For many children it is a dramatic change to have to leave the well known crib for a toddler bed. There are a lot of actions you can do as parent, to make sure that your child can cope with this change as easy as possible.

Normally the transition to toddler beds is made when the child is somewhere between 1,5 years and 3 years old. The simple rule in this case is, the later the better. If the reason is that a new baby needs the bed, you can think about two different options. The first would be to let your child change bed 6 to 8 weeks before the new baby arrives. That way, the child will have plenty of time to get used to his new bed. If you do it too close onto the time when the new child needs the bed chances are that you will get problems. One reason for those problems would be that there are too many changes at once. The first born gets a new sibling as well as a new bed at about the same time. This is going to trouble the kid. It can also happen that he then says, it’s my bed! Small children can be very posessive.

If you can, let the child stay in the bed until the baby is about three to four months old. The first months you will probably not let the newborn baby sleep alone in a large crib anyway. This way the older child can get used to his new brother or sister. Then he can change bed.

Toddlers beds sometimes have to have some precautions to prevent the child from rolling out of it. All the time, until now the child has had rails on the crib which has prevented him from rolling out. It can be good to use a toddler bed rail in the beginning to make sure that he doesn’t hurt himself by falling out of bed. Of course, if he is potty training and should learn to stay dry in the night too, a toddler bed rail could be a obstacle that would bring him troubles.

Toddler travel bed

If you want to travel and at the same time want to make sure that your child feels comfortable and safe, you can choose to use a toddler travel bed. Your toddler can sleep a few weeks before travelling in this toddler travel bed and thereby getting used to it.

Princess toddler bed

To make the transition even easier you can try to motivate the child to using his new bed. Especially if you have a daughter, you can try it through buying a princess toddler bed. This way, your girl will feel like a princess when sleeping in it. A princess toddler bed is the dream of many small girls.

It is important to remember that the change from a crib to a toddler bed is not always an easy one for the child. It can happen that your child will resist this transistion. Especially first borns are prone to resist the transition from crib to toddlers beds.

A good time to switch is somewhere between one and a half year and three years of age. The later the better. It’s mostly much better to make the transition at the age of three than of one and a half.

The most common reasons that make parents want to change from the crib to toddler beds are that the child is too big for the crib, he is moving too much when sleeping and therefore needs a larger bed, he climbs over the toddler bed rails or the family is expecting a new baby who needs the bed.

The fact that your child is climbing over the toddler bed rails is a security concern. You have to make sure that he isn’t going to hurt himself by doing so. Remove all padded bumpers from the toddler bed to make sure it’s safer. One way to gain a bit time is to lower the matress as much as possible. This way you are able to postpone the transition a bit. The later the transition takes place, the better for the child.

It is important to remember that the child has to be ready for the transition. The child should not have to change from the crib to a toddler bed just because you think it’s time to do it. Watch your child to see if this is the right time to do the change.

If you are doing potty training at the same time as changing from crib to toddler bed, it can be advisable to interrupt the potty training. This could be too much for your child.

An advice that has been proven good is to put toddlers beds in the same place as the crib was before. This way, you make sure that the surrounding is the same and the child feel safer than when put somewhere else.

To make the transition easier and more interesting for the child, you can use tricks as buying nice toddler bedding sets that he likes. This way you can make sure that he wants to go to bed. For girls there are also the possibility of buying a princess toddler bed. Then your girl will feel as if she was a princess, which of course is a great dream of almost every young girl.

If you travel, you can always buy a toddler travel bed. This is very practical when you are visiting other people and they don’t have beds for all. Your child is then going to have a nice toddler bed which he is comfortable with. He doesn’t have to use a bed that he doesn’t know.

It shouldn’t be underestimated how important it is to let your child sleep in a surrounding that he already knows. This is of course possible when you are using a toddler travel bed. If he has to sleep in a normal bed, everything is new. And the bed is probably much too big for the child.

If you are afraid that your child will roll out of bed while sleeping, you can use toddler bed rails. That way the child can’t roll out. The toddler bed rail works exactly as on the crib. It’s a very efficient way of stopping him from rolling out of bed.