Cot to bed transition. How long to settle? Post Reply

[Stars and Stripes]

Hi

We have just bought our 20 month old daughter a bed as she is tall for her age and has started banging around in her cot and getting frustrated. I put it up yesterday and I put her grobag duvet on and she played in it for ages.

I put her down at 7pm but she didn't settle until 10pm! As soon as I laid her down she screamed and cried and kept on getting up. I ended up rocking her to sleep which I hate doing as I don't want to create any bad habits. 

Does anyone have any advice? How long does this last for??

[wonkymonkey]

Our situation sounds a bit different in that it was a cot bed so smaller. We found our eldest fell out and so put a bedrail up even though it was a very low bed. I wonder if the bed feels really big if it’s a normal single? In which case a bedrail might help make it feel cosier and more secure. Hope that helps! Once the bedrail was on our eldest didn’t fall out and settled quickly.

[SW13twinsmum]

Hi, we moved our twins from cots to single beds at a similar age. We used bedrails both sides since they weren't up against a wall, and we turned the duvet sideways so we could tuck the ends in under the mattress each side to help them feel more snug & secure. There are special toddler bed sheets you can buy which do a similar thing to keep them secure, but I didn't really want the expense. I find with anything new, it always takes a few nights but then they adapt pretty quickly to the new routine/sleeping arrangements. There is also a Pirate Pete/Princess Polly book about getting a new big boy/girl bed which we used to introduce them to the idea.