When to move from cot to bed?

[stressheaderic]

My DD has just turned 2. She has always been an excellent sleeper, usually having 13-14 hours uninterrupted.
Just recently, she has started to get upset at bedtime. She is calm during the bedtime routine, we read stories, she says 'bedtime now', then gets upset as soon as we get to her bedroom, clinging to me as I try to put her in bed, she's been inconsolable the last few nights.
We thought she was nowhere near ready for us taking the sides off her cot as she's only small, doesn't even reach halfway down the cot, and has never shown signs of attempting to climb out.
I syggested to DP that we should takes the sides off and treat her to some nice new bedding, so that she might look forward to going to bed again, but he wasn't sure, saying she's young to be in a bed and she'd only keep getting/falling out
When do most people change from cot to bed?

We changed when DS was 1 but he hated the cot with a passion.
I took off the side of the cot - its not a cotbed -and put one of those bed side thingys that you can click up and down (the name will come to me). But the cot was still in our room.
WHen he was 2 he moved to his own room and now and has a junior bed, still with the bed side thing on.

My DD is 22mo & we took one side of the cot bed off a few weeks back. She didn't want to climb out, but kept trying to climb in. She fell out of bed a couple of times in the first week, but has not done it since. She often sleeps better now & never fights going to bed, in fact she chooses to get into bed!! She is also better about going back when she wakes up in the night - possibly because she knows she can come into us for a cuddly whenever she wants!! Most nights she sleeps through, some nights are a trial, but much easier now she doesn't get herself worked up when put back into her cot/bed.

Try it, what's the worst that could happen? It makes no difference & you put the side back on... Good luck.

DS is 2 in May and we moved him into a bed a couple of weeks ago. He's not really ready for it, but had mastered the art of climbing out of his cot, and I was worried about the potential for him hurting himself/landing on his head or neck etc. We got him a little one from Ikea with a rail along the side. Bedtime is a trial but he goes to sleep eventually.
DD was similar to your DD when we moved her into a bed, she was suddenly afraid of bedtime, and the cot she'd been in since she was 6 months old. Once she was in a bed she calmed down, and her bedtime and sleeping went back to normal. She was just over 2 iirc.