It must be a question that every parent asks themselves and something they spend a lot of time thinking about and even researching. When it comes to raising a child though, it is probably the hardest job in the world. No one prepares you for it, there is no instruction manual and every child is different, often being unique in their response to each circumstance.
Younger children, (toddlers) especially, provide somewhat of a challenge, with many different issues being presented to parents about child rearing, though one in particular possibly doesn’t have a right answer.
When to move a child to a bigger bed is perhaps an issue that is dependent on the child him or herself. Every child develops at a different rate and has growth spurts at different times.
Obviously, when they are first born, they will have a baby bed, whether this is a cot/crib or something different and then generally parents will upgrade to a ‘toddler bed’, still with safeguards one or two years later.
Usually, a couple more changes occur during a child’s youth – the biggest often coming at age five – when they are just starting school. There is so much for parents to consider when choosing the right bed for the child and, obviously, price comes into it, as well as safety.
There is so much choice now for parents, especially at Simba Beds for example where there are a wide range of different beds, mattresses and mattress toppers – the latter for infants often being a wise choice in order to protect the mattress from those all-too inevitable urine stains.
How To Get Kids Used To New Beds
This can be a tricky one. It can be strange for children to get used to a new bed – even if they are looking forward to moving into one. It isn’t uncommon for toddlers though to sleep with ‘mummy and daddy’ sometimes in their ‘big bed’, especially when they are upset about something.
If they are only two or three, this can be a good idea to get them used to moving out of their ‘baby bed’, cot/crib as it can help to acclimatise them. Also, while parents will implement the obvious safeguards, sometimes the odd tumble out of bed can happen. More often than not, this doesn’t hurt massively, but the shock can cause some trauma.
It could be one of the reasons why some parents take their children to indoor activity centres from an early age, where they can get used to falling and jumping around onto soft bouncy things so their body becomes acclimated to it. This also applies to trampolines and bouncy castles, where there is still a similar element of this.
Also, letting them take a ‘nap’ on the sofa can be a good way to get them used to moving to a new bed, as these are obviously longer, while some are huge/L-shaped even, where there is little danger of them falling off.