We have an alt-down toddler comforter with duvet, and a little toddler pillow, also (boudoir size). It's great being able to wash the duvet. You can get them at The Company Store.

http://thesweetest3.com/

I'm interested to see what other moms have to say. Our 23 months old is still in a sleep sack, which means no kick off of covers, which we really like.

my two yr old son sleeps through the nite. ocassionaly he soaks his diaper along with all the bedding. so its really nice to wash everything. i am not planning on purchacing any type of cute covers untill he upgrades to potty trained and a twin bed. i dont really see myself washing a cover less than the entire duvet also.

I also would suggest a comforter WITH duvet. You can find great kids duvets at many places. Garnet Hill, Land of Nod, Pottery Barn Kids, Olive Kids, Company Kids all have duvet covers (some call them comforter covers) for twin sizes. I love being able to switch out the cover for the different seasons, and a duvet is easy to wash and store. I was the comforters inside every couple months.

It's my opinion that most juvenile bedding is in comforter form because of how often they change their preferences. Meaning that you would expect your 5 year old to use the carebare comforter you bought her when she was 2, just as your 10 yr old would prefer Miley Cyrus to the Strawberry Shortcake she got at 5.

I'd go for a duvet and cover, but then I have a huge hate on for licensed goods.

I felt the same way when I was looking for bedding for my son. I ended up making my own duvet cover for him, because I decided I wanted a duvet but couldn't find a cover that I liked. Its REALLY simple to make, just make sure you put ribbons on the inside corners to tie onto the corners of the duvet to keep it from bunching up., and put snaps on the bottom. I'm no sewing expert and didn't find it difficult.

If you have a bedding set that you like, you could always buy the curtains to use as fabric. I liked the Target Circles bedding, so i ended up buying a curtain and using that as the fabric for the duvet and it worked out great.

my dd is 5 now, but she just kicked all blankets off until about age 3 or so. We tried the duvet cover, even bought a fairly expensive one, but it didn't work well for us. At age 4 we tried a duvet on her twin, the comforter would bunch a little and the duvet would get twisted... probably because she is an active sleeper. I finally relented and bought a cheap comforter and threw another blanket on top. One other thought.. if you think you are going to save the comforter insert from washes, you might want to rethink. Between toddler and youth, unless you wash weekly, your comforter might be hitting the laundry for bed wetting & illness vs just getting dirty, the insert will still see lots of wash wear. At least thats our experience.

I also forgot to mention.. that we also purchased a duvet and comforter (toddler size) from the company store as well. Great quality.. but by the time she was settled enough to use it at night she was too tall to stay warm. Total waste of money for us.

while in the crib my son slept in a sleep sack. when he turned 2 we moved him to a toddler bed. we got a comforter from the dwell collection at target. no problem since. the comforter washes great. one advice i would give is that during potty training there's going to be accidents as in the case with my son and the entire comforter can get soaked so if you have a duvet cover, you'll need to wash everything.

you can definitely just slip a duvet cover on a comforter instead of a duvet. if you find it doesn't fit properly, you can either sew snaps or ribbons in it as inspiredmomma suggested, or buy little duvet clips at most home stores. they're covered in soft foam and clip the corners of the comforter/duvet inside the corner.

i also use duvet covers for my grownup bedding -- nice easy way to change the look every now and then!

IKEA has great duvets...all sizes.

If your daughter is still in a crib or toddler bed I say smaller is better too...we recently moved my three year old to her "big girl bed" (a full size) and ended up stripping off the "big girl bedding" in favor of the fitted sheet and her "little" blankets. I think all the big stuff overwhelmed her...we can always use it later.

Duvets are always my choice for the laundry factor...so much easier to deal with.

We use a twin duvet w/ cover (which I made) for both kids. No top sheet. My children both thrash around at night;We haven't had a problem with the duvet bunching up in the cover. They wash/dry extremely well every few days.
In the Winter, I add a comforter and top sheet under the duvet.

I think you can go with either option (comforter or duvet with cover) as long as they're washable.

