How to stop a 2yr old escaping from the cot?

treascon

As the title says my 2yr old son has just figured out how to climb out of his cot & run into my room in the middle of the night or else run into his sister's room & disrupting her. How can i nip this in the bud before it becomes too much of a habit? The cot is at the lowest setting & i'm reluctant to put him into a toddler bed just yet. Any suggestions/advice welcome. As I am still learning boys are so different from girls. My daughter never once tried to get out of her cot!

January

Grobag? He might not be able to throw his leg over when he's wearing it...

Otherwise it's time to move him to a bed, he could hurt himself jumping out of the cot. Move him to a bed and put a stair gate on the door.

treascon

Nope he gets out of that too! Had thought of your suggestion but am in denial about doing it. Had wanted to keep him in the cot as long as possible. But looks like i will have to face reality thanks

January

In denial because you think he'll be up all night running in and out?? Believe me, I know your pain! It may take a few days to get him used to the bed but it'll settle down, just keep putting him back in if he gets out... he'll get the routine eventually! I've one in a bed... putting the second in her bed when she turns two I think! She loves her sleep though so we shouldn't have too many problems.

treascon

That plus the fact that i was secure in the knowledge that he was sleeping in his cot unable to get out & cause any mischief. Thats all gone now. I just thought that at 2 (he has only just turned 2) that he is a bit young to put into a toddler bed. I got much longer out of my daughter but like i said she was never as adventerous!

Moonbeam

The stair gate on the bedroom door is the best bet.
I would move him out of the cot in case he hurts himself and I think with a grobag there is a greater chance of this.
My eldest never tried to escape from the cot but moved her to a proper bed just before she was 2 as I wanted her there before her sister arrived.
We had no issues at all. A nice Peppa Pig duvet and that was all it took;)
Her sister is 10 months and already trying to escape!!

lynski

the moment my little madame figured out how to climb into her cot - not out - i took the side off, as getting out the same way was not too far away and she could have cracked her ankle or leg if she tried.
Stair gate on the bedroom door, for now, will help,but they will get over that too.
Ahh the joys - all ahead of me again next year.

wmpdd3

My little one is 15 months and the first day in creche she got out of the cot. I have a cot bed which is much lower and harder to get out of. She can also get out of the travel cot so I have to put up the mobile stairs gate when we go to visit any one. I didnt think of having to have her in a bed that early, but it looks like its on the cards.

implausible

Sorry to hijack, but this question is related.

My wee man is 18 months and will be 23 months when his little brother or sister arrives and hasn't tried too hard to escape yet. I have no notion of buying a second cot.

Question: do I wait until he attempts to escape and then put him into a bed or should I get the bed before he does this? He goes to bed happily enough with no fussa and is usually sitting in the cot chatting when I go to get him up in the morning.

January

Don't wait until he escapes, if you want to put him into a bed put a bed rail up if you're worried about him falling out.

Elle13

Hi Treascon,

I feel your pain! :-) In fact, I was looking through your thread for an answer to my trouble too! Sorry.
My little man is 21 months old and he is well able to get out of his cotbed! In fact he was crawling over the railing when he was as young as 16 months so we had to take a side down so he would not hurt himself! As he was so young and our first one, we thought it was safer to put his cotbed into our bedroom with one side down and push it close to our bed so he can not fall but he can come out safely when he needs to. Big mistake obviously, but we all learn from our mistakes. Some nites he sleeps in his cotbed only but there are nights he comes in and out of his bed to our bed so I am getting no sleep!
At this moment we are hoping to put him into his own room into his toddler bed. We know he is going to get out of the bed during the night and will come to our bedroom so we are wondering if continous bringing him back to his bed gonna work or will we have to put the stair gate on the his bedroom door. I know if we do he will try to climb over it too.
I really dont think the grow bag would work for you as we tried it when he was younger and he was not having it .. he hated to have his legs movement restricted. The best of luck with whatever you decide to do! :-)

treascon

Hi there, well we are almost 2 wks into him being in the cot bed with the stairgate up at the door. I am pulling my hair out at this stage. He has slept through the night once in all that time - must have been a fluke! He just will not settle in the bed. It can take anything up to an hour to settle him at bedtime & he will without doubt wake at least once during the night. Last night was the worst yet. He roared on & off for over 2 hrs. It doesn't seem to matter what we do, its the same every night. We go into his room reassure him, we sometimes let him cry it out for a bit, we dont let him take naps during the day anymore but none of it seems to make any difference. I keep telling myself that he will settle eventually but i'm wondering when? The only piece of advice that i would give you if you do decide to put your little one into their own room is to definitely put a stairgate up at the door. You will have absolutely no peace otherwise & as for climbing over it he will try but i'd be amazed if he got over it. Good luck to you too. Its times like this that they really make parenting hard!

