Transitioning Your Toddler from Their Crib to A Big Kid Bed
Two days before Christmas, a milestone I have been dreading for more than a year was achieved. My two year old learned that he was more than capable of getting out of his crib without my help. I unassumingly went to retrieve him from his nap one day and discovered him waiting by the door for me. He immediately ran to his crib and said “up” and wanted to show me his newfound skill. I thought for a second about buying a crib tent for him until we were ready to transition him to a big kid bed, but decided I was only delaying the inevitable. Anyway, we will be needing his crib for Reese when she comes home in a few months. So, I set up his twin size bed frame and mattress we already had waiting for him.
We transitioned my daughter out of her crib when she was 18 months old. There are a couple of reasons she made the move early, but the primary reason was I needed the crib for her brother who was incubating in my womb. I also was a first time parent who didn’t understand the benefits of waiting for some of those great milestone moments! That being said, I have now successfully transitioned two children from their cribs to big kid beds and bedtime is rarely a difficult task in our house. I will be fair and admit that I have two children who never been especially difficult to coax to bed. While my children do not typically fight sleep in our home, they will never sleep in the car (yes, 5 hour round trip day visits with my family are always fun!) and getting them to go to sleep in any bed other than their own is a next to impossible task. So, my anxiety about transitioning my son to a new bed was warranted. Here is my son’s transition story and some tips that helped us in moving our children from their cribs to big kid beds.
Getting Ready for Your Transition:
- Go overboard on baby proofing! Put a door knob safety cover on the inside of the door or a baby gate at their door, cover outlets, secure ALL furniture to a wall stud, take away any climbing temptation, eliminate any small or sharp objects in their room, check for strings on pull toys and other choking hazards, and make sure your windows are secure and do not pose a choking hazard (blind cords especially!!!) Babyproofing should go beyond your child’s bedroom. Make sure there is a gate at the top of your stairs if you have a two-story home. If you have an alarm for your front, back, and garage doors, be sure to set it. Wandering children in the middle of the night is never a good thing!
- Limit the number of toys in their room. Toys can be a big distraction from falling asleep. My daughter had a small basket of books and a small basket of baby dolls in her room. Gradually, we have increased the number of toys in the bedrooms.
Ready or Not!
Whether your transitioning your child to a toddler size bed or a full size bed, make sure they cannot roll out easily. We took a very “Super Nanny” approach in our transitions. We went through our normal bed time routine, informed our children that it was time for sleep, and we encouraged them to stay in their bed. The first night my son slept in his big boy bed was rough. He went to bed at his normal bedtime, but every time I left the room, he would get up and cry scream bloody murder by the door. We watched the clock and every 15 minutes, I would go in his room and place him back in his bed. I reminded him the first time that it was time for sleep. After that, I didn’t say anything to him. I did this about four times and he was not letting up. So, I decided to go in his room and sit in the dark by the door. I told him to stay in his bed and he did as long as I was in his room and fell asleep after about 10 minutes. The next night, we started off with the initial routine from the night before, but after hearing him call for us pitifully saying, “No! Mommy! No! Daddy!” my husband and I decided that one of us should sit in his room with him until he fell asleep. He was asleep after 5 minutes of me sitting by his door. On the third night, he didn’t need me in the room and went straight to bed without any reminders to stay in his bed.
Naptime wasn’t much different. He isn’t napping as long as he normally did before he moved from his crib, but he is still taking decent naps. After a couple of days of reminding him it was time for nap and not giving in by taking him downstairs to play, he is now a pro at napping in his new bed.
I think the main reason our children transitioned well is because of our consistency. While we did give in a little by staying in the room with him until he fell asleep, we didn’t give in by taking him out of his room once it we began bedtime. He takes us seriously now when we say it’s bedtime and doesn’t put up a fight. That being said, I think if we had other sleep battles from the get-go this transition would have been much harder.
How was your child’s transition from his crib? What worked for you during their transition? What didn’t work for you when you transitioned? Was your child already a good sleeper when it was time for them to switch beds?
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This is awesome, McKenna! I just commented on another site today about transitioning to a toddler bed. Annabelle will be moving this Spring, so it is something I am thinking about.
