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Bedtime Transition
Is Your Baby Ready for a Big Bed? By Carol Sjostrom Miller
Jodi A. Mindell, Ph.D., author of Slee ping Through the Night: How Infants, Toddlers, and Their Parents Can Get a Good Night's Sleep, believes parents should wait as long as possible before making the switch, preferably until the child is closer to 3 years old. According to Mindell, there are safety issues and security issues to consider. "Little kids have trouble understanding that they have to stay in bed, so you could have an 18-month-old wandering through the house while the parents are asleep," she says. "Plus, many children see the crib as their haven, and when they are moved from it, sleep problems can start or worsen."
Whenever you decide to make the switch, it is important that you consider your timing carefully, advises Douglas. "You don't want to make the move from crib to bed at the same time that your child is starting a new daycare arrangement, getting used to a new brother or sister, or learning to use the potty," she says. "One major change at a time is enough for a young child to cope with."
Following this "one transition at a time" advice worked well for Sanders, who moved her daughter to a bed months before her second child was born. "We gave her a big kid bed early enough that she wouldn't know that was the reason," she says. "We simply told her that she was getting to be a big girl, so we would go shopping for a big girl bed. She was excited and slept in it without any problem from then on."