@Climbing out of crib at 20 months..help!

[terpsfan]

Need some advice about 20 month old DS climbing out of his pack and play. We are currently living in a temporary condo/apt type situation, waiting for our new house to be finished. All of our furniture (like his crib) is in storage and DS has been sleeping in a pack n play. He has figured out how to climb in and out of it pretty successfully. We're not sure where to go from here.... We figure that when we move into the new house in about 2 months we won't bother putting up his crib because he'll climb out of that and it's a much bigger fall. For now, do we put a mattress on the floor? Get a toddler bed? Also, how do you "keep" them in bed? When we transitioned my DD to a big (full size) bed it was around her 2nd birthday. She was waking up in the middle of the night and I was tired of the musical beds in the middle of the night so one of us could at least just go lay down next to her to get her back to sleep. My DS doesn't seem to be satisfied right now with someone laying down next to him to go to sleep. Pre-climbing, our bedtime routine consisted of nursing and then laying him down in the PNP, where he would roll/thrash around for a little bit and then fall asleep...now the nursing and then laying down on the mattress makes him pop right back up and run about the room.

[Deleted]

Put a crib mattress on the floor for him.

Flame away but we turned the lock around on the kids' door when transitioning to big boy bed.

Within 3 nights all was good.

and transition now. DS1 broke his nose right before his 2nd birthday climbing out of the crib.

[ringstrue]

Do you have baby gates and fences?

I we used this:



to basically rope off the living room and i guess you could do the same around him sleeping area? Or just put a baby gate in the dorrway of his room and baby proof the room.

if you have the crib mattress you could use that or you could get a toddler cot if you don't want a toddler bed yet.

www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_query=toddler+cots

Its definitely a transition and you have to re-working things for a while. I've read about kids just laying on the floor in their rooms instead of the "big kid" bed.

DD climbed out of her crib once and fell and just never did it again so we didn't transition her crib to a toddler bed until she was like 2 3/4 years old and we were potty training.

[ECB]

DS was a little over 2 the first time he climbed out, but when he did, I gave him a big exaggerated "no no no! We don't do that! You could hurt yourself. You need to wait until mommy or daddy come to get you out!" and then he didn't do it again..... until 3 months later!

THEN we switched it to a toddler bed.

And actually, I asked him to show me how he did it (I was curious) and when he did it for me - he actually fell! It gave me even more room to say "see..... you hurt yourself! So... don't do that unless we tell you too, or wait until we get you out".

My point, though, is that I don't feel it's a given "they climbed out- they need a bed". dependning on what your DS understands and what you tell him - he may not do it again for awhile.

[mrshandy]

DS started doing this before we were ready for him to be in a toddler bed.

We put him in a sleep sack. They make light weight ones that you can use for summer time. Worked like a charm until he got bigger and was able to climb out with his sleep sack on.

It might be a good temporary solution.

[laurenpetro]

mattress on the floor.

[terpsfan]

Aug 14, 2012 10:44:54 GMT -5 mrshandy said:

DS started doing this before we were ready for him to be in a toddler bed.

We put him in a sleep sack. They make light weight ones that you can use for summer time. Worked like a charm until he got bigger and was able to climb out with his sleep sack on.

It might be a good temporary solution.

Hmm...this is interesting.....I've watched DS hoist himself out of the PNP and his method is swinging one leg over the side and then kind of laying on his tummy across the bar and tipping his whole body over. I don't think he would have the complete upper body strength to vault himself over the side if his legs were constricted.

Thanks all for input. In our new house we are definitely going to babygate his door and basically have nothing in there but his mattress. I would rather "train" him (along the lines of septimus' suggestions) in his permanent surroundings (and it gives us a couple of extra months of mental maturity as well). Since we are in this temporary living situation (and DS bedroom is DH's home office during the day so we can't completely babyproof that room right now) I feel like I just need a band-aid or some sort of solution to get us through the next 2 months until he can move into his "real" room. Or I just need to suck it up and have him sleep in bed with me until we do that (which he's happy doing, but I'm kind of tired of it). Aahh, just venting...

[EloiseWeenie]

I was trying to be proactive and ordered bed rails the day after my son turned 2. I was halfway through typing in my cc # on amazon, when my "napping" son walked out of his room. Thank goodness for 2 day shipping! He climbed out of his crib 1,000 times by the time 2 days had passed. We moved him into a twin bed with rails.

[GailGoldie]

you're fucked.

but really - try any of the stuff others posted.. might work- might not. My twins started climbing out of the crib in april - we wanted to put the mattress down to the floor but their cribs won't allow it the way they are made... so we just talked to them about staying in the crib - and they DID IT! For a few months they stopped climbing out... and then about 2 weeks ago they started doing it again- and are so skilled at climbing out that we're not worried about them getting hurt.

they are 3, so them BEING out isn't such a worry... we're going to put them in toddler beds- soon- hopefully this weekend if we can find the time to transition their cribs.

but at 20mo i would NOT want my child walking around without supervision for even a minute- esp while I was sleeping... so i would do what you can to contain him.

[terpsfan]

Aug 14, 2012 10:56:32 GMT -5 GailGoldie said:

you're fucked.

.

That pretty much sums up my feelings at the moment. Even my mom (we are visiting for the week) says "honey I really don't know what you should do right now...he's hard". When your mother says that... I DREAD bed and nap times right now. For the past couple of days (climbing started about a week ago) we've pretty much just let him run until he drops. But that's not a sustainable solution.

[Deleted]

Aug 14, 2012 10:56:32 GMT -5 GailGoldie said:

you're fucked.

.

That's what the ER doc told me when we went in with DS's broken nose from crib jumping.

[mishap]

We used a crib tent. Worked great. DS loved it because we told him it was like camping.

[emmybean]

Aug 14, 2012 10:20:01 GMT -5 @septimus said:

Put a crib mattress on the floor for him.

Flame away but we turned the lock around on the kids' door when transitioning to big boy bed.

Within 3 nights all was good.

and transition now. DS1 broke his nose right before his 2nd birthday climbing out of the crib.

MPT figured out how to climb out of his crib just before his second birthday, and after I got it on film, I transitioned his crib to a toddler bed and he actually transitioned quite well---it was as if knowing he could get out of bed was enough to satisfy him.

Now about a month or so ago he started wandering out of the room, and i did turn around the lock on the door so he couldnt get out. We share a bedroom right now, so it's only locked until I go to bed, but it's absolutely a huge help.

[pixy0stix]

We just transitioned ZB out of her crib. It was 2 nights of hell, but I think she's got the routine down.

As long as she's quiet in her room, I'm not going to enforce that she's in her bed. So far once we get her quieted down she'll just conk out and not get up to play.

[GailGoldie]

this is another reason why I love the Angelcare monitors... great for babies, but also they will sound an alarm if your kid climbs out of the crib... and you can use in a toddler bed, too - we used them on DS1's toddler bed and he knew it would alarm if he got out - so he never did- he always called for us when he wanted to get up instead. Worked awesome.