Best age to move into bed/take bars off cot?

[chloemegjess]

Hi. DD is 1. In a cot bed. Moved the cotbed to a different room the other day and had to take it apart as it won't fit though the doorway, it is so fiddly so just put one side back on and the other side is against the wall, with a bed guard to stop her falling down the gap. I was worried she would play with the curtains that are just above her, or try and climb up to look out the window etc. But she hasn't even noticed. She generally just lies there in her sleeping bag.

SO, I am wondering if I should try her without the bars? Maybe just turn it round to start with so it is easy to reverse if all goes wrong.

I am not in a hurry to get her into a bed, but DD2 is due in april and we have an old freecycle cot which we were thinking of using but TBH, if DD is happy to go into a toddler bed, we are probably better off doing that and using DDs cotbed for the new baby.

Anyway, when does everybody else think the best time to do it is? She isn't quite walking yet which I thought might work in our favour?

i moved my kids into proper beds when they started climbing out the cot, as i felt it was dangerous falling from the hight of the bars/sides, less height from a bed. trust ur instincts about this one, but id do it sooner, so she gets used to her big bed before new baby arrives.....she might think baby is "stealing" her cot if you leave it till april. good luck with the birth!

DTD1 only learned to walk at 16.5 months but by 18 months she had learned how to make a pile of toys, climb up on them and launch herself over the bars of the cot headfirst onto the floor .

She and DTD2 went into toddler beds before they were two. I really felt they were a waste of money because they were out of them and into full sized beds so quickly.

Could you put a regular box spring and a mattress directly onto the floor with a bed guard, or just the mattress? That would reduce the height if she rolled out and when she is older you could just move them onto a regular bed frame and bypass toddler beds altogether. I am not sure about how safe it is for a one year old sleeping on a non-cot type mattress though. I don't know if suffocation is still a concern at that age from rolling between the wall and mattress.

for us the best age was
ds 1 2 years old to make way for ds2
ds2 18 months when we moved house and lost all the screws for the cot
ds3 (my dad having found a replacement set of screws in the following 4 years) two and a half now and keeping him in a cot for as long as possible due to space restrictions not willing to chase him round house all night

all walked by a year but far too dim feeble sensible to think about how to escape cot

DD1 was in a cot till she was 2.9, but then she never tried to escape from the cot, so it suited us to have her captive in there.

All 3 of my DC were in a bed by about 17 months. For DC3 I have an Ikea childrens bed that has a rail along one side and expands as the child grows which DC3 loves, it was a Freecycle find.

my ds is still in a cot at 16 months and whilst he's been walking for well over 4 months he has never (yet) attempted to climb out, maybe as he's in a sleeping bag so couldn't get his leg high enough??? he seems to climb everything during the day . i'd give it a go, can't do any harm for one night and the earlier you do it, the more she will forget she was ever in her cot and it will probably never enter he head to get out. hopefully!!! how is dd nowdays? has she turned into a happy litlle bundle or is she still rather challenging? sorry to hijack, just remembered that thread you started when she was about 7 months saying how exhausting she was! my ds was same.