Play pens - what age are they 'suitable' up til?

[jenny260906]

Hi, I'm thinking of buying a play pen (a large wooden one). My son is currently 10months old and is crawling - what age do they tend to last til? ie. til what age would he be 'happy' in one?

we are moving house in 2 weeks so one would be ideal during that time to keep him safe. But i'm just wondering if its going to be a waste of money aftwewards? would he get much use out of it?

Thanks.

have you not a travel cot that will do during the move?

if not the Babydan folding one you can use as a room divider etc later is probably better value tha a huge wooden thing.

We use the Babydan playpen, have done for all my kids. Never used the travel cot as a playpen as I never wanted him to associate it with "playtime"...we used it a lot at my mums.
As to how long I used them for, I just stopped using it for the eldest two when they got to about 2 or 2 1/2...by this age they had usually worked out how to open the gate or climbed out of it! Still using it at the mo for my 21 mth old, it's a life save as our kitchen is so small there is no way i can have him in there when i am working!
hth

The Babydan one is good cos you can use it as a room divider, as has been mentioned, and you can also get a tent thing to go over it to make it a play house.

Babydan tent for playpen

my babydan alsted until about 18 mnths, by which time they had learned to climb out of it.

We had a lovely 2ndhand wooden one but he was very cross at being put in it from 11 months onwards - at this age (unless you are planning more kids & have storage) I wouldn't splash out.

18

can you just make one room safe and put a stairgate on the door.

bought my sisters travel cot/play pen from her (she hardly used it and its like new)when dd was almost one because we were going away for the weekend. its a folding gracco cot. wasn't very expensive when sister bought it new. its fantastic, put loads of toys in it for dd and she will sit and play whilst i get my jobs done, she has occasional naps in it too. don't really know what age it is up to although my sister says about 2 years. anyway it was money well spent.