Daughter Refuses to Sleep in Her Bed

My son slept on the floor next to his door from age 2 1/2 to almost 5. Finally when his sister started sleeping in there, he finally agreed to sleep in the bed. Because he could climb gates and I was worried about him falling down the stairs and roaming the house, his ped suggested latching the door shut. I would put her back in her bed but if you find her on the floor in her room, don't worry about it.

She's not hurting anyone or anything. Let her be. If she falls asleep into hallway, let her.

I would take her back to her bed, if it were be, just because I think that would help her get used to her own bed better.

If you haven't already taken the crib out, I would. My concern is that she has options, and sometimes it really is easier for little ones when they don't have a choice. She has a bed, so having the crib in the room still might be slowing her down from getting used to her bed.

If she is just getting up so she can sleep on the floor I would just let her be. If she isn't trying to come into your bed, or bothering anyone or waking anyone up, then what is the harm. As long as she is safe, and getting enough sleep.

Take the crib out. Let her fall asleep wherever she does, as long as you start her off in her own new bed it doesn't matter if she moves herself to the floor...then when she is asleep just keep picking her up & putting her back on her new big girl bed, eventually after waking up in it a few times she will get used to it and stay in it.

It doesn't sound like she is hurting anything by sleeping on the floor. It's just hard for us Mommys thinking about them falling asleep on the floor, right? Don't worry....this too shall pass & she will be staying and falling asleep in her own bed before you know it!

Don't worry about it........ in many countries and cultures, everyone sleeps on the floor!

Just pick her up when you go to bed and put her back in her bed...... eventually she will get used to it.

I like the idea of the baby gate across her door.... help reduce the night-time wanderings.

Maybe put up a baby gate so she's confined to her room, I'm sure it will work itself out once the novelty wears off :)

I'd remove the crib as it isn't easing her into the transition to the bed, she doesn't know you want her in the bed.

I'd put up either an extra tall gate or stack two of them so she can't come out of the room. I did both, had ordered the extra tall one and realized the two stacked worked fine, but kept the new one.

Leave her on the floor. If you establish the routine of picking her up and returning her to her bed she doesn't learn to. Leave her, she'll be fine, and will eventually go back to bed on her own, or sleep comfortably on the floor.

Shortly after we converted DD's crib into the toddler bed, she went through a phase of wanting to sleep on the floor instead, in a bean bag chair. DH had an issue with it, but I didn't - I just figured at least she was staying in her room and sleeping and she wouldn't sleep there if she wasn't comfortable. Maybe she just didn't want to sleep in it any longer if wasn't the crib she had had before. Eventually we just got a regular sized bed (actually full size, since the side of the crib/toddler bed became the headboard, and we were able to get a full-size mattress and box spring from my mother's house). She loved that it was a "real big kid bed" and she stayed put in that. I would take the crib out of there since that just might be confusing for her, and I would either get her a regular sized bed with a good quality mattress, plus rails if you are worried about her falling out - or just put a mattress right on the floor and see if that works.

You say she is over two, how close is she to three?
When my son was almost three we moved into our first house and he had his own room. (Before that we were in an apartment and he had a toddler bed in our room) He had a horrible time sleeping in his own room. Every morning when I woke up he was in our bed. There were nights he would wait until he thought we were asleep and tried to sneak into our bed. Many times we would even find him in the hallway right outside our door sleeping. Finally I set up a chart in his room and explained to him that for every night that he stayed in his bed and did not get out he would get a star. But if he was to get out of bed for anything but to use the bathroom, he would get an X. If he did not get any X's for a week his reward was to watch a movie before bed in our room and could sleep in our bed that night. It took all of 2 to 3 weeks and we didn't even need the chart any more because it had become a habit for him to just sleep in his bed.
If she is not old enough to understand using a chart like that, then try standing right outside her door where she cannot see you. And as soon as you hear her get out of bed walk right up to her, put her back into her bed and tell her no. And walk right back out. No explaining, no talking no more of "Just one more hug or kiss". Simply say No and walk back to the hallway. It may take a few nights, but eventually she'll understand that she is not getting anything by getting out of bed. But you have to stay in the hallway and get to her as soon as on foot hits the floor.
Good luck

Skip the toddler bed. Get her a regular sized bed, and use bed rails with it. She CAN still get it, but it becomes more work than it's worth. My son wouldn't stay in anything, (or on anything--mattress on the floor)... until we put him in a twin size bed with rails. He never really climbed out of that for some reason.

Daughter went into a toddler bed, but I used the same bed rail with that as I had used for our son. (I know it wasn't "supposed" to be used with that, but it worked well enough). When she was about 2 1/2 someone offered us a complete bedroom suite for her room (for free!) and we put her directly into a twin sized bed (tall enough that it had canopy posts)... and just put the rails on that instead. She never fell out, and never climbed out--even with one of those wooden 2 step stair things next to the bed.

I am sure she would climb over the gate placed on the door as well. We bribe our kids. When the Nanny 911 tricks dont work after a few weeks of enforcing them we move on to what works. We will scold, ask kindly, demand, tell stories, sing but nothing works as well as positive reinforcement aka Bribery! For our daughter and son who recently started getting out of bed over and over from 830 for our daughter till 1130 at night. Its exausting. So we decided to tell our 5 and 3 yr old kids if they stayed in bed for a week they could have a lemonade stand. Not only did it work for bed time our daughter decided to actually walk into her classroom! It is amazing when they have a goal for good behavior. We used it for potty training too. Our son got to go to the Houston Zoo and our daughter asked for a doll that has her own potty once they were potty trained they got it. For our daughter to train at night we told her she got to wear big girl underware. Some times its little rewards some times it has to be a bigger reward. We dont havealot of extra money so they really have to earn it and stick with it. Hope bribing her helps :D

Hi, J.,

You've got some good advice already...I won't repeat. A quick thought to mention, though, would be to look at the quality of her mattress. Many crib mattresses (that are then used on a toddler bed) have that vinyl coating. It makes sleep time (especially for longer periods of time, like bedtime) very uncomfortable (more sweating/less breathable). We did have a similar problem with our now 5.5 yr old son, and we also went through the supernanny tactics of back to bed. The thing that changed for us was that one evening our son crawled into the queen size guest bed and was back to sleeping through the night with no problems. So we put him in the guest bed for the next couple of nights, and it was seriously like our problems were solved. We moved the toddler bed out of his room, and put the guest bed in his room, and haven't looked back.

Good luck!

If she is done with the crib, get it out of her room. Start her off in her toddler bed, if she ends up on the floor, no big deal.

We had to stack 2 gates on top of each other in the beginning. Our daughter was super young.. It worked fine. If we found her on her floor, we would sometimes move her back to her bed.. Other times, we would leave her there.

We had a similar problem when our girls were a little older ~ like maybe 3ish. We tried everything we could think of to get them to sleep in their beds! Our older one would fall asleep on our bed & we'd move her when we went to bed. Our younger one would fall asleep on her big sister's floor. We folded up an old quilt & let her sleep there (although the older one wasn't too happy). They eventually grew out of it & are both sleeping in their own rooms & in their own beds. I think many kiddos go through this!

I put my son in a normal full size bed instead of getting a toddler bed. I think we took the crib down but that was a long time ago.
I think that letting her fall asleep on the floor is fine. Shes young and can handle the floor so I think eventually she'll stay in her big bed.