https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 10 May 2026 16:35:45 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-your-toddler-gets-out-of-bed-at-bedtime#post-2408878 Mon, 04 Jan 2016 14:24:40 +0000 blackbird 2408878@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We lock E in. My main concern was that she was getting out of her bed and wandering around the house. Specifically, she would go into her brother's room and has tried to climb into bed with him. In fact, i found her in his bed the other day while he was in there. Now, he's 7 months old so i'm not as concerned as I was when he was a newborn and we transitioned her, but it's still really unsettling to give her such free reign. So i lock her in and know it is, by far, the safest option. Otherwise I probably would have a hard time sleeping! But i was really nervous about moving her because E has always been a great sleeper. </p> <p>We secured things to the wall (dresser, bookshelf) and she has most of her toys. The really loud/obnoxious ones stay in the living room in their buckets. Otherwise she rolls into them at night and they go off and freak us all out. Plus, less distractions. But she has books and puzzles and a little minnie mouse dress up bow toy that she likes. So she has quiet toys. Mostly puzzles. And her room is mostly babyproofed...but I have a lamp in there....there are cords behind the bookshelf. She could probably climb into the closet and do some damage. But she has never ever ever attempted it nor expressed interest, so I let it be. She really does just wake up, use her toilet chair if she has to (which we keep in there for emergencies) and turn her light on and play with some puzzles until her clock goes off and I come get her. Once in a blue moon, she cries and she has to poop and wants to use the big toilet, so i get her early and we do that. She doesn't even sleep in her bed (which is on the floor), but drags everything off it, onto the floor, and makes a sort of nest and sleeps there. We do have a video monitor so we can spy on her if we need to. I do like this set up a lot because while it involves a lot of trust, she's learning to put herself down when she's ready (we put her down at 7;30...sometimes she passes out right away and sometimes she flops around until 9:00, getting up to pee or whatever) and then she gets up and independently chills out for a bit. Anyways, I used to feel bad about locking her in...but with T around (and me being so exhausted that I sleep like a sack of rocks sometimes), it's just the safest. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-your-toddler-gets-out-of-bed-at-bedtime#post-2408732 Mon, 04 Jan 2016 13:15:23 +0000 Anagram 2408732@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We transitioned LO to a queen size bed when she was around....20 months maybe. I can't remember. But since she was on the younger side, she didn't ever get out of bed at all for the first 5-6 months. If she woke up, she would call for us or cry (she's always cried upon wakeups. That's just what she does).</p> <p>Just recently in the past few weeks, she has started getting out of her bed and coming out--it started when she woke up after naps/morning....and now she's started doing it sometimes before falling asleep. She did it last night, actually. She'll open her door and I'll go right to her before she comes out and nicely put her back in bed, tell her I love her, it's night night time, and good night. Sometimes I have to repeat that 2-3 times. But then eventually she stays and falls asleep. A few times there were tears, but that's rare thank goodness.</p> <p>For me, the bed transition was easy because LO has always been a bad sleeper, so the crib wasn't some magical amazing sleep place for us. So nothing really changed in the transition. If my kid had been sleeping 12 hours/night in the crib with no wakeups, I would have been way more hesitant to change anything. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-your-toddler-gets-out-of-bed-at-bedtime#post-2408718 Mon, 04 Jan 2016 13:07:21 +0000 edelweiss 2408718@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>we went through a rough transition where i was literally having to run out of the room and shut the door before LO could jump out of bed catch up with me. he didn't play around so much as stand and wail at the door. it was heartbreaking. the door didn't lock, but it's a round doorknob that he couldn't really open on his own. if he had been able to open it, i would have gotten one of those locks for it.</p> <p>anyway, to answer your question, we didn't do much kid-proofing, but if there is anything that makes you nervous i say go for making it safe--however some of it i imagine you will figure out through trial and error (easier said than done, i know). she may show absolutely no interest in climbing, or the monitor, etc. </p> <p>to curb the "race to the door" situation, i stayed in the room with him one night after bedtime and every time he got out of bed, i picked him up and put him back in bed. no eye contact or talking.</p> <p>if it's more that she plays around for a while, i'm inclined to advise letting her be and see how it goes. the novelty of it may wear off after a few nights. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-your-toddler-gets-out-of-bed-at-bedtime#post-2408717 Mon, 04 Jan 2016 13:05:23 +0000 Charm54 2408717@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We had about 2 weeks of hell where DD was getting out of bed countless times. We started off by doing the super nanny approach - going in every time and putting her back into bed without saying a word. This did not help and only aggravated the situation. We would get frustrated and DD is VERY strong willed so it would be 50+ times before she fell asleep from exhaustion or we caved and sat in her room until she fell asleep.</p> <p>The next thing we tried was setting up the pack and play in her room. If she climbed out of her bed and we had to go back in more than twice, we would put her in her pack n play to sleep. This worked for a bit because she preferred to sleep in her big girl bed. but it was still a dramatic affair and I was over it.</p> <p>So we put a stool next to her bed so she could crawl back in herself. And we got a door knob cover and told her we would only come back in once.</p> <p> it worked like a charm!!! It took maybe a night or two of her crying by the door, then giving up and going back to her bed. Now she doesn't even try to get out of her bed and we were able to take the door knob cover off. </p> <p>We do have a video monitor and it's a total life saver. All in all the transition wasn't as bad as i expected. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-your-toddler-gets-out-of-bed-at-bedtime#post-2408709 Mon, 04 Jan 2016 13:00:47 +0000 sailgrl18 2408709@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We switched DS to a toddler bed at 20 months since he was climbing out. He also takes a long time to fall asleep (30-45 minutes) but always just talked to himself in bed. He started getting out and at first I lay on the floor next to him but he wouldn't fall asleep and stay asleep that way. So we had to do it the hard way of holding the door shut (our condo doors only lock from the inside). I thought it was going to be horrible but the first night he only tried the door for 3 minutes and went back to his bed mad. He tried two more nights and never shook the handle for longer than a couple of seconds. We then leave the door unlocked for the rest of the night. We've had some early morning surprises where he's climbed the stairs up to our room (we sleep on a different level than him) but generally he stays in bed until he's up for the day. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/if-your-toddler-gets-out-of-bed-at-bedtime#post-2408697 Mon, 04 Jan 2016 12:55:04 +0000 Mrs. Carrot 2408697@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We're staring down the gauntlet of moving my 2.5 year old into a big kid bed and I keep avoiding it because I'm nearly certain that she will get out of bed repeatedly. Currently, she takes anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour to fall asleep, and does anything from playing with her stuffed animals to jumping around to doing laps around the crib to calm down. Or climbing out, hence the need to move her sooner vs later. </p> <p>So I'm wondering, if you have toddlers who get in and out of bed, what's your setup like? We have a condo so I'm not worried about stairs, and ideally I'd like to train her to stay in her room, but I also feel bad about locking her in. And if you do lock them in, is the room completely kid proof and do you have a monitor on them? What about toys? We have some toys in her room, and a shelf unit that can't be secured to a wall. Do we let her play around until she's tired or let her leave the room and keep bringing her back? Really not sure how to tackle all this, especially to preserve my own sanity. Thanks! </p>