How to Move a Co-Sleeping Toddler Into Their Own Bed

Transitioning to a toddler bed is a big change for the kid, and frustratingly slow for the parents. Patience is essential.

Co-sleeping with a toddler divides public opinion (and parents) despite being a common feature of most cultures around the world. What’s less controversial is the parental impulse to kick the kid out and transition to a toddler bed. But ending a co-sleeping arrangement can be very upsetting for a child. After all, it’s a big change for a kid who is used to the comfort of kicking their parents all night. So if the bedtime story isn’t sending them to sleep, parents will need to do something else to help ease the transition to toddler bed.

“Start by talking about them getting a bed in their own room,” recommends Dr. Roseanne Lesack, a licensed psychologist, board-certified analyst, and director of a child psychology unit at Nova Southeastern University. “Have them be a part of that process.”

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Parents should make it clear to the kid what getting their own room means and let them help pick out the bed, the bedding, and the transitional objects that can help them self-soothe. Then, when it comes time for the toddler to actually sleep in that bed, the real sleep training begins. It’s a slow process and it has to be in order to preserve the trust kids have in their parents.

The first night, a parent should sit on the bed with the child after the bedtime ritual, and stay there until the child falls asleep. Even with the comforting presence of a parent, the first night may be restless. After the child falls asleep, the parent can leave. Once the child is used to that, the parent moves farther away, perhaps to the edge of the bed, and stays until the child falls asleep. After the child is used to that, the parent can stand next to the bed, and so on. The point is to take small steps away from the kid and toward the door, and let them adjust to each change, until the final step: leaving the room.

“There are a million ways of dividing up these steps to be smaller for your child,” says Lesack. “It’s really based on what your child needs and what your family is comfortable doing.”

It’s a technique called fading, and it usually works – as long as parents take the time to let the child become acclimated to each new situation.

“Before going on to that next step, I would have three nights in a row of success,” advises Lesack. “Success is when the child is not upset, is not crying, and falls asleep within a normal time frame. I wouldn’t move further away if the child is upset.”

Falling asleep is probably less of an issue for the child than waking up in the middle of the night alone. When that happens, it’s okay to enter the room, but try to repeat the bedtime process. If the kid fell asleep with Dad halfway across the room, Dad should return to that spot until the child self-soothes and falls asleep again.

The final step may be the most difficult. That can be mitigated by leaving the room for a set period of time, and then returning until the child falls asleep. Start with three minutes. Once the kid can handle that, up it to five. Eventually the child will fall asleep when the parent is out in the hall. And that’s when the transition is complete.

“If you fade yourself out slow enough, there shouldn’t be any crying,” says Lesack. “If there is long, dramatic crying, or problem behavior, you either have to decrease that step, or consider the possibility that your child isn’t ready to give up co-sleeping.”

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