Hellobee Boards

You have to redo sleep training when you make the crib-to-bed transition. It's exactly the same as before. It's just as awful as it was the first time, but fortunately just as quick. Make sure LO can't escape the room - we used a childproof doorknob cover, lots of people use a gate. We had a rough few days with crying/screaming at bedtime but she snapped into the new routine after a few days. Then it was back to normal - putting herself to sleep just fine.

Definitely not my experience. We had ZERO issues when we transitioned from a crib to toddler bed. But we also waited to do it until my son was 3.5!

@LBee: That's great. I kind of freaked out when we were facing this transition, so I did about a million internet searches and read all the forum threads I could find, and put up my own FB post polling everyone I knew, and the overwhelming consensus was it's a major challenge. I don't know anyone who got through it easily. The info I received was a lot of people who had to redo sleep training, plus a lot of people who couldn't bring themselves to do it and ended up having to sit with their kids or kids who walk out of the room and come into the parents' room.

We had no trouble at all and her sleep stayed exactly the same. That said, I made very careful decisions about it. We waited as long as we could to make the switch (basically until she was ready to potty train around age 2.5). We kept her in the same bed (just switched from crib to toddler rail) and kept everything else about bedtime exactly the same. And when LO2 was born, I bought him a new crib instead of making LO1 vacate hers. She's 3.5 now and still sleeps in the same bed and she sleeps great.

We did put a childproof knob cover on the door because I was convinced she'd be climbing out of bed and getting into trouble around the house but somehow we lucked out because we have never had issues with that. She sometimes gets out of bed in the morning to play but she always stays in at night.

We transitioned at 26 months with not problem. We transitioned him in advance of LO2 being born, and moved to a new room at the same time. We went straight to a real bed, and he actually started sleeping better, I think because the bed was softer than the crib. We did lock him in the room, although at 3.5 he can break out if determined. He still rarely gets out of bed until we get him, and didn't at all for close to a year.

I read somewhere that two year olds have ZERO impulse control and that's why transitioning them to a bed at around this age can be such a disaster- they literally can't stop themselves from climbing out of bed!

For my big girl we started having her nap on a twin bed in her room but she always associated her big bed with sleep because that's where we nursed and read stories before bed (we also bedshared in the bed when we needed to) and one day she just decided she was ready to make the transition.

To be fair, my big girl was a very compliant toddler but I am a firm believer in not pushing kids to do something before they're ready.

We transitioned both kids around age 2 1/2 to their "big kid beds". My crappy sleeper actually slept a lot better after the switch and my good sleeper a week into the switch is sleeping exactly the same as before. Neither required re-training of any sort.

@BKCaribBaby: Random, but glad to see you post here! It's been a while, right?

I think a lot of kids are transferred around 2 years old and that is the age where you get a lot of schnanegans related to them testing boundaries at bedtime. I took the rail of my kid's crib at 3 years old and didn't have any problem whatsoever.

Two different experiences with my DDs! Both switched between 2-2.5y and both were good sleepers when we switched (into bed awake, rarely waking up MOTN, wake for Day around 7). . DD1 had no issues -- she actually didn't ever get out of her bed by herself until she was 3. Even in the mornings. DD2 immediately started getting out of her bed at bedtime, middle of the night, and in the early morning.

I think it's personality driven. DD1 is more of a rule follower and DD2 is my button-pushing rule breaker.