Will our spirited 9 m.o. tolerate being in a pen?

[Pitarou]

I'm looking for the experience of parents who bought fencing to make a baby pen. Did their kid play their happily, or scream the roof off?

This is my first post on Mumsnet. I actually live in Japan, but the Mum's forums in the UK are much friendlier than in Japan.

Our 9 month old DD is what Tracy Hogg calls a "Spirited Baby". She knows what she wants, and she raises hell if she doesn't get it. She's full of energy and into everything she can lay her hands on. The only exception is when she's out and about meeting new people; then she turns quiet and reserved.

We urgently need to baby-proof our flat properly, and we have two options. The first is to buy some fencing and create a play pen in the living room. Just throw in some toys and leave her to get on with it. You get the idea

The alternative is to buy some gates to fence off the most dangerous areas, keep monitoring her, and hope for the best.

Of course, we prefer the pen. But will our DD tolerate it? Or will she scream the roof off the instant she realises she's been put in the brig? Like I said, she's a very spirited baby, so this is a real concern.

We tried taking her to the home of a friend who has a baby pen. She didn't make a fuss in the pen there, but that doesn't tell us much: she's much quieter when strangers are around.

Many thanks for your advice.

No one here can tell if your baby will like a pen, you just have to get one and see. I think they are really useful for when you need to put them somewhere safe while y nip to the loo, answer the door or whatever

Thanks, Dame Diazepam.

You've inspired us to take a different approach. We're going to try putting her in a cot at night first.

She currently sleeps on a traditional Japanese sleeping mat next to her Mum and Dad, with little to stop her crawling around the bedroom. We can buy a second-hand cot cheaply, and see if she can be reconciled to losing her freedom in the bedroom. If she can, we'll go ahead and buy the pen.

Don't know how your baby will tolerate it, but my spirited DS2 coped pretty well with his up until the point where he learnt how to climb out of it at about 18m. I had a 2" thick foam mat in there for comfort (and it helps stop the pen from moving across the floor), and toys - and once he could sit up etc., I put in a cushion for him to rest on.

I also had the kitchen fenced off as well, in fact it still is, because it's an open plan house and I have a gas oven and DS2 is a knob-pusher. No doors on the kitchen = big problem. Ds2 is now 2.8y old and I'm not entirely sure how much longer I'll need the fence, but I've no immediate plans to take it down!

DS2 never slept in a cot though. Just didn't take to it at all, screamed his heart out when I put him in there. So I wouldn't take that as being a good guideline for your DD coping with a playpen! Playpens are generally a lot bigger than a cot anyway, so less "fenced in". My playpen was actually a home-made construction from 4 cot sides, so it was double the size of a standard cot.

If it didn't work, I'm sure you'd be able to sell it on quite easily though.

Thanks, ThumbWitches, that's exactly the kind of data I needed.

I guess that also explains why it's easy to buy a second-hand cot here, but hard to get hold of a second-hand pen.

A lot of people here use a travel cot as a pen so you could try that of they have them in Japan.

You could try a paddling pool as a playpen if they're easier to get hold of than a playpen. Baby might like it because it's a different texture.