This week’s episode is both a little peek inside our life lately, as well as big sleep takeaways for your toddler.
We are going to be talking all about crib climbing…the dreaded, terrifying crib climbing.
So let’s start off with a little “imagine if” scenario here…
Imagine it’s 4:45 am, you’re sound asleep, and you’re suddenly woken up by your toddler who is standing next to your bed. The toddler who you put to bed in their crib is next to you, saying they don’t want to sleep anymore.
Well, guess what? This happened to me about a month ago, with our 3.5-year-old who is still in a crib, and I thought very happily so.
She is kiddo number three out of four and our first crib climber. And this came out of NOWHERE!
So this topic is fresh for me.
In this post, we’re going to chat all about:
- Seven ways to prevent crib climbing
- What to do if your toddler ends up climbing out of their crib
- What we did when our toddler recently climbed out of her crib!
I hope you’re listening to this before your toddler has ever attempted to climb out of their crib, but it’ll still be helpful for those whose toddler has already made the jump.
Before anything else, make sure your toddler’s room is safe!
The very first step in all of this, before we can even chat tips to keep your toddler in their crib, is to make sure their room is set up safely. So if they happen to climb out of the crib, you know their room is safe!
This post is all about safely setting up your baby’s nursery, and this post is all about safely setting up your older toddler/young child’s room, and honestly, both are important here for toddlers still in a crib, but potentially not going to be for much longer.
7 Ways to Prevent Your Toddler from Climbing Out of Their Crib
Now that we know your little one’s room is safe, let’s chat through my top seven tips to prevent your child from climbing out of their crib, whether they did once or have tried or for whatever reason you think they’re on the verge of crib climbing.
Tip 1: Turn Your Toddler’s Crib Around
This comes in super handy for families whose crib has a high back! If your little one’s crib is the same height all the way round, this won’t work for you, but if their crib is taller in the back (the part against the wall), this will work for you.
I don’t know why this is, but most kids I’ve heard of who climb out of their crib do so from the front – not the side.
So you literally turn the crib around so the higher side faces out! It might look a bit strange, and you might now have to lay your child down from the head or foot of the crib, but it often does the trick!
So that’s probably the easiest way to prevent crib climbing, yet not possible for everyone.
Our crib is even all the way around, so it’s not an option for us.
Tip 2: Put Your Toddler in a Sleep Sack
I will always love sleep sacks for babies and toddlers, and I explain all the reasons why in this post, but one of the many reasons I love them is that they can help prevent your toddler from climbing out of the crib.
The sleep sack just adds one more barrier to climbing. With it on, the toddler can’t very easily throw their leg over the edge of the crib. And if they’re young enough, they likely can’t take their sleep sack off!
For sleep sacks with a zipper in the front, one trick to prevent toddlers from taking them off is to turn the sleep sack around so they can’t get to the zipper.
Our 3.5-year-old still loves her sleep sack, but she knows how to take it off. So when she climbed out, she just shimmied the sleep sack off so she could more easily climb! So similar to turning the crib around, the sleep sack certainly isn’t foolproof and doesn’t work for everyone.
Tip 3: Try to avoid having your toddler ever climb in or out of the crib, even for fun
I know this sounds like a “Duh, Lauren,” but some families do this without really realizing what’s going on! Maybe you put a stool next to the crib and help your child climb up, because you’re trying to encourage independence.
Or as you’re getting them out of the crib, you have them try to climb to you.
This is a huge area where we went wrong with our daughter. We’ve never had her climb in, but sometimes her big sisters like to get her up from her nap, or we ask for their help, and they actually put a little stool in the crib to help her climb, and then they help her down.
I did think about what was going on there, but had rose-colored glasses on that surely none of my toddlers would climb out of their crib, so I didn’t do anything about it.
Well, now I can confidently say she had lots of practice climbing out of the crib because of that, and I bet it made her a lot more confident doing so, even without the stool there.
So learn from our mistake, and always place your child in the crib and take them out – don’t have them help you by climbing. This could give them too much confidence to try on their own.
Tip 4: Use a toddler clock!
