Any suggestions of when to transition to toddler beds?

We moved my first to a toddler bed when he was 2. My twins are about to turn 2, but I'm worried they will play with each other instead of sleeping. They are so much more mischevious as a pair! DS climbed out of his crib the other day, but I think it really scared him and I don't think he would do it again (he was in sort of a brief time-out and was trying to get out to get to me - he has never climbed out during sleep time). Any thoughts?

 

Climbing out of the crib, or even trying to with possible success, would be the time to move to toddler beds for me. I am too scared of accidents.

We moved to toddler beds at 28 months, straight from co-sleeping so they were used to some degree of freedom. I was surprised how easy it was at bedtime. We still co-sleep for naps (until they are asleep, then I leave and get some work done) and given how much they already fight naps I think it would not work in their room with toddler beds. If your LOs still like napping I think I would try transitioning now rather than at an age when they are already fighting naps even in the contained setting of the crib.

 

We don't have a crib, and really only used it some with my oldest 2. Space wise, it just worked better for us to use PnPs plus they spend most of the first year to year and a half co-sleeping with us. But with all of them, it's basically been after they could easily climb out of their crib or PnP that we moved to toddler beds. Spencer is 2 1/2 and just figured it out in the last couple weeks. We just got a bunkbed set that we're going to repaint this weekend for the girlies (it's very boyish colors), and then he's going to get one of their beds.

 

When Jon climbed out at that age I got him a crib tent. I figured if he didn't "get" stay in the crib, how would he get "stay in bed"? We switched them to twin beds just before 2.5, I would have waited longer than that, but we were going to my in-laws for Christmas, and twin beds were my only option, so we got them ready about a month before the trip.

 

I did it at 19 months with the girls (we had moved DS just before he turned 2). Night hasn't been an issue for the girls but they no longer nap. I have a feeling they would have been early nap droppers anyway but it still sucks .

 

Ditto Sharon! When they tried to climb out we got crib tents for the exact same reason she said. If they don't get it, they don't get it. Erick was close to 3 when we moved him and Kayci was actually closer to 3.5. The youngest we moved any of ours was our first at 2.5.

 

Climbing out would be a sign for me, but as a PP said, if mine started to climb out I would get a crib tent. My oldest was almost 3 before I transitioned him out of his crib. My boys are 25 months and I don't have any plan to move them anytime soon.

 

Jacob climbed once, we got the room ready and we are probably going to wait 4 more months before we move them. I'd wait until they were 18 if I had my way.

 

Love my crib tents! I didn't want to deal with them beating eachother up with free reign and not napping.

 

We are still in cribs but thinking about beginning to PT. How do you handle keeping them in cribs longer while PTing? They are still fine in the cribs but I was thinking I had to move them so we can PT???

 

My older son didn't night PT until 4-6 months after he day trained. You can still PT during the day and have them in a crib.

 

My boys never once tried to climb out of their cribs or anything. So, for their third birthday, we switched them over to toddler beds. There was no problem whatsoever. I was afraid they'd play all night long and get into lots of trouble. But that wasn't the case. They were awesome sleepers in their cribs. I was worried because of that, they wouldn't be in their crib(that seemed to be the pattern with others-great in crib, awful in beds and vice versa).

And-they potty trained at 34 months old-and were still in their cribs. They were in their cribs for another two months after they were trained. It wasn't an issue. But-they were also trained overnight as well.

Annabella will be three in June, I plan on moving her into a full sized bed at that time.

 

We moved the girls at 18 months but it's never particularly bothered me if they don't fall asleep right away or stay in their beds when we put them down. When we transitioned them, we took everything out of their room except for the necessities both for safety sake & to make it boring. At first we heard them running around for ages but eventually the novelty wore off & they went to sleep quite quickly. Now they're usually awake for an hour to an hour and a half after we put them to bed but that's because I still have them nap. With a new baby I need that time to sleep in the afternoon as well.