My son is 21 months old. We will be adding to our family in August when he is 27 months old. I would rather not buy a new crib so I thought I would move my son into his big boy bed in a couple months. We already have a twin size day bed for him and I was going to get rails to put around it. DH thinks he should be older before we do this. He is not hearing my logic that we don't need two cribs, therefore we should move ds into a bed. I want to get him used to his bed BEFORE the baby gets here. The new baby will be enough transition without him losing his bed to him/her at the same time. What age did you put yours into the "big kid bed"?

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I would start sooner than later so he doesn't have 2 big changes in his life. Do you have a side rail you can buy so he doesn't accidently fall out? Good luck.

I've never understood the concept of a toddler bed. My sisters & I never had one. My 7 nieces & nephews went from the crib to the bed. My great niece & nephew also went from crib to a single bed w/ a railing. I think the fewer changes, the better. Buy a good quality bed that will last until he moves out.

My ds was 28 months when we transferred him from his crib to his bed. DD was born when DS was 24 months and we did not want to do the switch right away so for four months the baby slept in our room in a babybasket. Four months later we told DS he was a big boy now and we made the switch. Everything is in the way you present it to you toddler.

Good luck.

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Marie - SAHM of DS Benjamin (april 2004) and DD Rose (march 2006).

My kids are 19 mo apart. Ds stayed in his bed for about 2-3 months while dd slept in our room in a bassinett/crib bed. He was excited about his big boy bed and room. Our problem was more keeping him in the bed as he wanted to come out at bed time.

We put him in a twin bed and put it against the wall with one of those safety rails on the other side. We put our dd in another twin bed with the same rail. NO BIGGEE. Why put $$$ out for a toddler bed - it is an unncessary purchase in my mind.

We put our first son in a twin bed with a side rail (daybed that was low to the ground since it didn't need box springs) at 26 months. We went on a vacation where he slept in a bed and when we got home he was not going back in that crib! We had several months of getting up 10 times a night before he settled down. it was a pain, but he was our first, and we were way too soft. We put our second son in a twin bed (box springs and mattress on the floor with a bed rail on the side) at 27 months, again at his request. He just flat out told us one day the he was all done with the crib. We were smarter this time and put a baby gate at his door. It went MUCH smoother. He loves his bed and we have not had any issues at all. Sometimes he will get up after we put him down and go to his bookshelf to get himself some books, but he is always asleep after about 15 minutes. I babyproofed the heck out of his room before we made the switch because he is a little bit of a wild man and I thought he might be climbing around like a monkey, but he really did great. It was one of those pleasant surprises of parenthood - when you dread something for months and it turns out to not be a big deal after all!

Skip the toddler bed and put him in the daybed. He will be fine.

We went right to twin beds with both of our kids...when they were about 2 years old. He'll be fine!

Those little toddler beds are a waste of money IMO - unless you get one for free, I wouldn't go out and actually purchase one.

Both my boys went right to twin beds (with rails) between 22 and 24 months of age. Both made the transition fine. I don't see much need for toddler beds either.

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Stephanie
Mom to: Caleb (8/03), Ian (9/05), & Lucas (11/08)

I also think you should go ahead and start him in the twin bed. We bought bunkie board mattresses so they wouldn't need a box spring. The obvious benefit is the bed being lower to the ground. This enables them to get in and out easier and if they roll out it isn't as traumatic. We never needed a rail on their beds after the crib.

Edited to add: If you have enough room in his bedroom, put the twin bed and crib in there. Let him get use to playing on it and laying on it before you take the crib out. If you can, put it up before a nap instead of trying to get him to sleep there overnight for his first time.

Great idea! This is the kind of transition I am looking for. I want to get some of this out of the way before the baby comes so he can really feel like a big kid and a big brother (yeah!) No way am I buying a toddler bed when I already have a day bed. DH has suggested it but understood when I explained what a waste of $$ it is. It sounds to me like his age is right on target to get this started.

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