Did you move Connor to a twin or a toddler bed? Does it matter? If you use a twin, how did you secure it so he wouldn’t fall out?
We transitioned Darah to a toddler bed and then to a twin this past summer, but we transitioned Connor straight to a twin. Although, we didn’t put a standard box spring under C’s mattress. It’s something called a bunkie board, which makes his bed lower to the ground. I like it because we don’t have to use a bed rail since it’s only a couple feet off the ground!!
I think as long as the child can get in and out of bed without too much of a hassle, it doesn’t really matter. Darah uses a stool to get up in her big bed now…it’s super cute!! 
Lucy’s crib converts to a toddler bed, and that’s what she’s in now. We haven’t had many issues with her transition. She knows the rules and that’s how it is. In fact, she doesn’t get out of the bed at all until we come to get her. What a good girl. She just sits there and waits for us to say, “Okay, come on out now!”
We’ll see if my son has a similar transition. He loves bedtime, so I don’t anticipate any problems.
I don’t recall having any problems with my son; the problem was him deciding to climb out of the crib AT FIFTEEN MONTHS! FYI, there was NO carpet in our bedrooms in Jordan — just hard, cement tile floors. Ouch. He did a couple of head dives before we said, OK, that’s enough, you’re going in the big kid bed. I think I would lay down with him until he was almost asleep for, like, the first week or two, then he was on his own. He was actually quite excited to be in the new bed. We had rails on the sides, and that kept him from falling out, but I think I took those off when he was about 2 1/2 or 3.
We, luckily, had no issues whatsoever when we transitioned our kids. I think we moved them both to a twin size bed when they were 18-20 months. Neither of them ever tried to get up. The first couple nights with each of them I think there were a few tears, but we just left the room and told them not to get up and they did great. Carson is 2 1/2 now and he still doesn’t get out of his twin bed until we come get him. It’s great!
Our daughter Olivia transitioned to a bed when my wife could no longer lifter her in and out of the crib easily. Olivia could get out of the crib if she wanted (and she did a couple times), but was happy to be in the crib until we got her out, even well past 24 months.
The transition to a bed for her has also been relatively easy. She transitioned without any prompting or anything. She also took to a sleeping bag immediately when visiting family overnight.
I have been so proud of her transition, until two nights ago. She decided she would turn on her light and play with toys and anything other than sleep. Same thing happened last night, until her daddy (me) yanked her out of bed and made her sit in the corner of the hallway in “time out.” Then after making her apologize for being naughty, I put her back to bed with the stern command to “stay in bed and go to sleep.”
I love my little munchkin, because after telling her I loved her and giving a final hug, she apparently understood the message quite well and stayed in bed and went to sleep.
So hopefully we’ll be able to squash this new behavior in no time flat (if we haven’t nipped it already).
Oh, and she has only fallen out of her bed once. We don’t have any guard rails up at all. She’s actually sleeping in an expensive cherry wood framed futon that has an inner-spring mattress. We have it setup in bed mode, so it’s plenty wide enough for minor tossing & turning, and not too high off the floor. (This used to be a futon we had in our living room in our last house, that we no longer needed and were wondering what to do with. So we figured, why bother buying a new bed when this looks great, has a good mattress, and should work very well for Olivia… and it has.)
My daughter was an easy transition, but we kind of cheated. Went on a vacation where she had to sleep in a few different beds, then brought her home to a big girl bed. She just never saw her crib again until her brother needed it. It was amazingly easy.
My son caught us off guard. He wasn’t even speaking well, just occasional two syllable sounds, a few days before his second birthday. But that day he made it very clear he wanted the side off his crib. Just went over to it and started shaking it as I got him ready for nap, making it plain he didn’t like it.
Then a couple months later he made it clear he wanted a big boy bed and got us to go shopping for one that same day. It really amazed us how well he did that when he was barely verbal. But he really wanted to be like his sister and have a big bed.
We weren’t prepared to move Ben from the crib to the twin bed as early as we did. But he was ready! He began crawling out of the crib at 16 months.
The key for us, as you said, was consistency and routine. Bath, brush teeth, read books, tuck in, STAY IN! As he got older, if he really wasn’t tired and just couldn’t stay in bed, he was allowed to leave the light on for a while and play with his First LeapPad. That was such a lifesaver!