My neighbor is getting her daughter a toddler bed. She doesn't know what kind to get, so I thought I would ask all of you to see what you had, and what you suggest. Thanks

By Pamt on Friday, June 17, 2005 - 09:35 am:

We went straight to a regular twin.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, June 17, 2005 - 10:13 am:

I think we had a cosco one. We only went to a toddler bed for Emily, because we were renting and that is all we had room for.

By Emily7 on Friday, June 17, 2005 - 11:38 am:

Joe HATED his toddler bed, we went straight to a twin.

By Kaye on Friday, June 17, 2005 - 11:45 am:

WE had an all plastic one, by little tykes that I loved

By Crystal915 on Friday, June 17, 2005 - 01:44 pm:

Stay away from Graco. We don't use a toddler bed anymore, because nearly every one on the merket had railings similar to those Maddie broke her leg on.

By Unschoolmom on Friday, June 17, 2005 - 02:11 pm:

Twin. I lean towards thinking toddler beds are a good marketing gimmick.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, June 17, 2005 - 02:54 pm:

Unschoolmom, I would tend to agree with you. If we had lived in a bigger place, when we took Emily out of the crib, she would have been in a twin bed. Instead, she got her twin bed, when she was 4 and she had her own bedroom in the house we bought.

By Trina~moderator on Friday, June 17, 2005 - 05:34 pm:

We never used toddler beds. Both kids started on a regular mattress on the floor and then we later put it up on a bed frame with a bed rail. They grow out of toddler beds so quickly and then you need to make another transition to a regular bed.

By Andi on Friday, June 17, 2005 - 06:13 pm:

Never used a toddler bed, I thought it was a waste of money. We went straight to a twin bed with a bed rail on it.

By Tink on Friday, June 17, 2005 - 09:03 pm:

We bought the yellow car bed, looks like a VW Beetle when my oldest was transitioning out of her crib. We bought it because of a space issue also but all three kids have used it and loved it. It's been passed to a friend's little boy now and still looks brand new. It was soo safe and sturdy but it did take up a little more space than a standard toddler bed might.

By Mommmie on Friday, June 17, 2005 - 10:56 pm:

Never used a toddler bed. Waste of money.

By Amecmom on Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 08:57 am:

We had a great futon that's not too high off the floor. My son went into that at a little past his third birthday.
Ame

By Kernkate on Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 09:30 am:

Right to twin bed here to with all my DK's.

By Bellajoe on Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 05:09 pm:

I thought it was a waste of money too. We went straight to twin beds with both kids. Put bed rails on both sides.

By Musicmom on Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - 03:29 pm:

We went to a twin with box spring on the floor and then a side rail for a while before moving it on to a frame.

By Reds9298 on Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - 10:51 pm:

What do you all think of convertible cribs? Ours converts to a toddler then to a full. I think I will love it, but we're not at that point yet so I don't know.

By Heaventree on Thursday, June 23, 2005 - 12:06 pm:

I have not tried it, however, I was at Ikea the other day and they have an adjustable bed that eventually turns into a twin. Some of their stuff just looks so cheap though.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, June 23, 2005 - 12:34 pm:

Ikea is cheap looking, too, I think.
Our convertible crib is sooo beautiful! I think we are going to be really happy with it as both a toddler and a regular bed, but I wondered if anyone else had one. I think it's a fairly new idea. Ours doesn't have an adjustable side rail, it's stationery, and we love that, too. All of the adjustable side railings we looked at just seemed so unstable.

By Trina~moderator on Thursday, June 23, 2005 - 12:47 pm:

We bought a convertible crib for our youngest with big plans of using it through adulthood. LOL! We never even put it in the toddler mode. We passed it on to my niece, Sydney.

By Dana on Thursday, June 23, 2005 - 01:13 pm:

Went straight to twin bed here too. Saw no need for the toddler since the matress is the same size as a crib. Of the moms I know who have made comments from my playgroup, it was the twin bed that the kids loved to move to best. Many moms had trouble w/ switching child to toddler bed, but as soon as they upped to twin, the kids loved it.

By Crystal915 on Thursday, June 23, 2005 - 09:06 pm:

Deanna,
I hate to sound like an over-anxious mommy, but be careful. The toddler railing that Maddie broke her leg on was a convertible crib, it went from crib all the way to full size bed. Also, it wasn't their original crib, the first cribs we had only lasted a year before breaking.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, June 23, 2005 - 09:20 pm:

Crystal, Thanks for the heads up. I'm a bit of an over-anxious mommy so I appreciate any info. How did it happen?

By Crystal915 on Thursday, June 23, 2005 - 10:37 pm:

Here's a link to the post when it happened. The beds Graco recalled in March had the exact same railings, but our beds were not included in the recall.
DD Broken Leg

By Karefl on Thursday, June 23, 2005 - 10:48 pm:

We went straight to twin beds from This End Up. We got the Classic Solid End Daybeds for the first 2 & then when #3 was ready for a big bed we bought the parts that we needed to convert one of them into bunk beds for the older boys & our 3rd son got the other daybed. I LOVE them b/c they have railings that run the length of the bed on both sides! PLUS the railings are snapped on to secure them. All three of the boys atill have these beds & our oldest is 12. They really last! You can only get This End Up stuff online now at thisendup.com. Here is the Daybed that we have, and what it looks like after converting the older boys to bunks.
TTYS
Karrie

By Reds9298 on Friday, June 24, 2005 - 12:10 am:

Emily Crib

I hope I did this link right. It's our crib, and you can see how it changes in the side pictures. Thanks for the info Crystal. How scary for you!!!Although the cribs are different, they are similar. I will definitely be aware of that. We could just leave off the railing, too, because the mattress is so close to the floor anyway. Maybe put some pillows there until we are more comfortable. (We're not even ready to go to toddler bed yet, just thinking ahead.)

By Dawnk777 on Friday, June 24, 2005 - 08:43 am:

I used a bed rail, even with the toddler bed. once I found her sleeping, with her legs hanging off the edge and the rest of her body on the bed! With the side rail, that didn't happen anymore.