?? Regarding Kids: At what age?

[zwieback]

At what age did you start giving your kid(s) foods such as, raw carrots and apples?

Also, at what age did your kid(s) go from the crib to a big kid's bed?

DD is 1 1/2 and I feel she's still too young for these but, I'm just curious.

If anyone else has an "at what age" question feel free to post, too. I'm sure I can stand to learn more.

Thanks.

[DeeK]

I think a lot of these questions truly depend on your child. As for the raw, crunchy foods you have to consider how many teeth your child has and if they are a food "stuffer". Carrots, broccoli, apple, etc....can easily be choked on if they stuff too many in there.

The crib ---- does she climb out where she might fall and get hurt? Or is she happy there? Do you need the crib for the next baby? Our son stayed in a crib until he got his knee caught in the bar .....I'm thinking he was 2?

Driving ....most kids want to at 16. My kid just got his license at 22 (his choice).

So, while looking at what other folks do can be helpful, it ultimately comes down to what is best for your individual child and what you feel is right at the time. (Just an old mom's humble opinions. )

[Peggy]

I can't remember the age of raw carrots and apples with DD.

The "Big Girl Bed" was probably not until 2 1/2 to 3. She was a big climber or adventurer.

Driving - My DD just turned 16 and she only has her permit. We had to fit private Driver's Ed in over the summer because it wouldn't fit in her regular school schedule. She will be closer to 16 1/2 before she gets her license.

Peggy

[LaraW]

My DD is 22 months, and she eats apple slices but not raw carrots. I just peel and slice the apples pretty thin, and she does fine. But, she has always been a fairly eager eater.

She still sleeps in a crib, but we will be transitioning her out of it within the next couple of months, as we need it for a new baby. I'm fairly nervous about that, since she sleeps well in it, and is happy to be in there. We'll see - I guess they can't stay in there forever!

My plan is that she will get her "big girl room" around the time of her birthday (early Dec) and we will have her start taking her naps on the big girl bed, and do that for a couple of weeks. Then, maybe around early January we will have her start sleeping at night in there.

[ChristineVA]

I can't remember the raw veggies/fruit age--probably when they had a good amount of teeth.

The crib: can you believe that both of my kids were almost 4 years old before they went to a bed!! They loved their crib and neither ever tried to climb out of it. My DD was about 3 1/2 and she was "pushed" out by the arrival of DS. My DS was about 4 when I got so embarrassed that I got him a bed.

[zwieback]

Thanks for the responses. I know every kid is different. My daughter didn't start crawling until she was about 10 months old. I had so many people asking me around 6 months if she was crawling yet. Shortly after she started crawling, she just started walking! So, I agree that not every kid is going to take to certain things at a specific age. I'm mainly just curious. As for the raw, crunchy foods, DD is a "stuffer" for sure. She'll take one of those Ritz sandwich crackers (it's probably about the size of a 50 cent piece, maybe a tad bit smaller) and stuff the whole thing in her mouth before I can stop her.

LaraW -- I hope your daughter transitions well into her new bed. I'm sure once she sees it, she'll be excited about it. I think your idea of taking naps a couple of times a week in the new bed is great. I'll have to remember that once we do the transition.

ChristineVA -- Your kids were almost 4 before they transitioned to a big bed?! Wow. I hope to have another kid before DD is 4 but, she's definitely not a climber (although, I caught her once trying to climb over the gate on our steps) and she's a great sleeper. So, if she prefers the crib, I guess we'll let her sleep there until she's ready to leave or until we have another kid -- or until we get embarrassed.

Thanks again, everyone, for your responses.

[LaraW]

LaraW -- I hope your daughter transitions well into her new bed. I'm sure once she sees it, she'll be excited about it. I think your idea of taking naps a couple of times a week in the new bed is great. I'll have to remember that once we do the transition.

Yea, you know what they say about the best laid plans....

