Pillows and Blankets

[Anonymous]

Hello! At what age did you start putting a pillow and blanket in your toddler’s crib? I can’t believe Sarah hasn’t attempted to climb out of her crib yet, but I think we’re a few short months away. I’m nervous about the transition to a ‘big girl bed’ and was wondering if I should go ahead and introduce a pillow and maybe even a blanket NOW so she’ll be used to them when the time comes?? She’s ALL over her crib when she sleeps and I know it will be hard for her to stay more centralized when we make the transition.

Also, we don’t have a convertible crib so our next step will be either a toddler bed or a twin size bed. We already have the twin bed, but I didn’t know if we should get a toddler bed for an easier transition or just skip to the twin bed???

Hopefully I still have a LONG time to worry about this…but we also might have to do something sooner than later…it’s a waiting game!

IDEAS?

[Anonymous]

With my kids, I didn’t put a pillow in the crib, but just moved them straight to the big bed. They didn’t seem to have any trouble adjusting to a pillow. I recommend just going straight to a single bed. That’s what we did anyway, and it worked fine. One less transition and one less thing to buy.

I think I moved Isaac to a bed when he was around 21 months, but Parker started climbing out of his crib early so we moved him to a bed at 14 or 15 months. (I still have Bryce in a crib until he’s done with his night feeds.) They both did fine.

Parker was one who moved all over the crib when he slept, so I worried about him falling out of bed, but he did fine once I moved him. Something I did with both of my boys was leave the frame off the bed so it’s just the mattress and the box springs. It left it lower to the ground, at least until they got used to it.

Good luck with the transition.

[hellbennt]

I am a huge proponant for keeping the kiddo in the crib for as long as possible…jonah was out at about 2 & 1/2 but that’s bcse we needed the crib for Ari & didn’t want to boot him out of his crib right before ari was born bcse then it would’ve been ‘his’ crib that he was giving up for the baby…

anyway, he did climb out once, at about 16 or 17 months but after talking to my sister I took her excellent advice: “YOU are the mama! put that baby back in the crib!” and in our case it worked. it was like with anything else- I just firmly put him in the crib & said ‘night night’ or whatever. if he would have climbed out I would have done it again. and again. and again. it may have taken a night or two of ‘training…’ then, If that didn’t ‘work,’ then I would then have gotten a crib tent – my friend is so happy she did- from ebay or craig’s list they’re not too expensive…

as for pillow blanket: I use a blanket in the crib

& put jonah in the twin bed w/o a pillow. He didn’t get a pillow until he was 3 and something and *asked* for one…

with the bed I love using http://www.snugtuckpillow.com bcse it doesn’t look like a bedrail, LOL

[Anonymous]

we use a blanket … i think i remember you saying that sarah didnt have blankets in her crib.. or at least a little on right? Well Shane has 2 blankets.. one is his attatchment one, that goes all over the crib with him.. and the other one is for comfort. I feel like its too bare in there and it keeps it like something else to snuggle against. He has never had any problems w/the blankets. He rolls around and get tangled up in it a lot, but pulls it right off!

And no pillows over here either.. since Shane is younger anyhow. I dont plan on having one until he is much older.. like maybe 2 1/2 …3?

[Anonymous]

We didn’t move Griffin from crib to bed until 2 b/c he never tried to crawl out, but then he is really tall and was getting a bit big for the crib I thought so we moved to the twin right away. I learned real fast we needed a rail, the first night he fell off and I just had the mattress on the floor to start and he got a bloody lip! I felt so bad!

I gave him a pillow right away and we never had any probs, I know some are against that and totally your call! He is rarely on the pillow ever. We got a rail at toys r us, we needed it and still do b/c at 3 1/2 he still is all over the bed. He has multiple blankets in there with him. He has recently been waking up and I think it’s b/c he is cold so I’m not sure what I will do this winter.

We never had prob with the big bed and we used the same theory as laura, the first 2-3 nights we had to continously put him back in bed and he would come back out and we would put him back and the only thing we would say was “night night” and ever since that he is fine. He has never been in our bed which I am very thankful for. If he wakes up, one of us sleeps with him or pats his back, but I would much rather do that then have him in our bed!

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Claire was in her crib until about 2 1/2, and I would have left her there longer if not for Ben coming. We also moved her directly to a twin bed and used a rail. She also has a pillow (did not have one in the crib), but she is rarely on it!

I think I always used a blanket for Claire, and now she has a favorite one. I’m also trying to figure out when to put one in for Ben now that the weather is getting cooler. She was all over her crib too, and I freaked out that she would fall out of the bed, but she never has. She moves around her bed alot, but stays towards the top of the bed.

[Anonymous]

Alex has a blanket in her crib, but no pillow. At about 21 monthes, we moved Kaelyn straight to a twin bed with a bed rail and a pillow. We also had an extra crib mattress that we put at the foot of her bed. She is an extremely active sleeper and fell out of the bottom of her bed several times.

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