# at what age can a kid conceivably learn not to fall out of bed?



## indigosky (Sep 4, 2007)

At what age is it conceivable that a child could learn to sleep in a bed (regular height) without side rails and not fall out?

I'm sure this varies tremendously from kid to kid -- I have the sense some kids still fall out from time to time when they're school age. But I'm guessing there's something developmental about it, too, that there's an age when kids develop more of an ability to control one's movements during sleep, or just flip/roll around less, or become aware of the edge of the mattress in one's sleep.

Do 2 year olds ever have this ability? (I mean, after they sleep in a bed for some period of time and fall out a few times?) Or do they need to be older, like 3 or 4?

If you have tips/advice on helping them learn, send those along, too! I assume starting out on a mattress on the floor may help, since if you roll off, the stakes are a lot lower!


----------



## kittykat2481 (Nov 7, 2008)

DS started sleeping in a toddler bed at 14 months. He had always hated his crib, and was no longer sleeping well in the family bed (he always thought it was play time!) so we decided to give it a try. I think he fell out once or twice, and we had put pillows and stuffed animals down by his bed, so he didn't even wake up. He's 20 months now, and while he's still in the toddler bed, he has napped in my little sister's twin bed (high off the floor) and in mine and my husband's bed with no problem. I would have no worries that he would fall out of a regular bed. I would probably put one side of it against the wall, but I think just to help him orient himself, and have something to lean against when he first wakes up.

Maybe it depends on the child?


----------



## 34me (Oct 2, 2006)

My kids all slept in a low futon from 2 on. No one has ever fallen out.


----------



## Delta (Oct 22, 2002)

My kids have slept on twin beds since they were about 2 (like 24 months) with no problems.


----------



## marimara (Jan 31, 2008)

dd slept in a bed starting at about 15 months by herself and never once fell out. She's almost 3 and still has never fallen out. I put a pillow next to her on the edge of the bed to remind her.


----------



## Fay (Sep 21, 2005)

It totally depends on the child. My niece has slept in a twin bed since age 1 and has never fallen out of bed. But I shared a room with 3 brothers when I was little -- we were in 2 sets of bunk beds. My 10 year old brother was a heavy sleeper, and would sometimes roll OVER the bed rail and fall in slow motion to the floor from the top bunk...and continue sleeping on the floor. And even my much older brothers upstairs would sometimes fall out of bed with a loud thump on the ceiling above me in the middle of the night.


----------



## aramat (May 19, 2007)

Both my girls slept in real beds pretty much since birth, although the younger one also slept swaddled for as long as physically possible. The older one slept on a mattress on the floor. The younger one slept in a regular twin bed with side rails; she never fell out but did one night hit her nose pretty hard on a side rail and got a messy nose bleed from it (which was terrifying to walk in on, but she was fine). For the next baby, we're probably going back to a lowered mattress without adding metal rails.

I think kids are more likely to fall off just when in a different bed or place than usual.


----------



## tankgirl73 (Jun 10, 2007)

DD's bed was sidecarred against ours until she was a bit less than 2.5 years old, at which point we moved it to the other side of the room. This meant that my side of the bed was now "open", whereas previously her bed was beside it (about 6" lower than our bed).

We still co-sleep when she wakes in the night. One of the first nights with the new arrangement, she joined me in bed, nursed to sleep beside me on the open side, and at some point in the night she fell out. We woke to a thump and a soft cry. She was fine, went right back to sleep.

That was the only time. Her bed does have a rail but I think she'd be fine without it too. We leave her sleeping alone on our bed for naps, she's never fallen out from that.

I would think that in general, around age 2 is when they start to develop that awareness. I also think that if a baby has been raised in a crib or in a sheltered sleeping situation, they will have to fall out once or twice before they realize that they can no longer just roll around until they bump into something. So it's conceivable that a baby who has been raised in a more open situation, like a floor bed from the beginning, would develop the awareness a little sooner.


----------



## my3monkees (Nov 17, 2004)

My oldest never fell out of bed.
My youngest very seldom.
My middle, still falls out on a regular basis! I would never let the boy sleep on a bunk bed!







:


----------



## HoldensMama (Feb 25, 2007)

Ds has a mesh rail on one side of his twin bed and the other is open. When we first moved him out of our bed he was 20 months and I slept for most of the night on the open side of the bed until I nightweaned him at about 28 months.

One time he did roll out shortly after I left his bed to go to my own. I think he was rolling over to find a nipple to latch onto and just kept going. He was fine and hasn't fallen since. I have never considered removing the rail even though he is capable of sleeping without it because he likes to cuddle into it when he sleeps.


----------



## kirstenb (Oct 4, 2007)

DS has no problem sleeping by himself on our queen size bed. He's a big mover when he sleeps but he seems to have learned where the edge of the bed is because he always ends up with a limb hanging off the side but hasn't fallen off in months. He's used to a lot of space though so it will be interesting how he is when he set up his twin bed next month.


----------



## indigosky (Sep 4, 2007)

Thanks, this is incredibly useful!

From the sound of it, MOST two year olds don't fall out (at least not more than once or twice) ... and then there are those who fall and keep on falling.


----------



## JessicaS (Nov 18, 2001)

I fell out of bed fairly regularly until I was about 11.


----------



## crazydiamond (May 31, 2005)

My DD started sleeping in a regular height (actually, it's probably higher than usual) full-size bed at 26 mos. She fell out exactly twice in the first couple of weeks, and then never again.


----------



## crunchymamatobe (Jul 8, 2004)

My LO sleeps the first part of the night in a twin bed with a rail. He usually wakes up and comes into our room, where we have a toddler bed (almost as high as a regular bed) with no rail. He has fallen out occasionally, but not in the past two months maybe? He's 34 months now.

I fell out of bed when I was about 7 or 8 when I was downsized from a double to a twin, but never again. Unless you count pregnant leg cramp stumbling...


----------



## MPsSweetie (Jan 29, 2006)

My dd is 7 and she fell out of bed just the other day.... *thump*








Ds is almost 3 and hasn't yet.


----------



## mamadelbosque (Feb 6, 2007)

DS is 2.5 and has been sleeping in his own 'big boy' bed for the last 6-9 monthsish... he's yet to fall out. Before that he slept in our bed (w/o rails) with us and only fell out... like 2x. So I'd say definetly by 2, and quite likely earlier. Of course, much older kids (and even adults!) will occasionally fall out of bed too


----------

