What age from cot to bed?

[juicychops]

and what are the signs to tell if they are ready?

[Posey]

Varies hugely from all the posts I've read on this very subject (have a look in the archive if you need more help)
Lots will say when their lo starts climbing out, others say keep them in cots as long as poss.
For me, I got both mine out young as neither settled well in cot. Ds was just 14m old and had always been an active sleeper and therefore wacked himself on cot bars and woke himself up regularly. A move to bed meant sleep improved dramatically. We used a bedguard on one side, against the wall on the other.

[hulababy]

DD was 18 months old when she went from cot to toddler bed. She hated her cot, so a bed seemed the best solution. Worked well for us.

[laneydaye]

same as hulababy 18mths for dd, she loves it...xx

[Flossam]

DS is 21 months and has escaped travel cot and succeeding in getting leg up to top of cot level here at home so it is time for us only his room is currently being decorated. Once DP pulls his finger out of his arse (has been around 2 months now at least) we'll get him a bed as at the moment his room is not safe.

[juicychops]

i put my ds in his cot for time out as a punishment when hes naughty. Hes 18 months. What can i do for time out if i change his cot to a bed?

[merrily]

I would have thought 18 months is too young for using time out? My DD is 17 months and I know it wouldn't work on her - she is far too young to understand what it means. If she does something naughty I just say "no" firmly, move her away from whatever it was she was doing and distract her with something else.

[Flossam]

Ohh no don't think using bed as a punishment is always the best way to go. Might create problems later on if child equates bed = naughty, when they don't know they have been (ie when just being put to bed)

[elliott]

I was late with both mine. We are just about to move ds2 at 2.9 - he has been able to climb out of his cot easily for a while now, so he is no longer 'confined' in the way that he was. He's also been asking for a bed for several weeks. So, I guess he's ready!
Ds1 we initiated it - he was about a month short of 3. the transition was very easy - we had a short period of 'testing the boundaries' - i.e. getting up at night and early in the morning - but it wasn't persistent. Ds2 otoh might be a bit more trouble!

[sweetkitty]

DD1 is still in her cot at 2.1y she still hasn't worked out how to get out of it, don't think it's occured to her how to escape yet. Until she polevaults over it she will stay in it.

[elliott]

I was kind of trying to make the point that you don't need to move them into a bed the instant they can climb out of a cot...
ds2 has never fallen when climbing out, so I don't feel I need to change to a bed for safety. It kind of makes being in a cot irrelevant, but that's all.

[Surfermum]

I've just gone back and checked the archives as I couldn't remember when dd went into a bed and I asked the same question on here. She was 2.10. She had never climbed out and was perfectly happy in there and the unanimous advice I got at the time was to leave her. Of course two weeks later she started climbing out!

[MiaMamma]

You could have a cot for longer if you can remove couple of bars (to make like a little door), so LO can climb out her/himself but won't fall out while sleeping.

[juicychops]

The cot time out has been working really well since ive been doing it but now I feel veery bad that you have all said the cot time out thing is a bad idea. What can i use instead as a time out punishment when my ds is naughty? not as a strict punishment but so he can see he's doing wrong. He's 18mths