2.7yr old scared of moving from cot to bed

[MrsJamin]

DS2 is rather an emotional being and can get scared easily. The time has come to move him into a bed and we have made up a bed with his favourite thing on the duvet cover, which he is excited about, but still we ask him if he would like to sleep in it, and he says no, then if pressed he just starts getting very scared and shouts no. We have emphasized Being a big boy and put his soft toys in there and asked them in the morning how well they slept etc etc but nothing seems to be working. Should we just dismantle the cot and let him just deal with it?

Can you do it gradually? - take one side off (we did this - but it was a cot bed)

Yes I think we can do this but I think it may scare him not to have a side on the cot, whereas there is a decent side panel on the side of the bed.

How about taking the side off the cot but putting a wooden bed guard on the open side? Slow, small steps??? Then once your Ds is used to this you could move him to a bed but with the same bed guard. My dd1 sleeps in her cot bed (sides off) with a bedguard on. Dd1 is 3.9years.

If your Ds isn't physically too big for the cot, you could consider giving him more time. It isn't unusual for children to sleep in cots till 3 years. I think dc are often moved from cots to beds due to a risk of climbing/falling out. If this isn't an issue you could delay the move...just a thought.

HTH

Does he have to move out?

(DD is 5 and half and still, on occasion sleeps in the cot because her baby brother never does although she is still a diddy thing_

The time may have come in your mind but it hasn't in your Ds yet, I would leave him be for now.

I think the main motivator is that in a month we will be putting our house on the market, and presently in the boys room there is a large bunk bed (bottom bunk is reserved for DS2, DS1 at the top already) and his cot- it will look a lot more roomy if the cot isn't there. But yes, it is our agenda, not his. I can't remove the bunk bed side bar because it is built in. Perhaps we do need to go easy on DS2. I think if we force him to move before he's ready we may have issues getting him to sleep for months! Any other ideas to persuade him that big boy beds are where it's at?

Ah. Sorry to say this but I bet he doesn't like the bunk bed - DS is five and I thought he would love bunk beds - the top one scares him and he says he feels "trapped" in the bottom one - too enclosed I think.

Yeah I think it doesn't help- we don't have space for anything else though :( I can't work out how to make the bottom feel any nicer for DS2...

Does your DS like some light on at night? If so, glow-in-the-dark stars might make the underside of the top bunk less oppressive?

Yeah, you might be on to something, I might look into something that glows to stick on the underside of the toP bunk. :)