Baby Pillows and Blankets

My first child happily slept in her crib until she was almost 3. The only reason we moved her to a normal bed was because her baby brother arrived. While she was in the crib, we did not have to worry about things like baby pillows and blankets. She happily slept snugly in a sleep sack and pajamas. She could not swing her legs over the rail, while wearing the sleep sack. She was so happy in the crib, I dont think she would have even if she was not wearing one. When we moved her to her bed, there was no drama. She took a couple naps there, then we moved her to the bed for nighttime, as well. It was a full size bed in a beautiful wooden frame. She had two pillows and a big comforter. We did not bother with one of those little baby pillows. We went straight to normal pillows.
My son was an entirely different story. He learned how to unzip his sleep sack shortly after his first birthday. Swinging his leg up on the rail became a regular exercise. For months and months, that is as far as he would go. Until one night, when he climbed out of the crib entirely and walked to greet me at the door. We immediately took the crib mattress out of the crib and set it up on the floor.
We had a lot more challenges introducing him to a bed than we did when we did the same with his older sister. Since he was so young, it was not an easy transition. He was a couple months shy of his second birthday. So he would not hurt himself, we had to take a lot of things out of his room. We also put a gate on the door, which was the best advice we received. There were many nights and nap times, when he would stubbornly sit in the middle of his wood floor and fall asleep sitting up. It took about a week to make the transition.
He was digging his new bed when people started doling out the advice. "He is too young to be out of his crib." "He could get into trouble, since he does not know better. "Do not use pillows and bedding." Say What? He is old enough to crawl out of a crib, but not old enough to use a pillow? What about a baby pillow? Being an overly cautious mom, I checked in our medical baby books and online. Indeed, it is NOT recommended that you give children under the age of 2 any pillows or heavy blankets. Once a child is 2 or they move to a big bed, you can introduce them then.
Since my son was not yet 2, I decided to follow the advice and start with one of those baby pillows. It was so small, like an airline pillow, and I hardly saw the point. It did not look like our pillows, so I think my son thought it was something else. My son did not seem to need pillows or bedding; it was just my need to make it look like a normal bed that kept bugging me. We finally put pillows and a comforter on his bed after about a month. He seemed to enjoy having a big bed with all the accessories. And he actually used the pillows for his head, so he was happy to have a normal pillow instead of that baby pillow.