Washable and durable are key. Between bedwetting, potty training, vomit, and all those other pleasant aspects of childhood, you want something that you can wash OFTEN. The problem with down duvets is that you can't wash them too frequently. Perhaps synthetic ones will last better? A nice cotton quilt, soft cotton blanket, flannel sheets, and cozy PJs have been warm enough for our child.

we got an inexpensive ikea comforter and a west elm twin duvee cover. love it!

Seconding the Ikea duvet and cover recommendation. They're incredibly inexpensive, so we also bought backups of both for middle-of-the-night incidents. This ended up being a very good move.

duvets are convenient for regular laundering, but if the down comforter inside the duvet cover gets wet (think blowouts or accidents or upset tummies), laundering isn't so easy. I opt for a quilt and sheets for my three year old in his twin bed (knock on wood he's never wet the bed). My 1 year old sleeps in fleece blanket sleeper which keep him cozy in his crib.

Thanks for all the great advice! I'm curious if anyone knows of a easy tutorial for making your own duvet cover with ribbons/snaps (per above recommendations). I like the idea of having a duvet cover over a comforter.

I had no idea there would be so many middle of night accidents. Oh boy....

Our 2 year old is potty trained already, but still sleeps in the crib. We don't use a comforter or a duvet. She's happy with her baby blankets and baby quilts, which are all machine washable. Don't be to quick to get "big kid bedding", it can easily overwhelm a small child. Comforters can be very heavy when you only weigh 22 lbs. ;)

I don't know of any tutorials, but I made a few duvet covers by sewing two flat sheets together on three sides. For the bottom, I put button holes across both open edges, and tied with fabric ties (you could use ribbon). Grommets and ribbon would work, too, with less sewing. Snaps are easy peasy...just hand sew them on. You can do it!! :)

Both our dd (almost 3) and our ds (15 mths) are notorious for kicking covers off and they never were fond of sleep sacs. We have an Ikea duvet cover and insert for our dd's Ikea toddler bed, but it's really just decoration at the end of her bed. She rarely even sleeps under a sheet. And our ds has never used any covers in the crib. But then the upstairs of our townhouse is a hot box so they don't really need the extra coverings.

Great question! I didn't know what to get either when our son moved up to a twin bed. I ended up buying a duvet from Ikea. Right now, though, he just sleeps with a simple blanket since he's learning how to sleep with anything at all other than pjs. When he's ready, I'll put it on the bed. I'd go with duvet.

We have a quilt on our toddler's beds. It's versatile for summer or winter. In the cold, we just add a thick, woven blanket underneath. The quilt is easy to throw in the washer too. We had duvets, but when "accidents" happen, they leak through to the comforter inside- so then you end up washing two things.

I'm all for a quilt as well. The simpler the better. Quilts and blankets are so much easier to wash than a duvet plus duvet cover. Also, then you don't have to mess with re-stuffing the duvet or comforter back into its cover and re-aligning it etc.. I don't know if it's laziness or practicality, but that is too big of a pain for me. I think the kids also find it easier to make their own beds when the pieces themselves are simpler. As far as changing the look, if you get a quilt in a plain color with just stitching for the pattern, you can change the look of the bed with pillows/pillowcases, throws etc., which is cheaper and easier than whole new bedding sets or even new covers. (Spoken by a mom of three--8, 5, and 2).

They all have their advantages...It just depends on what you want to achieve...and there are benefits to owning both a duvet AND a comforter, they are all different..how about trying a bedset made specifically for toddlers?

Kids Bedding

Here is an article explaining the advantages of duvets:

http://www.huggykidsbedding.com/blog/view/the_difference_between_a_comforter_and_duvet/

All our grannies and great-grannies quilt, so we are full up with quilts of various sizes and if it gets colder, using more than one quilt works well.

That being said, a bout of stomach flu this week had both kids sleeping together under the (quilted, of course) picnic blanket and a couple bath towels last night, as I ran yet another load of quilts through the sanitize cycle of the washing machine.

I shudder at the idea of having to undress a duvet or shove a vomit-covered comforter into the wash at 1 AM.

We use a duvet inside a duvet cover. When my son first moved into his full size bed at aged 2 he slept on top of the duvet, covered in his little blankets and gradually decided to get under his covers after a few months. If his duvet cover gets dirty in the middle of the night we have plenty of others from our adult beds which we can use at a pinch. I find duvet covers just much easier to wash frequently than quilts.