Tips on transitioning your little one to a big bed

You’ve reached the stage where you think your little one is ready to graduate their cot and move into a big bed. Exciting times! But it can be really overwhelming, too. This blog post will give you some tips and insight and hopefully make you feel better about making the move.

When to transition

Most people make the move when their little one is around 2-3 years old. Before we go any further, let’s remember that with parenting, there is no rush and there are no rules. Now, ideally, you want to put this transition off as long as possible. This is because the older your child is, the more mature they are and the more they’ll understand what’s going to happen. Also, by that point, you’re probably going to have a very good idea of what their sleep needs are like and roughly the total amount of sleep that they need.

Toddler bed Vs Floor bed

Now that you’ve decided to make the move, there are a few things to consider. First up, what kind of bed will you choose? A toddler bed or a floor bed?

If your little one is climbing out of their cot and you feel like you need to bring the bed in earlier than you would have liked, then you might want to think about the floor bed as an option. A floor bed can often be an easier transition. But if you are considering this, you need to think about safety proofing their bedroom. It’s very unlikely that your little one will get up in the middle of the night and start pulling things off the wall, but you need to go through the room and imagine that they will do this, so you know that if it ever happened they’re going to be safe. A floor bed is also a really good option if you’ve been co-sleeping or bed sharing and that’s something you want to move away from. The floor bed gives you lots of options for settling them by lying down with them, perhaps feeding them, and then rolling away when they’re asleep. If this sounds like you, often a floor bed is the easiest transition.

The big day

Once you’ve decided on what kind of bed you’re going to transition your little one into, get it set up as early as possible in the day. Let them have lots of opportunity to explore. They might want to bounce on it, jump on it and have lots of practice getting in and out. Another great thing to do is to try and spend time with them in that bed, by having cuddles and reading stories together. This builds up lots of positive associations that bed. If there is anything they find negative or difficult, they don’t like having their nappy changed for example, or you do things like time out, avoid doing it where their bed is set up because you really want to keep that a nice positive environment. 

Nighttime visits

Lots of parents find that when this transition happens, they get lots of nighttime visits. There is nothing wrong with letting your little one get up in the night, come into your bedroom and get into bed with you (provided they’re safe). But if that’s something that you don’t want to happen, maybe because you’ve got a baby in your room with you, or because you know that’s not going to be conducive to all of your sleep needs, then think about putting some boundaries in place to start with. For example, you can let your little one know that they are welcome to come into your bedroom at any time because that’s going to make them feel safe and secure, but as soon as they wake up you want them to call for you and you will come to them. It might be that you want to set up a space for you to lie down next to them in their room, or a space for them in your bedroom that is separate from your bed. Just think through those options and decide what’s going to be best for you and your family.

Remember

There is nothing wrong with your little one coming into your bed and this will eventually stop without you having to do anything. You’ve got this! 👏