how do you know when they are ready for a bed?

[chezziejo]

I was just wondering. DS is 22 months and is all over the place in his cot still. It is a cot bed so would only need to whip the side off and change the end bit over. New baby due end of Nov but think we are going to get a small cot anyway as DS will 2.5 then and don't want him to think we are swiping his bed.

Just wondered do you go for it and buy a side thingy to help keep him in and lots of cushion on the floor or wait until hes a bit older?

Ta x

IMHO you don't know. They are resilient and probably won't be that botherd.

DS (5) moves around a lot when asleep. If he is in a normal single bed, he will always fall out. DS is in a midi sleeper with high sides.

Do you have enough room for the children to have their own room? If you have a new baby due in November, it may be easier to make the transition now. If you have an extra room, I would get a bed and put a side guard on.

We changed the cot bed too a bed when DS was 2. We got a new duvet, the new baby got her new cot and to give him something special too he got his new bed. We made a big fuss, worked through the getting out of bed thing and he got used to it pretty quickly. We just had a big squishy sleeping bag to land on if he fell out but he's only fell out once since March.
I second doing it sooner rather than later if you'vve another on the way.

I knew when DS climbed over the bars of his cot (despite gro-bag) and catapulted himself out on to his head, sustaining carpet burns all over his forehead.

I couldn't have slept another night worrying that he would break his neck or arm doing it again so went straight to IKEA and bought a very low toddler bad that could extend to almost full length in due course. It was v cheap, and so once he was about 6 and the mattress had taken the brunt of toilet training and bed wetting we were reay to take the whole thing to the tip and buy him a proper single bed.

Oh, and on his first night on his toddler bed he smashed his nose down on the bed guard and bled like crazy , so as the bed was so low, we abandoned the bed guard and put his cot mattress alonside the toddler bed, where he slept many a comfortable night!

am with prev poster - when they can climb onto bars and jump or fall out