At what age does child move to bed?

[fedmom]

Baby due in August. Have a bassinet from friend and a cradle from parents. Recently offered a crib at low price, but not sure of need (or room for bassinet, cradle & crib!). Good crib- Childcraft- no recall. Not sure when baby will outgrow cradle and if he could then move immediately to bed, rather than to crib. Thanks!- Catherine

[LBW]

We started out with a crib and just moved to a bed at 19 months -- when my son tried to climb out of the crib. I felt a crib was a necessity. It's too easy for them to get out of or fall out of a bed.

I would think you would need either the cradle or bassinet, but not necessarily both. Or, you could eliminate both and just use the crib.

[lynettefrancois]

I don't see how it would be possible to skip the crib entirely- even when babies still technically "fit" in a bassinet, they get too big to be comfortable, and too heavy. I have a bassinet and a cradle and a Pack n Play- I could have skipped all these (though they have been very nice to have) but could not have skipped the crib. HTH!

[Pipersmamma]

DD outgrew the bassinet feature of the Pack and Play at 3mos. It was just too small for her. Never had a cradle. Don't see how you'd skip a crib. I've been shopping for a second crib for #2 expected when DD is almost 16mos old. I started looking at twin beds and the sales people were telling me that they rarely sell beds to kids under 24mos unless they are big/tall and good climbers who were excaping the crib earlier. DD is petite, so I don't think that will be an issue for us. If you have a good deal on a crib- get it! I say you'll definitely use it.

[deenass]

The only way to avoid a crib entirely is if you are planning on exclusively co-sleeping (which many people do). (Of course, some people don't plan to co-sleep and end up co-sleeping!)

A bassinet or cradle will only work until baby gets too big or starts to really move.

[kaitlinsmommy]

Right - we've mostly co-slept, so though dd slept in her crib a lot, we didn't really need it.

[fedmom]

Thanks all. I'll go ahead and snap up the crib.