What age to go into a bed?

[Posey]

How old were your children when you moved them from a cot to bed? And why did you do it then? Is there a minimum recommended age?
My dd moved out of her cot at 20 months as she just didn't seem comfortable in the cot anymore (she seemed too big)
Ds is coming up to 15months and really doesn't seem to like his cot. I still feed him at bed time and because of a back problem have always fed him lying on the bed in his room. Now when he's finished feeding, he wriggles away, kicks around a bit and snuggles down to sleep. Unless he's really sleepy, he usually complains when I move him to his cot. I don't think its that I'm there next to him in the bed because as soon as he's finished his feed I move away.
So what I want to know is, do you think 15 months is too young to go in a bed? We have a bed rail,but would I need to take any other precautions? Your wisdom would be greatly appreciated

Hello Posey
DS1 moved in to a bed at 20 months too.
your DS should be fine at 15 months with bed rail. (but don't let him bounce on the bed - see concussion thread). FWIW, we made a great thing of Daddy assembling the new bed (got it from Ikea) and let DS1 help. So he sees it as the bed he and Daddy built and thus a thing of great beauty.
HTH

We put DD in a toddler bed at 18 months. She was never that keen on her cot - I think she felt closed in with the bars (also hated a crib when tiny) and she has been great in bed since. Wished we had done it earlier actually as may have solved some of her sleep problems earlier too.

the recomended age is 2 years but i am not listening to that if you baby feels closed in in a cot its best to put them in a bed realy anything over 12 months should be fine as long as theres a guard up mines only six months and he would go into a bed if he was given the choice but i cant see a problem after 12 month

We put DS in a bed at just over 2 because he learned to climb out of his cot ... and I regretted it ever since! He had been a really good sleeper from 16 weeks until he went into a bed and he started waking in the night and getting out of bed. It took over a year for him to understand that once he was in bed he ought to stay there!!!
DD will stay in her cot until she is at least 7 ... no, only joking ... but she will stay in her (much bigger so no chance of climbing out) cot for as long as possible!

DS was 19 months I think. Moved because he kept banging around in his cot and it drove us up the wall! He loves his bed although is still in Grobag so, as yet, can't escape from the bed and it made the move from cot to bed easier as he had the continuity of the Grobag. Not looking forward to when he has a duvet and he works out he can get out of the bed himself!

We moved ds at about 14 months - because he simply wouldn't stay in it any more once he'd worked out that even in a grobag he could climb out (more like haul himself up by his arms and over the top head first!). He'd never settled well in the cot, and for a while after we moved him he actually slept a lot better - it was the first time in his life that he would voluntarily get into his bed.

Thanks for that everyone.
Now just need to pluck up the courage to do it!

Well we've moved ds out of his cot. (He's just short of 16months).The wakings were getting worse and I was also starting to have problems getting him in his cot (he stood up and started screaming instantly, which he never previously did)
He's always been used to the bed as we do co-sleep intermittently and there has always been a bed in his room. So we just rooted out dd's old bed guard and night times have been revolusionised! When I've been in to check him each night before I've gone to bed he's been all over the place- lying across, head down... so I think the cot just proved too small for his night time gymnastics

This is a really interesting thread. My dd's 18 months and I keep wondering about the bed issue.

I've got a couple of concerns though. Is a bed rail enough to stop them falling out? And if they can climb out of a cot isn't it much easier to climb over a bed rail?! Dd's an all over the place kind of sleeper and I have these thoughts of her continually falling out at night. She's in a grobag too but it wouldn't stop her falling out would it?

I can't remember exactly at what age we moved dd but it was definately before 2. She used to get her ankle stuck in the rails of the cot so we thought it was time.
She had a bed rail at first and bed against a wall and she had no bother.She's just gone 3 now and the bed is in the middle- no rail and she's great.

Evita, I don't think you can rely on a bed rail to stop them getting themselves up. Because they know they can get out anyway they probably won't climb over iyswim. In certain circumstances it won't stop them falling either. We were on holiday when ds was almost 2.5 , he having been used to a solid pine rail around his bed, and he managed to roll out despite the soft rail either between the guard and bed or around it.

Just Moved DD 23 months although been in and out of the bed for a few months before hand as practise, we get a much better nights sleep now as she actually sleeps through now. (well most nights anyway). Think she woke from banging herself on cot before

Evita, Ds has never tried to climb out of his cot. Its just whenever he woke up in the night he would automatically stand up and yell so I was concerned he would do the same in the bed and topple over. But he hasn't. So far, when he's woken he's either sat in the middle of the bed and shouted or as a couple of mornings ago, climbed out of bed (at the bottom, not over the rail) and wandered into our room. I found this quite sweet as dd NEVER came out of her room herself, always called for one of us to go to her.

Secondly on whether a guard is enough to stop them falling out, the bed is against the wall and the rail is one of those mesh ones. Dd used it from 20mths to 4 years and never fell out with it, but go somewhere without it and 9 times out of 10 she'd fall out of bed at some point.

HTH as I have a feeling I read you're having some sleeping problems at the moment. Hope things improve soon.

sorry cant realy help on this because ds near 8 month if he had his way would be in a bed now so at twelve months we desided he can go into a bed but hes a squirmar so he will go straight into a double side ways to give him more room to wriggle because at the moment his favourite trick when squirming is to bang his head against the bars of his cot and bang it hard at times as well

Thanks Posey. Dd does that too, the standing yelling thing. Unfortunately, the way our flat is arranged is that she's 2 flights of stairs away from where we sleep so not much chance of her wandering into our room in the night! I do think it might be worth our trying a bed soon though. Anything to stop that terrible standing at the cot bars business.

A good trick is to turn the duvet round and tuck it in on both sides, which holds them nice and secure. they will still wriggle out, but won't necessarily fall as directly!
ds1 went into a bed at 19 mths because he climbed out of his cot, We used a bed guard for one nt but he saw it as an obstacle to climb so never used it again! dd went into a bed at 25mths as we needed the cot for ds2 (I know that's the wrong reason but she was and always has been such a gem about it that it was never an issue). Funny thing is that ds2 has just turned 2 - completely different of course as his siblings are, relatively, so grown up (no 5.5 and almost 4) and he wants to keep up. There is a bed in his room made up, and from time to time he snuggles down into it and says that's where he wants to sleep, but then asks to go back in his cot. I just do what he wants - the longer he's in his cot the better as it is my lost teency weency bit of liberty, knowing he's "trapped" in it!!!