Do we need a toddler bed for the escape artist?

If you’re a parent and the thought of your infant or toddler doing a faceplant or landing on his head doesn’t scare you a little bit, you might need some anxiety in your life to get the heart racing a little bit.

This should give you at least a little cause for alarm.

My wife and I have some of this “alarm” so I’m not sure we need to see our therapist just yet.

So, what in the world is Scott talking about? Well, jumping out of cribs, to be exact.

Last weekend, our 19-month-old was crying (OK, screaming really). Julie opened the door to see that Nathan had one of his legs hanging over the crib rail. Yes, he was plotting his great escape.

Luckily for us, there is one more setting on the crib. There are three height levels for the mattress and he was on the middle setting. So, not 48 hours later, we moved it down to the bottom setting.

This should solve the problem for now.

But, as he grows, there will come another time (I’m sure) that he does this again and we’ll have to consider the next step.

That step, of course, is the “big boy” bed.

Experts recommend that you make this move between 18 months and 3 ½ years of age. Of course, that’s a big window, so you need to make the switch when it makes sense for you and your toddler.

I remember the days well with my older boys. We would put them to bed and since they had new-found mobility, they got up and headed to the living room.

They got to decide whether they were ready for bed. Kind of. What followed was attempt after attempt to get them back to bed.

With our oldest, we had one of those childproof handles. It wasn’t childproof. Matthew pulled it clean off in about 2 seconds flat.

So, I guess you just make the transition from long nights of crying baby to long nights of “hey, get back in bed.”

But at least in the toddler bed, they’re closer to the ground. I’m hopeful that it will keep the bumps and bruises to a minimum.

• An editor by day, Scott Mayes is also dad to Matthew, Micah and Nathan. He’s a high school parent, a youth soccer dad and changes diapers. After 17 years as a parent, he thinks that crib living might come to and end in his house sometime soon. … just maybe.

Filed under Dadventures