Steps to Keep Your Child Safe when Moving to a Toddler Bed

Our daughter recently turned two, which meant that the days of her sleeping in a crib were quickly coming to an end. Some would say that we waited a long time to take her out of the crib, but it wasn't causing us too many problems, and it kept her safe. Alas, the time had come to get her into a toddler bed, which meant that we had a whole new round of child-proofing to conduct.

If you're getting ready to make the switch and take your toddler out of the crib, it is important that you take another look around the house for opportunities for your child to get into harm's way. Toddler-proofing a bedroom isn't the same as baby-proofing it was when you brought her home.

First, check your child's bedroom for pull-down hazards. We had a free-standing shelf, for example, that was safe to have in her room as long as we were in there with her or she was safe behind her crib's walls. With her newfound freedom in the toddler bed, though, the shelf had to go into the closet. It would have been too easy for her to pull it onto herself. This also required some rearranging of things like her CD player and nightlight.

Power outlets continue to be a potential hazard, even more so now that the possibility exists that she could go wandering while we're asleep. A double-check to make sure that our outlets were shielded showed that we had a couple of outlets to put guards in. These outlets were not a concern before, because she couldn't access these parts of the house without our help. Now, though, they needed shielding from curious fingers.

The bedrooms in our house are all on the second floor, which meant steps needed to be taken to keep her off the stairs. A standard fold-down baby gate wasn't going to do the trick here, because our house was built in such a way that it would be too easy to pull a gate down. We found a gate online that suited our needs well. It bolted directly into the wall, and featured a pull-door gate that little hands don't have the strength and dexterity to open. This gate retailed for $200, but we found it online from a family that didn't need it anymore for much cheaper. We also invested in plastic doorknob covers, that add an extra layer of security to prevent her from opening doors she shouldn't be getting past.

Ultimately, there's no way to make your child's environment is 100% safe. Hazards will always be present. But by taking these steps, we are confident that moving our little girl from the crib to the toddler bed is one is a move she will be making safely.