I talk all about how to introduce your child to a toddler clock in this post, but the whole idea here is that your toddler learns that it’s not time to wake up until their light turns blue, or green, or purple.
So, in a perfect world, it’s already a routine that mom or dad comes to get you when your Hatch turns green, so the idea of climbing out because you wonder if it’s morning isn’t even a thing! You know it’s not morning until that light changes.
Tip 5: Take out anything that would make crib climbing easier
If your toddler has several stuffies in their crib and you notice they kind of pile them up and step on that pile to help them get out, take out those stuffies! Or if they make a big mound of pillows or blankets to climb out, take those out.
Or if you have crib bumpers around the crib, one, that’s just not safe, yes, even if their mesh, and even for toddlers, and two, bumpers act as an easy step for them to climb out, so just take them out!
We don’t want anything to make it any easier for your toddler to successfully climb out of their crib.
Tip 6: Say “No” as they start climbing
We really want to avoid your child successfully climbing out of the crib whenever possible.
So if you see your toddler attempting to escape their crib, whether you’re still in the room or watching from the monitor, give them a firm, “No,” or “No climb!”
If you are in the room (or make it to the room on time), physically put your child’s leg down as you say no, to prevent them from climbing out.
Otherwise, just talk over the monitor if you’re able.
Try not to engage in any other conversation, as this could quickly become a game that only ends in frustration for all parties involved.
But we want to make it clear that climbing out is not an option.
And if we can avoid them ever successfully climbing out, realizing that they’re not allowed to, that’s definitely the best-case scenario.
But even if they’ve climbed out before and you’re trying to still keep them in the crib, we want to stop that pattern, and we essentially want them to forget they’re able to climb out.
Tip 7: Drop the crib mattress as low as it will go
Now, let me preface this suggestion by saying it does not work for all cribs, so definitely check your specific crib.
But with some cribs, you can actually lower the mattress all the way to the floor.
This makes the reach/climb all the higher for your child, and it’s very difficult for a little one to climb out.
Note, however, that there should not be a gap between the mattress and crib rails when you drop it. And if there is, this is not a safe option.
So again, not possible for everyone, or even if technically possible, not safe for everyone, but worth mentioning!
What to Do If Your Toddler DOES Climb Out of Their Crib
Now that we’ve walked through seven tips to prevent crib climbing, let’s talk about what to do if your toddler does climb out of their crib.
It’s pretty obvious, but you essentially have two options:
- Switch them to a toddler bed
- Try to keep them in the crib and put an end to the crib climbing
I think it’s safe to say I’m never going to tell a family what decision to make here, because you have to feel comfortable with whatever you decide!
But I do want to point out that just because your toddler climbs out of their crib one time, you don’t have to switch them to a bed right away.
As a mom and sleep coach, I would think about how they climbed out, as well as their temperament or personality, and if you think you could get them to stay in the crib.
Did they catapult themselves out and, by sheer luck, land on their feet? Did they climb, fall, and bump their head?
Or did they climb out pretty safely?
If they were incredibly unsafe and you don’t think there’s a chance of keeping them in the crib anymore, you’re probably going to transition them pretty quickly.
But if they did so pretty safely, and/or you think there’s a chance of keeping them in the crib, I would lean toward trying to keep them in a bit! And sometimes that’s successful, sometimes it’s not, but it can be worth trying.
Because another side note is, in a perfect world, I recommend keeping toddlers in their crib until at least three years old. I have found this makes transitioning to a big bed way more successful, and talk all about the crib-to-bed transition in this post.
A lot of families think of crib climbing as just a safety issue, so they go right to the toddler bed without a second thought. But what they don’t realize is that moving to a toddler bed doesn’t all of a sudden solve sleep — it often creates new sleep issues.
Transitioning a young toddler too soon can turn into a sleep regression, bedtime battles, nap refusal, early wakes, and a toddler who suddenly thinks bedtime is optional.
Even for a toddler who was sleeping really well before! They take this newfound freedom and really run with it, and this is when so many families come to us.
And it’s not usually because of the crib climbing, but because of the issues that came after the crib climbing.
And with some families, we’re actually able to get their toddler back in their crib for another 6 months or year+ when working together, which is amazing!
