When To Make The Transition To A Toddler Bed
By: steve w

Many people are concerned about moving their child from their crib to a toddler bed too soon or too late. They are concerned that moving the child too soon will cause them undo stress and that moving them too late could give the child the opportunity to harm themselves. There are some general guidelines but it really comes down to each individual child and their personality and level of development. While age and size can help provide some indicators much of it depends on the child's mental and emotional development as to whether they are ready to handle this dramatic change in their life. Each parent will have to determine the best time for their individual child to make this change.

If the child is starting to climb out of the crib then you definitely need to start the process of moving him/her from the crib into a toddler bed. There is too great of a risk that the child can fall and injure themselves while climbing out of the bed or that they can get out of bed when there is no one around to supervise them and harm themselves some other way.

If your child is three feet tall or taller you should probably move them out of the crib because they are just getting too large for most cribs. Any time you feel the child is too big, or active for their crib you can move them. If the child has started potty training they may need to be in a bed to allow them to get up and use the bathroom as needed.

Most children can be safely moved to a toddler bed anywhere from 18 months to 3.5 years old. Many child experts recommend that you wait until the child is closer to 3 before moving them. This is a big change for most children, they are giving up their familiar and comfortable crib. This can make it a very stressful situation for the child, if it seems to be causing undue stress for your little one you are certainly better off to hold off and wait a little longer before moving the child.

If your toddler is climbing out of their crib yet resists being moved to a toddler bed you do have some alternatives. You could install a crib tent on the crib. This is a framework covered with a mesh like cloth that appears very similar to the popular dome tents. This mounts on the top of the rails of the crib and fully encloses it to keep the baby from climbing out of the crib and possibly injuring themselves.

Whenever you do decide to move the child try to get them excited about it and carefully monitor how they are reacting to the change which can be very stressful and even traumatic for the child. There are a variety of things you can do to try to ease the transition for them and to help assure that they are able to make the adjustment with relative ease.

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