Bollocks. 17 month old can climb out of his cot!

[Outaboutnowt]

So last night my nearly 17 month old DS climbed out of his cot. This was about 4am and luckily he's fine but there was no warning - he wasn't crying so I didn't even know he was awake.

I'm worried about it happening again now and him injuring himself.
But I have no idea what to do! We were just doing a gradual retreat type of bedtime with him and it was going well but I might have to change tactics with him now...

I've thought about trying him in his sleeping bag again but I stopped using that a few months back because he can get out of it.

I could take one side off the cot - he seems too young for this though and I'm not sure if it's a good idea?

Any thoughts/advice would be really appreciated! TIA

There are different sorts of sleeping bags you can buy. Poppered, zip up ones with no poppers, zip from the bottom, zip from the top.

Also loads of tactics to discourage sleeping bag escapees (many babies go through this stage, it's not a reason to stop using sleeping bags). The best I've found is using a zip-up one where when done up, the zip is at the top. Then put baby in sleeping bag backwards, so the zip is up their back.

There are also ways you can stitch the zipper. Or nappy-pin the zipped up zip. Basically "baby escapes from this sleeping bag so I have to stop using sleeping bags" isn't necessary.

Then on to climbing out of the cot. Again, this is a behaviour thing and you could do things to discourage climbing behaviour. You don't have to. Lots of people do put tiny ones into a toddler bed.

I'm assuming with you doing GW that baby doesn't just go into the cot and go to sleep? Once you have reached this point in your GW process, then climbing should be less of a thing. Behaviourally speaking, this is about the child seeing his cot as a place to sleep and not something that needs to be 'escaped from'.

While there are problems with the child going to sleep, you might have these kinds of climbing/escaping issues. It's similar to a baby who has just learnt to stand wanting to stand in the cot a bedtime. Or just learning to crawl wanting to rock on all-fours in the cot. These are similarly behavioural. It's just a case of gentle and consistently teaching the child that the cot is not the place for these skills and that being in the cot means lying down and going to sleep.

Most people I know just took the side off and put a gate on the door if necessary. The child can get out of its cot. The removed side doesn't make this more likely to happen but does prevent injury.

Just to check (silly question just in case), you have got the base on its lowest setting haven't you? There was a poster a few months ago who didn't realise the bed part had a low setting.

I'd take the side off, cushions or soft enough rug on the floor and a stairgate on his doorway. And just persist with gently teaching him it's bedtime. I sit with my 14 month old (on a very low bed) and when he's ready to sleep he shows it. It does take a while though! !

DS could do this by 18 months he went into a bed with a bed gaurd. He could clime anything I want risking him having an accident. It's a long way to fall when they are that young. We didn't as he slept with his sister and the stair gate was on the top of the stairs but you could put one on the bedroom door.

Put the sleeping bag on back to front. Then he can't unzip it and get out of it. This is a genius tip that worked with mine.

Suegeneris, it was 4 am that the op son climbed out the cot! She can't sit there watching him all night!

But surely if they can climb out of cot they can get over a stair gate too?
How about a mattress on the floor?

You beat me to it Bin85. Our stairgates are actually a bit shorter than the cot sides.

Bin not always, DS could leaver himself between the sides of the cot to get out. I watch him do it once. He was inside a sleeping bag this did not stop him in any way shap or form. Once they have figgered it out I don't think it's safe to leave them.

He couldn't clime the stair gate at the top of the stairs until he was much older as there was no way for him to leaver himself over it. He needed to be taller first.

My DD never climbed out but we took the side off the cot anyway at 16 months as it was so difficult to settle her back to sleep in a cot without getting her out. We replaced it with a bedside rail, approx £10 from ikea. Getting out of bed in the night is a completely separate issue that you may or may not have if you remove cot side now or in a year's time, so you may as well give it a go. It may well be the cot bars that he's trying to escape from, rather than his bed or bedroom.

Thank you all for your responses.
To answer a couple of questions:
His cot is on the lowest setting already - when I put him down for a nap today he tried to do it again - basically he is leaning on the bars of the cot and using his feet to push himself up from the other side until he's horizontal then I assume he's wriggling until he's off the top of the cot and can drop down.
Not sure if he could get over a baby gate but we do already have one on his bedroom door - I usually shut the bedroom door too so I'm not too worried about that.

I'll look into sleeping bags as the one we've used have a zip down the side and poppers on the shoulders - he got out of them before he was even 10 months old by wriggling and standing up in them until the came off. He can undo poppers and zips. I didn't realise you can get ones that fasten differently. Mig that's what I'm thinking, I'm not sure a sleeping bag would put him off or hinder him getting out. I wouldn't put it past him to unfasten a nappy pin (he seems to be quite the escape artist!)

With regards to sleeping he likes his room but he hates his cot and always has no matter what I've tried. I think he's had a bit of separation anxiety which is why I've been having a go at gradual retreat (I'm not sure what GW stands for?) I basically sit with him and stroke him or hold his hand usually until he drops off. He does wake up in the night for me so I've been going in and doing the same until he settles again. The shit sleep has been going on for months now, I'm just at a loss about what to do.

We have quite a good bedtime routine (I think!) basically dimmed lights, no tv, a bath, a cup of milk, a story, brush teeth and bed - he just never wants to accept that its bedtime!

Would the side off the cot make things even worse? I'm just envisaging him pottering around his room for hours and refusing to stay laid down, but maybe I'm over thinking it.

GW means gradual withdrawal, same thing as geadual retreat.

I'd keep in the cot, especially if he's waking in the night still.

I don't know why they even sell poppered sleeping bags past the 0-6m size. As soon as baby is standing, it's really easy to get out of them (by standing on the excess material at bottom and stretching upwards to undo shoulder poppers).

You are not alone in finding these type of sleeping bags rubbish once you have a mobile baby, it's a common thing by all accounts. You want a sleeping bag that is put on like a zip up cardigan and zips up the middle, without poppers.