Megan Barth?s daughter, Emery, was just 16 months old when she first scaled the bars of her crib and hopped down to the floor, all without injury.
?She climbed out with her sleep sack on. The only reason I noticed was I looked at the baby monitor camera at around six, when she normally wakes up, and she wasn?t in her crib. She was just quietly looking at some books in the corner,? recalls Barth. ?I thought, I?m not ready for this.? 
Emery was definitely on the young side for mastering the crib escape. ?Most kids are pretty good in their cribs until their second birthday,? says paediatrician Michael Dickinson, president of the Canadian Paediatric Society. ?Somewhere between age two and three is when they often start being able to manoeuvre out.? When kids start developing the motor skills to get themselves out of their cribs, they risk slipping and banging their heads on the floor or otherwise hurting themselves on the way down. That?s why Jennifer Garden, a registered occupational therapist and the founder of Vancouver sleep consultancy Sleepdreams, suggests moving the mattress to its lowest setting as soon as your kid is pulling himself to stand, to deter him from ?vaulting? out. She also recommends putting a soft mat or rug next to the crib to help cushion a fall. Don?t forget that an escape-artist kid is also free to go where she pleases once she?s out?so if her room isn?t toddler-proofed or you haven?t been gating the top of the hallway stairs, now is the time.

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