20-Month Old Climbs Out of Crib

Dear A.,
If you cannot lower the mattress in the crib so that he cannot get out, keep him out of it. Do not take any chances that you will regret later.
Get him a bed asap. Get bumpers for his bed. Do not think twice about this. Do not ever think that he might not fall out, slip by accident, or whatever.
It is time to buy the gates, leave his door to his room open and gate his room.
E.

Get him a toddler bed with a rail.

Hi, A.:

Get him a "little bed." Do not lock a child in his room.
Training a child to use his bed for rest and sleep is one of the discipline guides.

Your child needs something when he climbs out of the bed. Your job is to discover what it is. Ask him.

Good luck. Thanks for asking for advice. D.

I had a similar problem with my son. We put him a toddler bed with the bed rails. A blanket on the floor helped soften the fall when he rolled out. It took some time and patience to get him to stay put, but it worked eventually. At night, i would sit in his room and remind him to get back in bed when he got out. I tried to make sure it did not turn into a game. Soft tones, saying very little just "its time for bed, buddy", things like that, over time moving myself out of the room. That being said, i had just 1 little person to deal with at bedtime and could give him all of my attention. Baby gate at the door too.

Hi A., I have always heard the rule about cribs: If they climb out, they move into a bed. If you don't want to close his door at night then use a baby-gate. So climb proof his room, limit the number of toys he has, put a night light on the dresser and pull out the toddler or a twin bed! Best wishes.

I agree with the other posters - go ahead and move him to a bed. All three of my kids moved out of the crib at about 18 months. We started with a twin-size box spring and mattress on the floor. We positioned it in a corner of the room so the head and one of the long sides were against the wall. Then we just put a bed rail on the other long side. Honestly, none of mine really got out of the bed much at that point (though now is another story!) and would even stay there in the morning till I came to get them. The thought of them possibly wandering at night (especially once we lived in a house with stairs) did worry me though, so we did the baby gate at the door, and it worked great. Good luck!

Hi Alli!
I had all 3 of my children in full size beds before the age of two, simply because the first two had to pass the crib to the next sibling, but my youngest as well started climbing out at a young age.
What worked for us was that we did child proof the room and put child proof locks on the inside of the room. Then when your child wakes you teach them to knock on the door to let you know he is up. If he cries the first few nights, it's no big deal to let him fall asleep first and then everyone else goes to bed. He might even fall a sleep on the floor the first few nights, then just put him in his bed once he is in a deep sleep, or just lay with him until he is really drowsy.
One last bit of advice is to get rid of the crib. Remove it from his view so that he doesn't think you are going to put him in it!
Hope everything works out for you.
T.

If you're afraid of him getting hurt, then you can always put the mattress on the floor - put a gate at the doorway! If he doesn't stay " in bed" as long as his room is safe it doesn't really matter where he winds up asleep. You can try to keep putting him back in bed, but really, do you have the patience for all that???

I've heard that with climbers you should just put the rail down so they won't have far to fall. If you don't want to lock him in his room, you could try a baby gate in his doorway. It always freaked me out that my son could be up and wandering around the house while we slept.

My advice is that you're the only one in a position to decide whether he's ready for the transition to a bed. One of our twins started to "escape" pretty early, and I knew he wasn't ready. We got a crib tent, which worked out very well. A year later, we were finally ready to move them. Before we did, we talked up the change - new bed, new bedding, new pillow, etc. so that they were so excited and ready to sleep the night in their new bed...

Here is the product that we used if you're interested:
https://www.totsinmind.com/products/crib.html

Can you put him in a sleepsack, to inhibit the climbing action? That's what my girlfriend recently resorted to for her 24 month old. Just a thought.

Until you get a toddler bed, put the bar down on his crib so he can climb out easily. Watch him to see if you think its safe. If you do use the door knobs locks make sure you have some water in his room and some things he can do to keep him occupied so that he'll go do that first. Also, I have found that my kids sleep dead and have only been wakened by prolonged crying. (I was dead tired and slept through the baby crying for almost an hour.)

I would do the toddler bed with a gate at the door. This worked very well with my kids. Some of them were as young as 18 months. An occasional night or two you will find him asleep on the floor...probably by the gate...lol! Perfect timing on his part...maybe you can get him some cute sheets for the holidays :)

I would put him in a toddler bed. You have to teach him eventually that he needs to stay in bed and not wander, so why not now? I would do the gate at the door until you're sure he'll stay put. We did that with my 20 month old and she was fine. She also climbed in and out of her crib, but only when playing not when sleeping. Good luck!

I got my son a bed at 18months. Each child is different. I would not lock a child in their room. If they continue to climb out of crib they eill be safer in a bed with saftey bars . I would use two to cover the long of the bed,but they sell small size beds(I used a reg. twin).
Good luck! Now it gets really busy being a mom!