switching over to a toddler bed

I am wondering the same thing. We have a toddler bed for my son and we are wanting him to sleep in it5.

I did naps to start. Then I would lay him down and read to him. I let him "pick out" big boy sheets for it. I told him that when he slept there all night we would put the new sheets on. It took two nights. He still wakes because of medical issues but he sleeps there even after waking. He's 18 months. I do keep a cd of kids tunes (classical at bed time) going and he has a small night light but that's more so I can see when I go in to check his breathing. The music is because he has sensory issues that make silent noise hard on him. If your son is safe and you can keep an ear or eye on him then let him play. He'll either get into the bed or fall asleep on the floor. If it's the floor, with out waking him place him back in bed so that's where he wakes. It'll keep the idea that he sleeps there. I hope I helped!

We really didn't do much of a transition for our kids. We just let them watch as we put the toddler bed together & talked how they are moving to a big person bed & then that night laid them in their new toddler bed. I believe my daughter was just under a year when she moved to a toddler bed, but that was because she was always trying to flop out the crib, so the toddler bed helped with less falls.. As for my son... He was about 2... he did good... we actually just got another toddler bed, the disney cars, car bed for his 3rd bday... I'm sure your lil man will love the car bed! As for toys... I think it's good to have some toys in his room... he could wake up early & play a little while you get breakfast or something done... comes in handy... :D

My daughter did not want to sleep in her own bed at first. I finally began letting her start falling asleep on the couch or wherever, and when she was almost completely sleeping, not quite, but too close to get up and move to another place, I would put her in her bed and tuck her in. This seemed to help her, and it only took me a couple of weeks to get her to sleep in her own bed without a fuss.

With our 3 1/2 yr old we have the crib that turns into a toddler bed. We changed it at around 18 months old, she never climbed out, just didn't like the "bars" We started with naps in the big girl bed and put the rails back up at night, it only took 2 minutes so not a bother. After a week or so we began not putting the rails back on. She did have some trouble getting used to the difference of not having the support of lying wherever she pleased. We didn't buy those bed rails, as her bed is 8 inches from the floor, we just put pillows infront of her bed to fall on just in case ( my paronia) She doesn't have many toys in her room, just books and her bed teddy's. She does play with these but falls asleep shortly after. If she does give us a problem the book or toy in question has to "sleep" in the living room. She did come to our bed numerous times the first little bit just because she could. We walked her right back and if she had a fuss, we told her that we would just sleep in her wonderful comfy big girl bed. She would get jealous and climb back in. Maybe if you have a enough room you could have both beds set up, and he can get used to them at his pace. I know with mine she is stubborn and doesn't do things until she is ready or it is just a headache causing battle.

We're still working on transitioning our son. He plays on the bed but he refuses to sleep in it. So, we let him sleep on the couch where he likes to sleep. We figure sooner or later he'll feel comfortable and go there on his own. Everyone is different. And this of course is after we tried all of the other methods. We tried putting in a gate, doing the nightly routine, etc. Nothing worked, so we let him choose where to sleep as long as it wasn't in our bed. It works for us for now. Namaste-Anora

I was about three years old when my parents put me in just a regular single bed. Of course the frame was low to the ground, but to this day at the age of 27 i still sleep in a regular single bed. LOL I hadn't thought of toys. My mother kept a pile of BOOKS near my bed so I could do something if I could not sleep, but I would not be encouraged to get up, since the books were right there, and something I could do IN BED. I had stuffed animals in bed too.

With our son we started him on his toddler bed about 18 months because he was climbing out the crib and so on. We let him pick out his bed and sheets that went on it. We started with naps, and then let him fall asleep at night on the couch or floor and then put him in his bed, and he slept all night. As he got a little older we started letting him go to sleep in his own bed and room, so we wouldn't have to carry him, and some nights when he would go in there to go to bed, he'd lay down and then get back up and play for a while, and either get back up in his bed, or crash out where he was. He did good, and thankfully still does. Best of luck!