What do you do when your toddler has learnt to get out of the cot???

[naturopath]

Last night ds1 (2.2) climbed out of his cot for the first time. He was shouting for mummy at around midnight - when I went in he was just standing on the floor! Has never actually done this before, although I've seen him try.

Bit worried as the cot has been a bit unstable lately, and we have wooden floors, with only a small rug in his room. It's quite a drop.

Do I have to move him to a bed?? Put cushions down on the floor? Hope he'll grow out of it??

Move him to a bed.

Is it a cotbed so you can remove the sides? If so, do it. If not, then yes I'd put him in a bed.

MOve to a bed.

Put him in a bed. It'll be much safer than him launching himself over the cot sides! Once he's started doing it he'll carry on doing it IME.

strap him down move to a toddler or single bed or take the sides off the cot, know how you feel, DD22 months has started doing it oh and get a gate for the bedroom door if you don't already have one.

it's not a cotbed so we would have to go and buy a bed now.

Don't have gates on his door, but he sleeps with the door closed and can't reach the handle yet.

I've heard that bad sleepers (which he can be) only get worse in a bed.. which is why I am reluctant to make the move!

Ds slept much better in a bed (from about age 14 or 15 months)

You could give him the cot mattress on the floor until you want to buy another bed - it'll still be big enough for quite a while.

I broke my arm climbing out my cot at 18m. Would get that bed sorted ASAP

hmm, ok - bed it is then I guess.
At least we don;t need to wonder about whether to buy a second cot now for ds2.
thanks for the advice

If it cheers you up DC1 did this just after we bought the cot for DC2. Grrr!

He'll be fine in a bed.

I moved ds1 at 18 months because he started doing this. Ds2 (now 18 months) is trying the same but can't quite do it yet (but can climb in). He'll be out in a bed as soon as he does.

Ime they don't grow out of this, bur rather get more determined and dangerous.

The mattress on the floor is a good idea..and the safest....would recommend safety gate at the door asap too...he will very quickly learn to stand on a toy to reach the door handle

I can just imagine the tantums at the stairgate though - i.e. the sheer audacity of us to try to close him in ! I can just see him screaming for hours every night if we did that. He's a pretty strong and determined boy.

its horrible
and exhausting.
my advice-turn the TV up.

Just to give you a bit of hope, I assumed that DS would be out of bed all the time, going to find toys and books, screaming at the gate and was dreading putting him in a bed. In the event it never occurred to him to get out of bed once he was in and lights off, bedtime story read, etc. We have to go in to him sometimes because a toy has fallen out, but unless his light is on it's never occurred to him to get out.

thanks flowery - that does give me some hope. Maybe he'll enjoy being in a bed?

My Ds never slept in his cot so was basically in a bed early on - namely ours so at about 22 months we put him into his bed and voila no issues at all! as above poster says, it just never occurs to him to get out! We have stair gate on stairs, but mainly that is to stop him waking up before us and causing mayhem downsairs, he can handle the stairs perfectly well!!

I think he would go mad if gate was on his door, and I have no doubt that he would attempt to climb it. I'm sure a toy could be placed to climb over the gate, just as it could to open the door. Mind you my Ds can reach our door handles anyway.

Hope it goes well. My DS was terrible sleeper but great in his bed.