5 Reasons I'm Keeping My 2.5 Year Old in a Crib.

As a Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant, and mama to a little toddler myself, I frequently get asked, "Is William in a big kid bed yet?", or "my (son/daughter) just turned 2, should I switch them over to a bed?". My most common and automatic answer to both of those questions is "no". I have come to find that many parents see transitioning their child to a big kid bed as a milestone. And while this transition is something to celebrate, it is not a milestone that you need to race too - especially if they seem content with their current sleeping arrangement. See below for the 5 reasons I am choosing to keep my son in a crib, and why you might want to think twice before you make the switch for your toddler!

#1: He has yet to climb out of his crib.

My son has either not figured out how to climb out of his crib, or he just respects the fact that his crib is a place for sleep and not climbing (seeing as though he climbs on everything else around the house). That being said, when he was about 18 - 20 months old, he did try to bring his leg over the top/front part of his crib a time or two. His mattress was already in the lowest position when this happened, so I simply turned the crib 180 degrees making the back panel (which is taller than the front) of the crib the new front. We have not had any problems since! It is important to make changes to your child's crib if they start attempting to climb out to avoid any injury that might occur if they are successful and land the wrong way. Other than rotating the crib like described above, if your child's crib has 4 solid panels that go all the way to the floor, you can place their mattress directly on the floor within the frame of the crib. This will significantly lower the height of the mattress. Please note that placing the mattress directly on the floor is only safe if the crib panels are solid. If there are slits or the panels do not go all the way to the ground this method is not safe.

#2: He has not reached the height limit of 35 inches.

Simply put, he has not reached the max limit for height set by his crib. This is a similar rule/mindset as not moving a car seat to front facing, or to a booster before they max out the limits set by the manufacture. 35 inches is the standard height limit for most cribs. This needs to be respected as your toddler could potentially flip themselves over the front of their crib when they reach this height. This could again increase the risk of serious injury.

#3: A crib keeps him safe throughout the night.

If you haven't caught on so far, safety is the name of the game for keeping my kiddo in his crib for the max amount of time possible. This is because as soon as you give your child the freedom of their room for the night, you have to baby proof their entire room, and potentially even more of your house than you've done already. This includes putting covers on all outlets, securing furniture to the wall, making sure cords and curtains are not within pulling distance, placing baby gates at the top of the stairs (if not done so already) and making sure all external doors have child proof protected locks on them. We would like to think our children would know better than to unlock/open doors or pull things down in the middle of night, but you never know what is going through their little minds. Plus, sleep walking can be a real thing!

#4: To give him more time to develop cognitively.

Research shows that children are not able to start making good decisions when it comes to more complex situations until at least the age of 15. Being a toddler is a far from being anywhere close to a teenager (even though sometimes they have the same sass)! Why does this matter? There are so many decisions that you are putting into your toddler's hands by switching them over to a bed. You are allowing them to make the decision to stay in their bed vs continuing to play in their room during a time period that should be dedicated to sleep. You are allowing them to make the decision of having a party in the middle of the night if they wake up and forget what time it is. You are allowing them to make the decision of coming into your room instead of staying in their bed in the wee early morning hours if they think it truly is time to start their day. The list can go on and on! While these might not seem like big, complex decisions for a little kid, these are huge decisions to make. And they are decisions that can have long term effects on their sleep habits down the road. A child is much more likely to fall asleep quicker, and put themselves back to sleep the above situations if they have more time to develop their critical thinking skills, and can better understand what the expectations are around bedtime and sleep are in your home.

#5: Cribs help maintain consistent boundaries and routines.

This last point piggy backs off of the one above. As your toddler continues to develop cognitvely, it is important to stay consistent with your boundaries and their routine. That way, when they are ready to transition to a bed, their current habits/routine will stick. In other words practice makes perfect! Where does the crib come into play with this? After your kiddo is placed in their crib and tucked in, their bedtime routine is then complete. That final step of the routine signals to them that it is their turn to start the process of falling asleep. This doesn't mean they will fall asleep right away, but they will do their rolling around, talking, etc. in their safe sleep space with minimal distractions vs possibly continuing to do it around their room. It also helps enforce that if they wake up in the middle of the night, and have a need that needs to be met, they will ask for help by calling out via the baby monitor instead of trying to do things on their own which can cause problems. Both of these things (staying in bed once tucked in, and staying in their room while asking for help) are things we want our children to do once transitioned to a bed.

In conclusion, I choose to keep my toddler in his crib as long as possible to keep him safe, allow him to time to develop, and to create healthy bedtime habits to hopefully make the eventual transition as easy as possible (for the both of us)! That being said, I know plenty of parents who have made the transition to a bed earlier and have not had any problems. I have also worked with many families who unknowingly made the switch too soon and just needed to put in some extra time & effort to ease the transition. Either way, just know you will get through this phase, and there are people (like myself) who are here to help!