Hi, my son was two when he left the cot to go into a bed. We had a standard single bed but we attached a Tomy soft bed guard on the side towards the top of the bed to stop him falling out. It then left room at the bottom of the bed for him to crawl to, to get out. We had a safety gate at the top of the stairs so he could move out of his room and come to us if he needed us. He was very keen to start with as it was new and exciting, it was only when he was poorly that he would keep getting out, but that was only for a short time. Having the same cuddly toys in the bed that were in the cot helps too

i agree with the longer you can leave it the better. my eldest moved into his big bed at 2 1/2. he was in a grobag till then and if he'd not been in a grobag i think we'd have had to have moved him sooner. he went straight into a normal single sized bed with a bed guard on it and we put a little step at the end of his bed so he could get into it himself. we let him choose his cover and got him really excited about sleeping in it and made it a real big boy thing to do etc. maybe we were lucky but he's always been pretty good about staying in bed when going to bed, it makes it harder in the mornings but the older they get the more you can discuss it with them and persuade them to stay put. our likes the door open with the landing light on but he knows that if he gets out or starts messing around that we'll shut his door. i'd personally wouldn't put a lock on the door even if it's ajar. i think a gate is ok as at least then they can seee over it and a stairgate is something they're familuar with anyway. i guess if they do keep getting out you just have to use the 'return method'! keep putting them straight back to bed, no discussion and eventually they'll get bored of it..... hopefully!!!

In my experince I made it a really special big girl / boy thing to do. I chatted to my daughter about it, and talked to her about what happened if she needed mummy or daddy in the night. We had put a spare duvet on the floor incase of her falling out, to begin with we took the side nearest the wall of the cot, and then the other side. She always called out if she needed us. Then when no. 2 arrived (she was 23 mths) we talked to her again and said if she needed us to come to us. This still ahppens, once every 3 nights maybe, but it's been great. Of course a stair gate at the top of the stairs is a must. I also let her choose her duvet cover as she had always been in a grobag.

I've found a gate at the bedroom door very useful. Saying that my daughter has been a nightmare to stay in bed but she kept jumping out of her cot when she was about 2 and 2 months so we had to move her into a bed. She wasn't much better then. Luckily hers was a cotbed so we just had to remove the bars. I would be tempted to buy a second-hand cotbed rather than a small bed - I think the longer they stay in a cot the better and the easier! However, it all depends on the child.

Hello, I am just thinking about this as I need to move my elder son out of his cot to make way for his brother who's outgrown the Moses basket. I was just going to get a standard size single bed that's low enough for him to climb into himself. What I like about his cot mattress is that it has a removable, washable, waterproof top cover and I'd like to try and find something similar for his new bed, if such a product exists? In order to contain him in his room, if not in his bed, I was thinking about a simple hook, so that the door can be very slightly ajar so he doesn't feel that he's been totally trapped or excluded from us, but at the same time he can't actually get out until we let him out. A door security chain would achieve the same thing