Cot to bed transition?

Ludo

We have two 22 month olds who currently sleep in cot beds with the sides (bars) still in place. I was wondering when to switch them from cots to beds?

They sleep in gro-bags currently and move around A LOT. As there are two of them, I am dreading removing the bars to be honest as I have visions of them running around causing mayhem at bedtime if they can get out of bed.

Any suggestions on how to go about the transition? For example, I assume the gro-bags will have to go so should we get rid of them soon and introduce blankets/duvets before the change over? At what age do people generally do this switch and any tips?

Thanks.

pickarooney

Why would changing them to a bed mean you have to stop using the gro-bags?
I'm not the best person to give advice on this, but 22 months was about the age we moved our son into a big bed. Naturally enough his first action was to climb out and run around. Two of them... ay ay ay, the only upside is I suppose they'll keep one another company at night

littlebug

I wouldn't be in a hurry to move them out to be honest unless they're at an age where they can climb out. I moved my first out of her cot before she turned 2 1/2.. just because the new baby was due and we needed the cot. with the second there was no demand for the cot so I just decided to leave him until he started climbing which he never did! I think he was nearly 3 before he moved into a bed and he really didn't want to move:o
i've never used grobags so I can't really comment on those.

Khannie

Our little one is still in her grobag and out of the cot (she's 30 months). Great yokes.

Cookie Jar

I think grobags are great altogether.
Havent been using it for the summer but will be buying a new one now as getting cooler at the nights.
My little one is 19months still in cot, hoping to move her to bed by xmas.
You can get bed rails for side of bed, it doesnt really keep them in if they want to get out, but make it harder to get out. Will stop them from falling out if the move around a lot.

pickarooney

Bed rails are a great thing for practising base-jumping, I find, particularly with several of them involved.

Ludo

Khannie wrote: »

Our little one is still in her grobag and out of the cot (she's 30 months). Great yokes.

So does she just lie on the bed in a grobag or do ye also use a blanket/duvet over the gro-bag to "pin" her in a down a bit while sleeping? If so, would that not be too warm?

Ludo

pickarooney wrote: »

Bed rails are a great thing for practising base-jumping, I find, particularly with several of them involved.

Thanks for that pickarooney...lovely image...can't wait
I'll let their mother deal with that as they like climbing up on things and throwing themselves off it when I am around. I caught one once when he fell off a couch and it suddenly became the greatest game going for both of them
Shoulda let him fall but reflex kicked in.

Hellrazer

We changed all ours to beds around age 2.

We bought those real low baby/toddler beds for safety.Only problem is that our 2 year old can now get out of the bed and wake us up on a Saturday morning at 6.30

tscul32

My youngest has been in his bed since mid july when he was 19.5 mths. He shares a room with his brother and for the previous 2 months used to howl every night when we took him out of his bro's bed and put him in his cot. So we just moved him. The first lad was moved at about 21mths. The first one tried escaping a bit so we put a stair gate across his bedroom door. A few nights of falling asleep on the floor sorted him and he started getting back into bed before he nodded off. Only lasted a couple of weeks. He's nearly 4 now and for some reason never gets out of bed before he falls asleep, will happily yell down to us but stays in the bed. And because of this, the second fella has never got out of bed, even in the morning. He waits for us to go into him. They both went straight to normal, single beds, personally never saw the point in toddler beds, and a bed rail like in the pic above along the side.
Because it was summer in both cases they hadn't been wearing their grobags at the time, just the jammies, so they just went to the bed with a normal duvet and pillow.

Kaylee

Hi,

We're also at this stage with our little guy (just turned 2), I only recently switched over from grobags to jammies + duvet.

Now I'm up at all hours of the night going into his room to cover him over in case he gets cold cos he moves around a lot and ends up on top of the duvet.

What do you guys do in winter? Is it grobags + jammies + duvet?? I thought you weren't supposed to put duvets etc. over the grobag?

Advice appreciated!

Khannie

Cookie Jar wrote: »

You can get bed rails for side of bed, it doesnt really keep them in if they want to get out, but make it harder to get out. Will stop them from falling out if the move around a lot.

Bought a bed in ikea that came with a rail like that.

Ludo: She has a knitted blanket over her (you know the ones...she could easily breathe through it). The grobag is a very thin one (really for summer) so she wouldn't be warm enough without the blanket. I'd say we'll start transition to the light duvet in the next few weeks.

TargetWidow

In our house for the winter we use the warmer tog in the gro-bag (2.5 tog as against 0.5 tog for daytime naps and 1 tog for summer nights) ;with pyjamas since she turned one. We never put anything else on her as there is a danger of overheating. She is always cosy when we check her at night and in the morning but never sweaty. They are the best thing since the sliced pan. We don't plan on moving her into a bed until it is absolutely necessary and if the cot becomes an issue (we are trying for another) then we plan to buy a cot-bed and put her into that and give her current cot to the new babby with a new mattress. But I will leave her in the gro-bag as long as is possible. For those that would like to use a duvet but would like the keep-them-in-the-bed qualities of a gro-bag they make a gro-bag first duvet which is sewn up along the sides so they can't really get out. Hope this helps. The base-jumping sounds terrifying. My niece tried it a few times at 18mths. They had to put pillows all around her cot. She missed the pillows once and that was the end of her desire to escape!:eek:
Here it is.....
http://www.gro.co.uk/firstduvet.aspx

ffocused

My 2 are still in cots 1yo and 2yo and they both sleep in all in one sleepsuits. You can get them in Dunnes or Pennys for small money. We find them much better then gro-bags, and the kids seem much happpier in them too. We are thinking of taking the bars off shortly for the 2yo and are dreading the thought of it!!!!

IsThatSo?

We moved our 23 month old to a bed last weekend because he was almost concussing himself off the bars of the cot he moves around so much. We just put up bed rails and still use his grobag. He does not climb out of the bed, though he is able to, and he waits for us to take him out in the morning.

I think that a lot depends on the personality of the child, tbh I was surprised my little fella stayed in the bed at all he is such a live wire, but its nice to get lucky once in a while

I would not have moved him to the bed unless he needed to be there and would recommend same to OP, if they are happy with the bars then leave them.

Ludo

IsThatSo? wrote: »

We moved our 23 month old to a bed last weekend because he was almost concussing himself off the bars of the cot he moves around so much.

That is the reason we are thinking or removing the bars also and switching to the bed side attachments.

Thanks for all the info folks...those gro bag first duvets look like they have potential. Anyone know a stockist in Ireland?

TargetWidow

Hey Ludo, happy new year. Just wondering how you got on with this problem as its been 3 months now. I'll soon be sorting out the same situation myself. We are buying a cotbed for DD and moving her into her own room next week. The new baba can have a new mattress and go into DDs current cot. So in a few months we will be facing the transition from cot sides to bed and out of grobag. Any tips gratefully received.

Ludo

erm....we have done nothing about it yet. We still have the bars on the cot-beds. Leaving itg as long as possible before taking them off to avoid our own bed being invaded every night

nesf

Our three and a half year old is still in his cot bed. He's been able to climb in and out for a year but seems happy out to have the rails. We've been debating removing them for ages but he seems happy at the moment so we'll probably leave him be until he wants to get rid of them. He doesn't climb out on his own at night so there's little danger.

Ickle Magoo

We used gro-bags & cot beds until they were toilet trained and had to be able to get in & out the bed. I wouldn't move the rails unless you have to!