Toddlers and Baby Pillows

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by: frankwarehouse
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Word Count: 592
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 Time: 4:06 PM
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My first child happily slept in her crib until she was almost 3. The only reason we moved her to a normal bed was because her baby brother arrived. We did not even think about baby pillows and blankets. She happily slept snugly in a sleep sack and pajamas. She could not swing her legs over the rail, while wearing the sleep sack. I dont know that she would have anyway, as she was so happy in there. When we moved her to her bed, there was no drama. After getting her used to the big bed with a few naps, we transitioned her to nighttime too. We made the bed like we would for an adult. She had two pillows and a big comforter. Because she was almost 3, we did not have to mess with those little baby pillows or toddler pillows.
My son decided not to follow the crib path his sister did. Early on, he learned to unzip his sleep sack. Swinging his leg up on the rail became a regular exercise. He was happy to just do that exercise for months and months. Until one night, when he climbed out of the crib entirely and walked to greet me at the door. We immediately took the crib mattress out of the crib and set it up on the floor.
We had a lot more challenges introducing him to a bed than we did when we did the same with his older sister. Since he was so young, it was not an easy transition. He wasnt even 2 years old yet. So he would not hurt himself, we had to take a lot of things out of his room. Another parent recommended putting a gate on the bedroom door, which turned out to be incredibly helpful. There were many nights and nap times, when he would stubbornly sit in the middle of his wood floor and fall asleep sitting up. It took about a week to make the transition.
He was digging his new bed when people started doling out the advice. "Oh, he is not old enough to be sleeping in a big bed." "He could get into trouble, since he does not know better. "He is too young for a big blanket and pillow." Wait. What? He is old enough to crawl out of a crib, but not old enough to use a pillow? What about a baby pillow? So I hopped online to check out the age recommendations. Indeed, it is NOT recommended that you give children under the age of 2 any pillows or heavy blankets. Most of what I read says you can introduce those things around age 2 or when the child moves to a big bed.
Since my son was not yet 2, I decided to follow the advice and start with one of those baby pillows. It was the size of an airline pillow and did not look very useful to me. It did not look like our pillows, so I think my son thought it was something else. I think the need to put a pillow and bedding on his bed was due to my own notion of what a bed is supposed to look like. We waited about a month, until my son was totally comfortable in his bed. Then we put pillows and a comfy blanket on his bed. He loved sitting up with the pillows and snuggling like he did in our bed. He was happy to not have that little tiny baby pillow for his head too.

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