riser, and so from 5am she was up and about and now able to roam...

ideally I'd like to keep ds in his cot until at least 2. his understanding now is quite good, but he is also right in the middle of pushing boundaries and finding it funny, so he would certainly be up and roaming if he thought he wasn't supposed to. hopefully by delaying a little we will end up where we did with the dds - where going to bed and getting some sleep wasn't a problem at all (but then given they never really tried to climb out, I'm not sure the comaprisons are useful as clearly ds is a different kettle of fish entirely!)

[Misty9]

We took the side off ds's cotbed when he was 22mo. He had been a self settling sleep like a dream since 15mo (and just woke for boob before then). 8 months later we are still having to stay in his room until he's asleep, and he frequently comes into our room in the night...
Any attempt to leave him to it results in what you describe - up and down every few seconds and both of us losing our tempers with him.

We're hoping he'll grow out of it...

[Coconutfeet]

Oh gawd misty. Not what I was hoping to hear...

[Moodykat]

When DS1 started to climb out, we dropped the cot bed base onto the floor (thus giving us another 6 inches or so of barrier around him). He could never climb out of that! Maybe worth trying?

[Misty9]

Sorry...I did think twice about whether to post!

[Happydaze247]

Would putting him in a sleeping bag make it more difficult for him to climb out of the cot?

[Coconutfeet]

I did wonder whether to put him back in a sleeping bag, but I think it could cause more accidents. Might be worth a try.

It doesn't seem to be possible to lower the base of our cot much further down, although I will investigate that again. Failing that, one of the Ikea cots looks as though it might be fairly low down so we could get one of those for the short term as it's pretty cheap. I wonder if we're not just putting off the inevitable though and shouldn't just try and deal with training him to stay in bed now. It's still taking quite a while but is definitely slightly better than it was earlier in the week. Although I really don't want to end up like you Misty - it sounds awful. You poor thing!