Has this ever happened to anyone? Wandering toddler, middle of the night

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Hi, I'm a bit shaken up following this. Wondered if anyone had experienced anything similar?

My toddler will be 2 in a week or so. She is suspected SEN- namely has auditory and tactile sensory issues, and delayed speech and communication. We struggled with her sleep for a while but have managed in the past couple of months to address most sleep related issues. She can sleep independently now as long as she has a bottle of water to suckle, and around 75% of the time she's sleeping through the night (the other 25% she either cannot find her bottle in her cot or she needs more water). She's been sleeping in the master bedroom alone since I found this reduced night wakings considerably (she was waking 3-4 times a night when we room shared). She's sleeps in a sleep sack and in a cot which she's never climbed out of.

Last night, I awoke at around 2.30am to her crying. I keep a bottle of water near me in case she does wake up, and was walking to her room to give her the water. I found her stood in her sleep sack crying hysterically in the living room (we live in a flat). She had not only climbed out of the cot with her sleep sack, but navigated the master bedroom in pitch black (we have black out blinds, and lots of unpacked suitcases and boxes due do renovations in another room). She opened the door of the bedroom, again walked through a pitch black hallway, opened another door to the living room where I found her.

I allowed my Blink subscription to lapse unfortunately so although I have an idea of when she was moving around in her cot, I have no clips to shed light on how she managed to leave her cot (I've since subscribed to Blink again!).

She struggles to get down from her climbing frame without assistance. I do not understand how she could climb over her cot while in a sleep sack? I gave her a bottle and placed her back in the cot and she went back to sleep soon after. She has been fine today.

Has this happened to anyone before?

Not in a sleep sack, no, but once they can climb out of the cot you must lower or remove the sides to avoid falls from height.

One of mine did, only 14 months old, so was in a toddler bed, still feet-to-foot, at a very tender age.

You need to review how secure your property is, relocate any dangerous stuff/lock it away, make sure the entrances are locked and the keys inaccessible to little one.

Im pretty sure the trigger for about half of the child populations sides coming off cot is a surprise escape.

As others have said, just because they have climbed out once and been okay doesn’t mean you want to keep giving them the opportunity.

You then get a how to manage the wandering. Child proofing a space and then making so they can’t get beyond that unsupervised. Some use stair gates across door ways, some use door alarms. You get stand-alone stick on door alarms that alarm each time the door is opened which can be a helpful back up.

Yes our 4 year old started suddenly climbinf out of her cot and climbing up a flight of stairs to our room before she turned 2. She was in a sleep bag. I quickly took the side off the cot and put her under toddler duvet instead as the thought of her climbing steep stairs in a sleep bag particularly was terrifying. They must have intense upper body strength!

Recommend a door alarm too thats what we started using. You can get them on amazon for fairly cheap, often used for those with dementia etc to stop wandering. It terrified ours the first few times she tried to escape and it went off but at least it let us know she was on the move!

The cot is currently dropped to its lowest. I still don't understand how she managed it. I have a 2nd child (9 months) who is also a terrible sleeper. I'm currently co sleeping with him in another room (I'm a lone parent unfortunately). He doesn't sleep alone and wakes up numerous times a night. Need to think of how to safe proof her room now! I'm super worried. Not sure I'll be able to sleep at night until I've addressed this.

Be warned. My second could escape the cot by 11 months old

I think you need to take the side fully off the cot, or move her to a bed, to avoid injury when climbing out. The only thing you can do is try and take anything dangerous out of her room and consider a high stairgate on her door to avoid her escaping.

The straight forward steps.

side off the cot. Thats usually fairly easy to do. Put it in a child safe room and firmly shut the door.

To short term child proof the room, remove all the hazards or tie drawer handles shut. Be creative, if you’ve got a child proofed bathroom or kitchen you could use that for a bit while you sort their room.

Order a door alarm, you get a two pack off Amazon for £10. Then you’ll wake if they open the door.

By 18 months my youngest was climbing from her cot to the window seal of her bedroom. It's not safe to keep them in a cot past that age if they can/want to climb.

Both my kids wander off at night, usually to get into our bedroom.
For my eldest, we used to put a high stair gate into the door frame of his bedroom door so we couldn't get out but we could still leave the door open. It was mostly because we were scared he would fall in the stairs.
We didn't bother for our youngest, the reality is they are perfectly capable of navigating at night. But if you're concerned you could try that. It needs to be quite high if she is able to climb, and make sure there is nothing in the room she can climb on easily (my kids would use any toy box to step over stuff).

Depending on the layout of the flat, you can put the stair gate(s) anywhere that make sense by the way, it doesn't have to be her bedroom door. So for instance in the corridor so she can go from her bedroom to yours, but not towards the other living areas.

Mine did in a sleepsack too. Over the cotside. No idea how they managed it. I stopped using it after that.

Yeah this is really common. They can walk in sleep sacks! They're not an impediment at all.

Do you have a safe room for her? Once they graduate from the cot, the room becomes their cot. If you do, get an external lock on the door so you know she's safe in there and can't get out. They often get big enough to roam well before they're old enough to safely roam the house unfortunately.

I know someone whose DC mastered getting over the stair gate before he was a year old. Later on, his hobby was parkour!

I also know someone who got rid of the sleep sacks pronto when their younger one climbed into the older one's top bunk whilst wearing one.

I thought you weren’t supposed to use cots with the side removed due to safety/stability/strength concerns?

OP, she needs a bed. Toddler beds are a reasonable price or just get a suitable single. Put stairgates to block off any dangerous rooms, make sure your electric sockets have safety covers, and put anything dangerous out of reach. I also used a dim nightlight in my DC’s bedroom so if they did get up, they weren’t in the pitch black. Once she gets used to the bed, she should be fine.

Some cots are designed to transition to one low side