When to move into a toddler bed / remove cot rails?

[lk2812]

Hello,

I am looking for some advice. My ds is 22 months old. He has never been a fantastic sleeper but recently things have gotten real bad😬 I'm back having to sit beside his cot to get him to sleep, nap time and bedtime and he is back to waking multiple times a night.
He has really bad separation anxiety, I can't even leave him with his dad, he is just so used to it being just me and him all day every day. I am going to visit a nursery on Wednesday to see about starting him two days a week because I think he needs to get used to being away from me a little.
ANYWAY, the advice and/or experiences I'm looking for is when did you transfer from cot to a cot bed / toddler bed? I am crazy thinking this may help him sleep at night? (I saw a girl on tiktok who is sure his helped her boy) 😅

I removed sides on dd's at 26 months when she climbed out. Now aged four and a half.

I removed sides on ds's when he was 11 months and turned it into a toddler bed then. He's now 26 months and in a single bed.

Neither child sleeps through the night, especially the younger one 😂.

About 3 - 3.5yo for my son. My daughter is almost 2.5 and there's no way I'll be removing her cot sides any time soon. She is a terror and not a great sleeper. Hates bed and nap time.

If she could get out of bed she'd be running up and down the hallway at bed and nap time.

My son on the other hand, loved to sleep and nap and has never once got out of bed to mess around before nap/bedtime.

Honestly my advice is keep them in a cot as long as you can. Both mine were almost 4 years old when they transferred to a bed and both times it was a seamless transition because they were old enough to understand the expectation that they stay in bed. It's unrealistic imo to expect a not even two year old to understand that expectation. I've had multiple friends have a nightmare with their young toddlers yo yoing in and out of bed, not to mention potential safety issues of having a a very small child able to get up and roam around during the night. It's hard to put the genie back in the bottle once you've done it too, so hard to go back on if it doesn't work out.