Managing safety when transitioning from cot to toddler bed

[TheBirdintheCave]

As our two year old is now tall enough to climb out of his cot we're converting it to the toddler bed set up next weekend.

I was wondering how we go about managing the safety aspect of this. Our son's room is safe, all of the furniture is secured to the walls so there is no risk of drawers or bookcases falling, but what happens if he gets up in the middle of the night whilst we're sleeping and goes wandering about the house?

Is there a door sensor or similar we could buy? I assume stair gates would be pointless as, if he can climb out of the cot (which he has already demonstrated) he could climb over them.

Does anyone have any suggestions or tips? How have you tackled this situation?

Baby monitor (he’s unlikely to go exploring quietly) and stair gates (unless he can climb over those too)

In my experience child could climb cot and climb gates so no barrier. But 2 year olds have no idea how to be quiet, so you will hear him.
Mine just comes into our room and won’t go downstairs alone at night as it’s ‘dark’

A wall mounted baby gate at the top of the stairs (not a pressure gate as they are a trip hazard at the top) and keep your baby monitor with volume up higher if needed. Teach your DC to call for you if you don't want them leaving the bedroom.

Any time your DC is walking around upstairs just make it very clear the stairs are dangerous and not to climb the gate. Lots of praise when waiting for an adult. Reprimand if touching the stair gate. Age 2 is old enough to understand that concept and keep them safe. Shut their bedroom door when they go to sleep - I'd be shocked if you didn't hear them trying to open it in the night if they did get out of bed.

Stick some bells to alert you to him opening doors?

2 year olds are many things but stealthy is not one of them. You'll hear him.

Monitor and stairgate here - although he's only managed to get out of his room and into ours without me hearing once in two years.

IME they don't do this. If they wake up in the night they shout for you!

Do you have a house alarm? We couldn't fit any stair gates, so set the alarm to start beeping when anyone started down the stairs. Adults obviously had time to get down and cancel the alarm.
The DC very quickly learnt that the stairs were no-go at night.

We've kept the stair gate for this reason. Pretty sure we'd hear about it if he was going to try climbing it, so it's really to stop drowsey inadvertently wandering to the top of the stairs.

We've never had any stair gates or barriers and instead just made sure that our son learnt to never go up or down without mummy or daddy but I think getting one at least for the top of the stairs would be a good idea at this point.

We still have his baby monitor operating for naps and overnight so yes, that's a good point that we would likely hear him on that.

@PeekAtYou Bells was something I had thought of :) That could be a cheap addition to the door for some extra noise to be picked up on the monitor.

@redspottedmug We do but it's only connected to the doors and windows. There's nothing internal. Our son is also very scared of the alarm noise as we've accidentally set it off a few too many times 😅

Thanks for all of the stories and advice so far :)

Moved our DD to toddler bed around 2y1m. She has never gotten out of bed at night despite being perfectly capable. I don't think she wants to go wandering around when she can't see. If yours was climbing out of the crib of a night, though, I guess that's no impediment!

We put a stair gate on DS’s door, it’s the only one in the house as like you we haven’t done the stairs. The thought being that even if he did climb it, it slows him down and it’s unlikely to be silent so add in the baby monitor and we’d hear any escape attempt whilst it was still in progress. It also makes bedtime easier as it keeps him in his room. Weirdly he has never climbed it though despite escaping the cot at under 18 months! Ours isn’t but you can also get taller ones primarily designed for dogs but also do the job for agile toddlers.

I think getting one at least for the top of the stairs would be a good idea at this point
This is a terrible idea though. It leaves him free to silently roam and out of range of the baby monitor the first you would know is the thud when he goes over the gate falls down the stairs. Any gate designed with a bottom bar is also a massive trip hazard. I’d personally rather leave the stairs ungated but leave a light on.

@FlounderingFruitcake I never thought about a gate just for his door. That does sound like a better idea :)

The gates I've been looking at today are a bit like roller blinds. Are these better than barred ones? I imagine they're harder to climb.

www.oliversbabycare.co.uk/product/callowesse-air-retractable-stair-gate-0-140cm-110cm-baby-safety-gate-white/?gclid=CjwKCAiAxvGfBhB-EiwAMPakqv8oKPqQizxzjSiyol1J-DJUUv7zrw3z7q1eZNdhDj1E4gzZS1TKjxoCK3cQAvD_BwE

I can't leave any sort of light on as my husband is basically the girl from the Princess and the Pea when it comes to sleeping 😂 He notices the slightest speck of light and will hear the smallest noise.

Also we added those plug in nightlights. Ours are dim and they lead from Ds room, into hall and our room. So he just follows the light

i wouldn’t put a gate at the top of stairs . Lethal. I know too many daredevil children who tried climbing over and then fall from a height down the stairs instead of just safely walking down

@Caspianberg Son is definitely a daredevil child so I will nix that idea as you and @FlounderingFruitcake have both mentioned it. I guess it might also confuse son too if there's suddenly a gate there when there never was before.

I was worried about this as DS' transition to a bed coincided with us moving to a house from a flat but, as others have said, he's not stealthy and if he wakes up in the night he just shouts for us to come in.

You can get tall gates designed for pets really but do the same thing. All my gates are extra tall as the dogs just went over the top of the normal height ones!
Think mine are 1m tall but you can get taller! Would make it harder for him to climb over!

Retractable one on his door is a good call I reckon! We just have a standard wooden barred one but I agree that a fabric one is going to be harder to climb.

Never had a stair gate as DD would just wake up and shriek for us and/or stagger into our room.

As others have said, the dark is too frightening for them to head off into it.

Also my best tip ever is to move them straight into a double bed, if space allows. Then whenever they're sick or won't settle in the night, one of you can quickly go and sleep with them. Then you all get a good nights sleep.

At two I expect he can walk safely downstairs.
Gates are just asking to be climbed at that age. I would just make sure no doors are locked.
You could try a baby monitor but the most likely scenario is that you wake up suddenly in the night with hime stood next to your bed with his face 2cm from yours. You sit bolt upright in terror and he then cries.
At least that's whet mine both did. Stopped when DS2 was about 8......

@soberfabulous I was going to post the same but the OP seems to have a toddler bed already.
Best thing I ever did especially when DC2 arrived was having DC1 in a double.

This made me giggle 😂I can 100% imagine my son doing that.