What was supposed to be a routine check on a sleeping toddler quickly turned into a full-blown parenting scare for one mother after she discovered that her little boy had silently broken free from his crib without anyone noticing. The whole adventure was captured on a baby monitor camera, and the footage left his parents completely bewildered. Jamie Brough, a 35-year-old mother from West Yorkshire, England, had put her then 22-month-old son to bed just like any other evening, with no reason to suspect the night would unfold any differently. What she didn’t know was that her little boy had other plans entirely.
Brough told Newsweek that her son had been sleeping in his own room since he was six months old and had never really caused much trouble at bedtime. “He didn’t always love going to sleep, but he would always settle himself quickly and preferred to be in his crib. He’s not one that needs to be rocked or cuddled to sleep,” she explained. That particular evening, however, the toddler didn’t cry or call out for his parents. Instead, he quietly climbed out of his crib and walked straight into his parents’ bedroom, where his father found him just standing there. It wasn’t until the family reviewed the baby monitor footage that they fully understood what had gone down.
Brough’s first instinct when she saw the footage was pure relief, quickly followed by anxiety. “My first reaction was, ‘Thank God he didn’t hurt himself,’ and then I was immediately anxious thinking about what could have happened,” she shared. The family eventually laughed about it, but in the moment, the shock was very real. She also shared the escape video on TikTok, where it quickly gained attention, showing the toddler’s nighttime jailbreak alongside footage of his new sleeping setup.
@jamiebrough1990 a baby with willpower 🥴 bed time, no thanks 🤣
♬ The Benny Hill Show – The Edwin Davids Jazz Band
Rather than transitioning her son to a toddler bed, Brough decided he simply wasn’t ready for that step yet, especially since he still woke up periodically through the night. Instead, she turned to the internet and ordered a mesh crib tent, which fits over the mattress inside the crib and zips shut from the outside so small hands cannot open it. While waiting for it to arrive, she used a sleep sack as a temporary fix to limit her son’s leg movement and prevent him from hoisting himself over the crib rails. Once the tent arrived, it worked like a charm.
Brough said the whole system has been “working brilliantly” and recommends it to any parents whose kids are going through a crib-escaping phase but aren’t yet ready for a big-kid bed. Bedtime has also gotten even smoother thanks to an audio player her son received as a Christmas gift, which he uses to listen to stories each night. He often drifts off within five minutes, safely tucked inside his mesh tent without any drama. The combination of the two solutions transformed what had been a stressful situation into a peaceful, predictable bedtime routine.
It’s worth knowing that most toddlers begin attempting to climb out of their cribs somewhere between 18 and 24 months of age, which is also around the time their motor skills and curiosity peak. Pediatric sleep experts generally advise parents to lower the crib mattress to its lowest setting as soon as a child starts showing signs of climbing, and to use sleep sacks as a way to restrict the range of motion needed to swing a leg over the rail. Mesh crib tents have grown in popularity as a middle-ground option for parents who want to delay the transition to a toddler bed, though experts recommend ensuring any product used meets current safety standards. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that the timing of moving a child to a toddler bed should be based on developmental readiness rather than age alone, and that every child is different in how they respond to that change.
If your toddler has pulled off a similar nighttime escape or you’ve found a creative solution that worked for your family, share your experience in the comments.
