Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Sleep

Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler. Need more advice on your childs development? Sign up to our Ages and Stages newsletter here.

Flip

Original poster

DD 23 months got out of her cot - what do I do now?

16 replies

CountessDracula · 10/08/2004 10:33

Last week my dd decided to jump out of her cot. Fortunately she was not hurt! We were out at dinner and the babysitter called to say that she had done this. We were staying at my PILs at the weekend and they have an old tall-sided cot and she did the same thing!

She hasn't done it at all apart from those two times. Should I keep her in the cot with duvets on the floor in case she gets out again or should I think about moving her to a bed?

If I put her in a bed this young wouldn't I just worry she was roaming about choking on things etc? And would she stay in bed?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Northerner · 10/08/2004 10:37

OOh CD sounds like she's ready for a bed!

Go for it girl. Put a safety gate on her door so she can't roam around and she should be fine.

iota · 10/08/2004 10:37

cd - ds1 went into a bed at 19 mths and ds2 at 21 mths as they started to get out of the cot.
I felt it was safer than the possibility of them hurting themselves trying to climb out.

They did get out od bed a bit, but nothing too bad and the stairgate at the top of the stairs stopped them coming down to bug us

Original poster

CountessDracula · 10/08/2004 10:38

But, but, but...SHE'S MY BABY AND I WANT HER IN A COT.

Maybe I should get some razor wire

OP posts:

Hulababy · 10/08/2004 10:39

I put DD into a bed at 18 months and she, honestly, was fine. DD does stay in a bed and during the night always has. DD actually much prefers her big girl's bed to her cot, which she never really liked much at all.

At about 20 months - due to various changes to routines such as Christmas, we went through a problem of her getting out of bed at bedtime - but this wasn't actually related to the bed - more to reactions of routine problems. It was solved quickly too.

iota · 10/08/2004 10:46

cd - put a lid on the cot - that'll stop her...

bundle · 10/08/2004 10:49

i was lucky dd1 never climbed out - and we took the sides off her cotbed just before dd2 came along (2yr 10 mths - we didn't want too many things happening at once..) and she did fall out of bed a bit. a little boy we know was definitely in a big bed before his 2nd bday, he's a second child and i think that's quite common. potential chaos though......
(sympathy for wobbly lip...why can't they be babies forever??)

nutcracker · 10/08/2004 10:54

Oh i am soooo dreading this. Ds is now 2omths and as yet hasn't figured it out.
It's bad enough that he can now reach the door handles, and is in and out of the living room evry 5 seconds.

Afraid i don't really have any advice CD. When Dd1 did it, i moved her to a bed (aged 18mths i think). Same with Dd2 i think, except she was about 2.5.

I suppose when Ds finally does figure it out, then i will put him in a bed and put a gate at his door.

strangerthanfiction · 10/08/2004 12:32

Gosh, CD, I'm dreading it too. Dd is 22 months (today!) and so far is too small and unphysical to have made the climb out of the cot. But I worry too that if I put her in a bed she's never going to stay put!

Kayleigh · 10/08/2004 12:37

sounds like it's bed time

Sari · 10/08/2004 12:43

Ds2 went into a bed at 18 months and sleeps a lot better than he did in a cot. We'd expected him to get out and run around but he never has so you don't necessarily have to worry about roaming (generally he's not remotely obedient either). A bed is probably less of a risk than her jumping out of the cot and hurting herself. Plus they look really lovely in a great big bed.

Blu · 10/08/2004 12:45

DS did this at 20 months and I had to put him in a bed the very next night as I couldn't sleep for worry about him breaking his neck next time!

If she gets out of her cot, she willget over a stairgate, IME.

To try and forestall wandering, we made a big fuss and palaver about the new bed, DS 'helped' build it etc. I then wore him out in the park and waited til he was good and ready for bed - tired - that night, did a very long story etc, so that he felt no urge to escape. We have also kept up the fiction that DP and I go bed at the same time, i.e no life downstairs once he is in bed. Mostly, he has stayed in bed and wailed for attention if he wakes in the night, rather than striking out, but he has simply come and got in with us quite often. I have avoided any sense of shutting him in or confining him as that would definitely lead to more determination to escape, and roam about clandestinely.

Good Luck.

Original poster

CountessDracula · 10/08/2004 12:57

The problem is that we are on a different floor to dd. She is on the first and we are on the second. The stairs are quite steep and deep - she can get up them fine but I wouldn't want her doing it on her own!

I can shut both stairgates and leave her door open so she can only wander in her room and the landing. There are two other beds and a bathroom on that floor too so will have to make sure the the doors are locked so she doesn't go in and hurt herself on something.

OP posts:

StickyNote · 10/08/2004 13:16

DD1 climbed out of her cot for the first time just after she was 2 and broke her arm . She went into a bed the next night.

My Mum & Dad said that I started climbing out of my cot at 18 months and they put chicken wire over the top!!!

sandyballs · 10/08/2004 13:31

Mine went into beds when they were about 18 months - I put a stairgate across their door so they couldn't escape. We used to hear them chattering away to each other and playing up there and it would suddenly all go quiet. We would then find them fast asleep on the floor or in the toybox.

keziah · 30/08/2004 21:39

I used a grobag and that stopped my ds climbing out of his cot. It worked until he learned to undo the grobag at which point I used to put a little stitch through the zipper each night so he couldnt undo it! That kept him in the cot for quite a while!! He is three and still in a cotbed although obviously not sewn into the grobag anymore! He moves into a new bedroom soon and will get a bed then.

blossom2 · 30/08/2004 22:01

We got DD a bed at 21 months. previous to this she had been climbing out of her cot for about 3 weeks. we put a mattress on the floor for a couple of months (for our convenience really as we were getting married).

we shopped for her bed with her and she even chose her quvet cover etc (pink!!).
we has fallen out of bed a couple of times and we make sure that her room doesn't contain toys she could choke on and things are on shelves. Although she has learnt to open her door, she hasn't managed to open the other doors. Generally we make sure doors & stair gate are shut.

i hope that helps

Flip