At 16months my DD was getting squashed in the cot (she's veeeeerrrry long) so a toddler bed that only took a cot mattress was not a move we were going to make.
She went straight to an ensemble but in the time between her refusing to sleep in the cot and the time we moved and bought her her new bed, she slept in a mattress on the floor.
The when I got the ensemble she went into that but with the feet off the base so it was that bit closer to the floor. She sleeps like a log and has never had a rail (nor ever fallen out whilst sleeping), but DS who's never slept in a cot only a bed needs rails as he's an acrobat.
A toddler bed seems a waste of money to me, but that's JMO.
Just posted this in another thread - so we went straight to normal bed (well is bunk bed but is normal single size but bottom bunk is actually only about 30cm or so off floor) - no rails (reasoning was rails don't go whole length of bed anyway, and at some point would have to get used to without rails)
Have just transitioned DD into a bed at 21 months in preparation for DS arriving in a couple of months. We just got bunk beds from IKEA with a trundle bed underneath, for the first month just pulled out the trundle in case she fell out (the bunk is only about 30cm from floor anyway - we decided against rails) - found her on the trundle asleep a few times, and now don't even pull that out - sometimes her legs are dangling out, but she has fallen out of a slightly higher bed while on holiday and didn't even wake up. She loves her new bed and has gone to bed better than did in cot - we lay down next to her and read three stories then kiss her and teddies and say good night leave room and thats it. We haven't found her wandering about overnight, but DH did discover her in our room once when she was meant to be having a day nap - I use the monitor still so I can hear her if she wakes up, and normally I get up if it sounds like she gets out of bed (often I hear her 'reading' to herself in the morning). I ask her in the morning if she has slept well, she always says yes and really seems to like it - she is often laying across the bed or upside down etc though, but I just cover her back up with the doona before I go to bed.
We put DS1 on a mattress on the floor before he went into a normal sized bed. DS2 went straight into a normal sized bed but he never slept in a cot so it wasn't much of a change for him.
We took DD out of the cot around 14-16 months and did the mattress on the floor thing for a few weeks. She's now in (my old) king single with a rail. The bed is pretty low and I think I could probably get away with taking the rail off as she doesn't actually sleep anywhere near that edge, buuut I can't bring myself to yet, just 'incase'.
Our decision was based on money/practicality really, we didn't see the point of buying a little person bed that she'll outgrow in a few years, when ideally, the KS could last her into her teens.
We bought DD a toddler bed when Target had them on sale a little while back. We got a sweet, simple white one for $75 (that was half the normal price), and she just loves it! We were able to lift her cot mattress straight out of the cot, and put it on the bed with the same sheets etc that she'd had, so that there was some familiarity to it - and she slept pretty much the same as she had been in the cot.
I never thought I would go for the toddler bed - figured I'd just buy a normal single bed and put her straight in to that when we were ready - but in the end, she started trying to climb out earlier than I expected, and the Toddler bed was a better solution for us as it fits in the same space her cot used to. By the time this next bubba is ready to go in to the cot (and therefore need the cot mattress back from DD1) it will be nearly Christmas, and we will have a better idea of how we'll fit us all in our house. lol.
I think if you get a good deal on them they're worth it - but it's hard to know. If you have the room, the option of putting the single mattress on the floor isn't a bad one if you're worried about her falling out of bed.
We've just gone straight to a single bed at 20 months. We already had the bed so there was no decision really. I like the extra width a full size bed gives over the cot/toddler bed size as DS tends to do circle work in his sleep we have put a bed rail on and it's all good so far.
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