Who knows, maybe it will be better to just go cold turkey. Mainly what I want to avoid is her feeling kicked out of her room by the new baby. I guess we'll just have to see. The new baby is due Jan 23.

[lhall]

We moved both our DD's into big girl beds (twin) when they turned 2. With DD1 it was partly becuase we wanted a second child and didn't want to have DD1 feel 'kicked out' of her room. Both girls did great. We let them go into their big beds on a weekend in case the transition didn't go well. Neither one of my girls every climbed out of their cribs. We moved DD2 at age 2 because that's when we moved DD1.

I want to say the girls were closer to 3, if not 3 already, when we started with raw carrots, and even then we watched them closely. Apples we did earlier, like LaraW does, because they are softer than carrots.


Leigh

[stacy7272]

I, too, was embarrassed about when I moved DS into a big bed....5!! Well, a couple of days before his 5th birthday. We had him in a toddler bed when he was about 2 1/2 though. His feet were touching the bottom by the time we got the big bed so I felt really bad.

Now DD is in the toddler bed and my trick is to put a body pillow next to the bed in case she falls off. It has helped DD twice now. When DS moved into the toddler bed (it is a crib with the side removed - not a small bed with guard rails) we heard that horrible thump and then the cries when he fell out but with DD we don't even know she has fallen out - she'll just sleep on the floor since she didn't get hurt. Actually seeing her sleeping on the floor is the only way we know she's fallen out.

[RunnerKim]

We moved Lainey in to a toddler bed when she was 2. We were also planning to have another child soon and wanted her out of the crib in plenty of time to not associate the crib as hers. No problems with her going to the bed. Sometime later she did start making regular visits to us in the middle of the night but we've (for the most part) gotten past that. We will probably move Lainey to a twin sized bed when Jamie is about 2 and ready for the toddler bed (they share a room right now so it's nice to have the smaller toddler bed).

Hmmm - Lainey does eat raw carrots now and she just turned 3. I can't say for sure when she first got one? I know I started with carrot shavings. They're not high on her preferred list so she doesn't eat them that much. Apples she does eat and has for some time. I slice them in wedges and she eats them like a watermellon so doesn't eat the skin (I wish she would though). I remember distinctly a mom sharing an apple with her wobbler - just over a year - both eating off the whole apple. She did this often and the girl did fine with it. I haven't cut Lainey's grapes for ages either. She seems to do fine with it. She eats at the table (or in her car seat) 99.9% of the time so is not moving around while eating. Our large dog helps to enforce this

Kim

[zwieback]

I think falling out of the bed is inevitable for kids. I remember when I was a kid, I had the bottom bed of a trundle bed. It had sides (several inches higher than the mattress). Somehow, I managed to fall out of it.

[mrswaz]

My kids both were enjoying apples and carrots by their first birthdays- but they had full mouths of teeth. I think that would be the primary concern for hard foods is that the teeth are there to do the work. A great source of car entertainment for us,seriously, was an apple. We would give both kids whole apples as soon as they could start gnawing on them,(and hold them steady) it would keep them busy for a good hour of travel if we were lucky. That still works for DS who is nearly 21 months old.

As for the bed...We moved DD to a big girl bed when she was 18 months old. She was a tall girl, and while she never tried climbing out, it was a concern for me. DS was much earlier. HE was in the big boy bed before his first birthday. Another size issue for me. He would flop around so much in bed at night that he would whack himself on the crib sides. So we moved him up. At the time, DH had built his bed, so he was able to give it little sides that he wouldn't roll out of bed- but I've seen those screen-things that you strap onto the bed to prevent rolling out.

[TwinMom]

Our girls went to a "big" bed a few months past 3 yo. We went to just the mattress on the floor for several months and then to the bed frame. They never fell out and respected the freedom a bed had as well. We didn't use bed rails either.

