Help! How to stop dd3 from climbing out of her cot?!

[TheDrswife]

We are at our wits end, last night she was up basically all night, climbing straight back out when returned to her cot. Does anyone have a magic solution??

He old is she?

Is she 3 years old? If so, put her in a bed.

Is she 3yo or your third DD? If 3yo she needs a bed. Our DD was in a sleeping bag and was vaulting out of a high cot at 19 months. We had to put her in a low toddler bed immediately as she wasn’t safe in the cot.

Move her to a bed.

Move her into a bed, remove anything that might be a danger to her, put a stairgate across her bedroom door.

Magic solution no but the safest thing to do would be to put her in a cotbed/bed and have a baby gate on her door (tall one if she’s a climber).

Put her in a cot bed.
Put a gate on her bedroom door.
Buy her a Yoto/ tonie box to keep her in her bed occupied.
Buy a sleep clock and explain that she is to stay in bed until the sunshine comes out on the clock and if she does that she gets a sticker on her chart.
When she gets X amount of stickers, she gets to pick a new story for her Yoto/ tonie box

If she can climb out then you need to get rid of the cot .

Sorry, yes, she’s 3 years old. We tried a bed but she was out of it more than she was in it.

if she can get out of her cot she needs to go into a bed. One of ours was shinning up and over the side at 15 months ; he adapted fine to a normal bed . Obviously there is the drawback of them popping in to see you during the night or heading/ falling downstairs so I like the idea of the baby gate if this is a possibility for you .

This is a normal part of moving to a bed. Make the room boring and leave her to it.

Honestly just put her in a bed and parent the child.
keeping her in a cot, in the hope she doesn’t out of it at the age of 3 is pure lazy arse parenting

She’s too old for a cot.

There is no point in her being in a cot aged three. She needs to be in her own bed, and if it means returning her to it in silence a hundred times a night then so be it. She will cotton on in the end.

What time does she go to bed, and is she actually tired at that point?

Yep and when she gets out of it, take her back to bed, no talking, interaction etc

It’s time for a toddler bed. What are the consequences for her leaving her room once it’s bedtime?

I agree with everyone else - move her to a bed and keep taking her back every time she gets out.

Old Supernanny videos taught me this trick! It’s worked with all 3 of my DC.

Thank you, great ideas.

Move her to a bed and make sure the room is safe and if you can move her toys out of it for a while so there’s not anything to tempt her to get up and play. When she gets up just keep returning her to her room without much interaction so it’s not fun for her to get up.

Why do you expect a 3 year old to be happy sleeping alone? Why do you expect a 3 year old to fall asleep alone? Put her in a single bed with a cot-side to stop her falling out, and stay with her, read a story, stroke her hair or whatever works, but give her the company and reassurance she needs to go to sleep.

She is ready for a bed at 3, my first was like this, we put a baby gate on his bedroom door, he used to play a bit in his room and then fall asleep by himself.

Have just sent DH up to the attic to get the bed down!

Seriously? And then what, stay there all evening and night ready to do that again every time she wakes up? Snork at your tone suggesting it is shocking abuse for a 3 year old to have a bedroom and to aim that she should stay in it.

And yes, madly too old to be in a cot. You are lucky she hasn’t hurt herself yet

DS 1 we took the sides off his cotbed when he was 3 as he'd never attempted to climb out.
DS 2 was over the side aged 2, even while wearing a baby sleeping bag. 😁
We took the sides off his cotbed and used a duvet turned sideways and tucked in both sides, so he had to wiggle down into bed. We definitely had a stairgate at the top of the stairs so he didn't fall down them in the night .