One of the first families I worked with had a toddler in a big bed because he had climbed out of the crib. I wish I remembered how old he was, but I can’t find my notes – I want to say two or so. But we actually put him back in the crib, turned the crib around so the high side was in there, essentially re-sleep trained, and I want to say this sweet boy slept in his crib for another year or so after working together!
For other families, staying in the crib or going back to the crib really just isn’t an option, so we stick with the toddler bed or floor bed, and for kids under 3, I just tell parents it may take longer than usual, or have more bumps in the road to get to a consistent place with sleep again, because their child is just so young and doesn’t fully understand what it means to “stay in bed all night long.”
It’s certainly not ideal to move a young 2-year-old to a toddler bed, but sometimes there’s just no way around it. So as sleep coaches, we step into that with you, give you a plan to teach your toddler to stay in their bed, and support you through it!
How We Handled Our Toddler Climbing Out of Her Crib
Now, remember I told you about our 3.5-year-old climbing out in the last month? Guess what?
She’s still in her crib!
That may sound strange, because she’s 3.5, and this is actually the age we transitioned our older girls to a big bed.
But here’s why we decided to keep her in her crib. One, she climbed out very safely. She’s actually a great climber; she landed on her feet, she was actually quite proud of herself, and I really thought we could train her not to climb out of her crib.
And I wanted to try to keep her in her crib for two main reasons…
One, she’s still napping, and often when kids transition to a bed, they drop their nap. And I’d love to hang on to this nap as long as possible, because my other girls dropped their nap around 2.5! So this has been amazing.
The other reason I didn’t want to transition her out yet is that we hadn’t started using a toddler clock with her yet. And I was kicking myself, because I recommend starting one around the age of two, so that toddlers catch on while they still have the boundary of the crib.
And I actually had a Hatch in the box, sitting outside her room, for about three weeks prior to her climbing out of her crib.
But I was nervous that if we transitioned her to a big bed without understanding the Hatch, we’d have more sleep challenges.
So the morning after she climbed out of her crib, we set up the Hatch, and because she’s 3.5 and has a great understanding of language, and because she knows her sisters have a Hatch, she very quickly understood she couldn’t get up from her nap or in the morning until her Hatch turned blue, and when it did so, she could not climb out; mommy or daddy would come get her.
And thankfully, that did the trick! I think she has only climbed out one other time since then, and she fully understands she can’t climb out and thankfully sticks to it.
So that’s an example of us feeling comfortable that the way she was climbing out was safe enough that we had time to try to teach her to stay in her crib, and it thankfully worked!
Crib climbing success story!
As a reminder, I talk all about toddler clocks here, and again, don’t be like me – start implementing it close to the age of two.
Conclusion
The goal of this post is to help prevent your toddler from ever climbing out of their crib. Or to prevent them from climbing out of their crib again.
The plan is also to help you think through your options if your toddler tries to climb out of their crib, or successfully climbs out – you don’t always have to transition them to a bed right away!
I also know that there are some very determined kiddos out there, and despite doing everything possible, they’re just going to climb out of their crib.
And if it’s just not safe, or just keeps happening, it’s time to transition to a big bed. Yes, even if they’re not close to three yet. It’s really not ideal, but sometimes there’s no other option.
If you do have to make the transition to a bed sooner than you’d hoped, my encouragement to you is to make sure you have a plan. Because if your toddler was escaping their crib, they will very likely be getting out of their new bed, too.
So set up some bedtime expectations and make a plan for how you will reinforce them! And if you have no clue what I’m talking about, make sure you get our free bedtime boundary guide and printables to help you out.
And if your toddler has climbed out of their crib recently and you don’t want to spend the next several weeks or months trying to figure out how to keep them in their own bed, we write personalized plans for families like yours all the time and would love to help!
Or if your toddler climbed out of their crib months ago and their sleep has been falling apart ever since, and you just can’t get things back on track, know that their sleep isn’t too far gone, and it’s absolutely possible to teach them how to not only fall asleep independently, but actually stay in their own bed, all night long.
And we’d love to help get you back there. Click here to learn more about what it looks like to get our support!
With Grace,
Lauren
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