I recommend that parents wait as long as possible before moving their child to a bed. Two-and-a-half is the youngest I recommend for making this switch. Most children will do better with this transition when they are three. If your child has been climbing out of the crib, then this article is for you! I recommend trying a few strategies to keep your child in the crib before moving to a bed.
Change what they are wearing
Crib pants:You can make these by sewing a piece of fabric between the two legs. Sew the fabric around the thigh area of the pants. This will prevent your child from being able to lift their leg up over the crib railing
Sleep sack: Sleep sacks may hinder your child from being able to hike a leg over to climb out. Does your child take the sleep sack off? No problem! Just put it on backwards!
Change the crib placement
If the crib front is lower than the back, turn it so the lower side faces the wall. Try pushing the crib into a corner where there are walls on two sides of the crib as well.
Move furniture away from the crib
Bookshelves, dressers, chairs, toy chests, etc. can aid your child in climbing out of the crib. They also increase the risk of your child getting injured if they do climb/fall out.
Remove anything from inside the crib
Items like toys or blankets can act as a step for climbing out and should be removed. Sometimes little ones will use these as a launching pad to get out.
Lower the Mattress
If the mattress is at its lowest setting, see if it can be lowered all the way to the floor. This can work well as long as there isn’t a gap left between the bottom of the crib rails and top of the mattress. If there is a gap between the mattress and the crib railing, then you can use something as a platform to rest the mattress on.
If you have tried all of these things and your child is still able to get out of the crib:
You will need to move them to a bed for safety reasons. It can be any kind of bed, really — a regular-sized twin bed works (as long as you add the appropriate safety rails), and so does a toddler bed or even just a mattress on the floor. But keep in mind that younger two-year-olds and toddlers under two often have a very difficult time understanding about staying in the bed and most of the time really lack the impulse control to do that. Therefore, you will want to make sure the room is completely child-proof and many times the door will need to be gated so you don’t have a child roaming the house in the middle of the night.
If you need a plan to get your child sleeping through the night, whether in a crib or a bed, get started by scheduling your free Discovery Call to see how I can help!