crawls out of crib

[racs]

Does anyone have any ideas for handling a 20 month old toddler who is crawling out of his crib. The mattress has been dropped as far down as possible. Is it time for a toddler bed? I do not think he will stay in a toddler bed.

[JAK]

I'd have to say a toddler bed is your next move. He may not stay in it, but at least he'd be safe!

I moved both of my dk's out of the crib by 15 months of age. My ds loved to get out of the bed and play but when he was tired enough he'd go to bed. Usually about 10-15 minutes after I put him to bed.

Good Luck!

[netmechwife]

We were expecting our 2nd child when he would be 18 mos so we got him used to the toddler bed then. It took him a while to get used to staying in bed but he loves it now. Every once in a while we have a night where he wants to play, but I think he would still play even if he were in a crib. In fact he now likes to crawl into Drew's crib to play with him... lol

[kat]

Originally posted by racs
Does anyone have any ideas for handling a 20 month old toddler who is crawling out of his crib. The mattress has been dropped as far down as possible. Is it time for a toddler bed? I do not think he will stay in a toddler bed.

He's not staying in the crib now. I agree with Jen on this. It's time to move to a toddler bed. Just take extra precautions in his room making it totally toddler proof.

[MaryL]

We also moved our boys to a toddler bed at about 18-20 months. We knew we couldn't prevent them from getting out of bed...but we could prevent them from getting out of thier rooms by putting a safety gate across the doorway. We could step over it easily to get it...but ds couldn't get out! He only fell asleep on the floor once...never cried...and never really wanted to play at bedtime. I guess he just realized that the new bed was the place to be. (Make sure to have his same favorite toys, pillow, etc in the new bed.)

[RCT]

I would suggest the toddler bed too, although we tried the crib tent with ds, he never tried to get out of the crib, so it was ok, you can purchase them at Burlington coat factory or Toys R us I believe....but with dd she wanted out at 18 months and went willingly into the toddle bed, and played in her room, and sometimes fell asleep on her floor when playing in the morning....good luck to you....the suggestions you've gotten here are great...

[Ryleigh]

Both our kids were out of their crib and into a regular size twin bed by 18mo. (with safety rail attached) They didn't always stay there at first, but got use to it in a short time.
At first we just set the bed up in a corner of their room and left the crib there as well. They slept in the crib at night, and the bed for naps. Within a couple of weeks we had them sleeping in the regular bad all the time and the crib moved out. The safety gate in the doorway is also a good idea!!