As far as raw apples/carrots, etc... good advice, depends on the child. I think mine were pretty young because they have always liked textured foods. I would guess they were around a year or a bit older. I'm pretty sure they didn't have their molars yet, but had their incisors so they could take bites. I did cut the carrots into very thin matchsticks and the apples in small chunks/slices. That way if they did take more than they should, choking wasn't as big a concern than if they were big pieces. We also did the carrot shavings as well in the beginning. I used a veggie peeler to do this.

[Kristilyn1]

we moved both our boys into toddler beds when they were 18 mos. It took about 3 -4 nights to get them to stay in it with no problems. Neither ever tried to crawl out of their cribs. I remember the pediatrician saying the recommendation is when the rails of the crib are lower than their armpits while standing up, they are too big for the crib (the danger is that their substantial head weight can propel them over the bars). The other reason we moved them is that they both managed to get their legs wedged in between the bars.....while sleeping, who knows how.

Kristi

[hollysmom]

Holly went to Toddler Bed at 3 and big bed at 5 (needed crib mattress for Robin). She sleeps in a Captain's bed-type thing from Ikea with bed rails (she's 4 feet off of the ground - storage under the bed).

Robin is a 'spinner' so she has been in a big bed since she was 2-1/2. The Toddler bed just wasn't big enough for her nightly gyrations and she kept waking herself up when she would hit the wall (or whatever was protecting her from the wall).

Both my girls had lots of teeth really early so I think we were gnawing on carrots pretty early.

SSM

[BarbaraL]

DD went into a regular bed just before she turned 2. I hadn't planned to move her out of the crib so soon, but she "insisted." She attended day care, where she napped on a cot, so she was used to being out of a crib. Then, a relative broke up his home, and I obtained a twin-size bed for her. We moved it into her room because we had nowhere else to put it, and thought we'd use it to sit on and read stories, etc. Once it was in her room, she wouldn't sleep in the crib anymore. I actually moved her back into the crib after she'd fallen asleep in the bed, and was she mad when she woke up in the crib!

[Blissful_in_TX]

DS is also 1 1/2 and believe it or not, this is the first week he's slept in his crib! He went from his swing, to his hammock, to my arms in the recliner, back to his hammock, the pack n' play, to a regular bed, and now finally to the crib! (He's always been a problem sleeper.) He hasn't tried crawling out yet, but if he does it will be back to the regular bed (with sleep rails). I want to keep him in his crib as long as possible b/c when he's in the regular bed he he just crawls out and explores whenever he feels like it.

[rosie_one]

My kids were different from each other. DS was kind of a climber/explorer type. We ended up putting a chain lock on the outside of his door. I know, that sounds weird, but one night DH was headed for bed about midnight and found DS opening the front door, prepared to go out for a stroll!! Yikes. He was in a big bed before 2 (i can't remember exactly when anymore) as he was making us nervous scaling down the crib bars. Oh, and DS was a crib jumper too! He literally crashed the twinky crib my in-laws bought for their place. Thank goodness he wasn't hurt! Scared us though.

DD would have stayed in her crib for a long time. At 3 1/2 we finally convinced her to try the big bed and it took her a long time to get used to it. The bed was in her room, she played on it all the time, but just didn't want to sleep there.

Apples happened earlier than carrots. I think my kids were closer to 3 when we did raw carrots, but they were late teethers and not excited about hard foods.

So, older kid question... how old when you leave them alone for the first time? Not overnight, but an hour to go to the grocery or for a walk around the neighborhood. 9? 10? 11?

[sharfow]

i put my son into a bed BEFORE he learned to climb out of his crib, if i recall he was around 2 - 2 1/2. We put the mattress right on the floor so if he fell out (onto the rug) he would not get hurt. He did not know he could climb out of bed, so he didn't....I tucked him in every night, read him a bedtime story, and he stayed there til i got him up in the morning. ( i worked, so most days it was before 7) By the time he was a bit older, he knew he could get out of his bed, and play IN his room if he got up, but not leave his bedroom. [/FONT]