When to go from a cot to a bed

[Dopolis]

When is the best time to put our 20month old daughter in a proper bed. I know a lot of parents decide to do this at 2 years but we have another baby due at this time so were not sure if we should make this change before or after the new arrival.

Hi, my boy is 2 and 2 months and I need to get a bed for him! Hopefully people will be along soon with wise words on how to do this. I'm not sure whether to use big bed at naptimes first or just go straight for bedtime.

dd was 2 and ds was 2y 6months

I would personally try keeping him in a cot until as close to three as possible. Toddlers drop their naps when moved to a bed as they would rather run around than sleep!

My dd is 2y2m and still in her cot (and grobag, though not for much longer I don't think). We'll need the cot come July when DC2 arrives so plan to transition her before then. At the moment she loves sleeping right pressed up against the bars so think she'd miss that in a bed!!

We'll also be moving her into a new room so plan to do it when we can afford to have the disrupted sleep (Easter maybe??)

She still has her naps on the buggy so no worries about dropping that due to a bed move.

We've just done this at 3, and the nap is surviving so far! It's actually gone really well, I think because we left it as late as possible.

Outer we thought dd was ready a little while back but seeing as most nights when we check on her she's width-ways at the end if the cot I think she likes feeling snug do we'll wait a little longer!!

I moved my dss to a bed with a side thingie at 12 months. Worked well for us, naps still happened, and they stayed in their beds at night, and tended to call for us if they needed anything.

We were forced into by length remaining (~5cm ). Not by climbing surprisingly.

Keep them in a cot until they manage to climb out or get so close it would be dangerous.
Ds had the sides taken off around 3.6 - there are great advantages to a short child!
Dd is just 2 and suspect will need side removed soon. Luckily she's now in her own room and can't open the door, which limits how much havoc she could wreak once out of a cot...

freakydoris - mine never seemed to work out how to get out of bed alone. I think that I am good at responding quickly if they call - and our house is quite cold - so if they needed someone/something, they tended to stay put and call! We kept the stairgate up too

I moved my older two at about 18 months and the younger two at closer to a year. We always moved before the next one came along. I found the younger ones took to it faster than the older ones (whether this is due to age or having an older sibling in the room, I'm not sure) though some adjustment happened with all of them. They all napped happily for a while in their beds, though keeping a baby gate across the hallway to prevent morning activities outside of their rooms has been essential for my youngest.

Ds1 is 2.3 and DS2 is 10 weeks. DS1 is still in his cotbed as we do not want to drop naps yet or have to take him back to bed numerous times a night.

His sleep has been quite disturbed since DS2 arrived so it feels like it was a good decision.

If they aren't trying to climb out what's the rush?

Ds 1 went into a bed at 21 months because by then ds2 needed the cot

He was fine no probs at all

Ds2 went into a bed at 2 years

Again no probs

I think having a good bedtime routine set up before hand where your child is able to fall asleep on their own helps

Dd1 went in a bed at 20 months as dd2 needed the cot. She's 2 next month and apart from one night when she fell out she's never got out of bed, just calls for us.