angelfire9

Looking like Aisling will be moving to a bed this week as well
Having escaped the cot once already we put her in a Grobag per suggestions here and she managed (god knows how) to escape & crawl to Mammy at 4am


Will I need to get her a toddler bed or will a bed rail on the side of the adult single bed in her room suffice in case of her rolling off during sleep???

While awake she is more than capable of getting off the bed as has been proven twice so I'm not as worried about that - Should i be worried???


Should she have toys in her room to play with if she wakes during the night? At the moment all her toys are downstairs

Am going to invest in a stair gate for her room door my house will have more gates than doors if she carries on like this

cynder

my guy was in bed from 17 months due to his escaping, and his brother was also in big bed at 17 months because the baby came along, both were ready for the big bed, the little guy escaped from that every night sometime i would sleep with him and other times he would come into me and other times he slept on his own. But due to his issues i didnt mind at all. I had bed rails on the beds and they never fell out.

A gate on the room is a good idea, i never used it though, i did have the gate at the top of the stairs.

SAHMOM

Its time to move him into a bed....He'll hurt himself if you leave him in the cot when he is climbing out. Use a toddler bed or a single bed with a bedrail on the side of it. He is 2 so understands what is right and wrong so if he gets up during the night tell him hes not allowed....he should get the message!

angeldaisy

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I was interested to hear about the bed guards, my nephew is 15months and my mum is looking for something to put at the side of the single bed for the occasions he stays over. thing is he is very tall and a lot of the bed guards seem low, anyone know of higher ones or have another suggestion?

hoodwinked

angelfire9 wrote: »

Will I need to get her a toddler bed or will a bed rail on the side of the adult single bed in her room suffice in case of her rolling off during sleep???

if i were you i'd look around, i managed to find a non-toddler bed, single bed. if that makes sense. it was a full width & length bed but lower to the ground then adult single beds we also got a foam mattress to fit it from the same store. it will do her until she is a teenager at least (or until she thinks its too low to get out of), we then put up a lindam baby rail, (its material so its soft as when she is asleep she rotates 360 degrees every night and we didn't want her head hitting bars)

angelfire9 wrote: »

Should she have toys in her room to play with if she wakes during the night? At the moment all her toys are downstairs

i don't know how much space you have but we made a toy-room/bedroom when she got her own room just before she was 2, (she likes having her own space to organise her way) now at 2 and a half she will get up at 7am but might not come into our room until after 8am as she gets distracted by the toys along the way. handy for extra time in bed if you need it!

angelfire9 wrote: »

Am going to invest in a stair gate for her room door my house will have more gates than doors if she carries on like this :

can you not put one at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom?
might be easier then gating every door....( it also depends on your house.)

angeldaisy wrote: »

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I was interested to hear about the bed guards, my nephew is 15months and my mum is looking for something to put at the side of the single bed for the occasions he stays over. thing is he is very tall and a lot of the bed guards seem low, anyone know of higher ones or have another suggestion?

is it just to stop him rolling off? if so does the height of the guard really matter if hes lying down? it should support his weight hitting against it rather then if he is taller then it?

or is it you are trying to keep him in the bed in a way thats cot-like?

angeldaisy

[\QUOTE] is it just to stop him rolling off? if so does the height of the guard really matter if hes lying down? it should support his weight hitting against it rather then if he is taller then it?

or is it you are trying to keep him in the bed in a way thats cot-like?[/QUOTE]

I think that what mum wants is something to keep him in bed until she can get to him. She has a travel cot but he has outgrown it. I can't really see the point in him getting a cot as he will be out of it soon enough.