Transition to bed from cot

[sfagan2022]

My LO is 2.8 and I thought I would've moved her to a bed by now. I bought one recently but I don't think she is ready for the transition. She is in cot bed with sides up so it's big enough. She climbed out once but never tried again and learned lesson. The problem is that she is happy to go to bed when it's time but when I go to say goodnight she screams the place down. I find when she's in the cot she will have a meltdown for a few minutes and then puts herself to sleep so it's over very quickly. But the times she has been in a bed (like on holiday) or when she slept in with me a couple of times she ran around riot and wouldn't stay in bed. I tried putting her back every time with zero fuss but she would be up till midnight every time and then crashed out on a sofa and I'd have to carry her to bed. I can't see this lasting only a couple of nights unfortunately. When she wakes in the night occasionally and I know she is fine once I've seen to her she puts herself back to sleep in the cot but if it was the bed it would be a different ball game. Any advice?

If it's any context she can't speak in sentences yet so the communication isn't there which I don't think helps matters

I think you just need to do it when you have time for the running around and lack of sleep. Keep being consistent and she will soon get it.

I tried last week on holiday for four nights running and it was awful. I know being away makes them out of sorts but I thought she would be knackered from being out all day in the sun. No naps for a year either so that's not impacting sleep

to transition from cot to bed I took one side off the cot for a few nights then took the other side off.
It is a low down toddler bed that the cotbed converts to and I have a small mattress on the floor just in case.
I just talked encouragingly about going into a big boy bed and my son seemed quite proud of himself. I was absolutely dreading the messing about and running around but he surprised me.
It's been 5 weeks and apart from a few instances of sneaking out of bed to grab a toy then go back into bed it's been ok so far. He's 2years 4 months.

Do you need to move her now? I'm team crib till college, you could probably get another 6-8 months out of it? If she's happy enough in the crib I'd be inclined to leave her there for the time being!

Holiday was not the time to try it. It's not her bedroom, it's not familiar, so of course she kicked off.

Rather than buying a new bed, trying in a new room like on holiday or doing anything to make it a thing, I just took the sides off the cot, replaced it with a bed guard, didn’t say anything and I’m not convinced she actually noticed because it was over a year before she ever got out of bed herself! Friends of ours went the other route though with a floor bed, stripping the room of anything fun and stairgate on the door. It did look a bit prison like but absolutely did the job as she soon figured out there wasn’t much point in getting out of bed as it got no attention and there was nothing fun to do.

Agreed re: holiday being a tough time for this. (Though I realize that’s not very helpful, because what can you do about it now!)

At home, we fully childproofed DD’s room, then put a stair gate on her door. For a few weeks, she’d get up and move around her room at bedtime, and a few times even slept on the floor next to the gate (!), but we for the most part left her to it after her bedtime routine and lights out. If she was really crying or screaming obviously we’d go to her and do a “quiet return to bed” but thankfully after a few weeks she settled down and grew to love her new bed. Cute bunny sheets helped too. ;-)

Not what you are asking but has she had a hearing test and been referred to SaLT yet?