How to Build a Baby Playpen: A Comprehensive Guide

Do you know how to enter a baby's world?

In the first 0-3 months of life, babies have a vague sense of the world, and it's a slow learning process from sight to feeling!

That's why building a safe, learning enclosure environment is so important to your infant's development and growth!

What is the purpose of a playpen?

• Freeing up parents' hands for a short period of time

         When you are dealing with busy daily chores, taking care of a baby can seem like a time crunch and most parents provide a safe space for baby to take care of their child. When you need to clean the house, cook, do the laundry or anything else, this is where a baby enclosure comes into play!

• Promote Infant Exploration and Learning

         The baby fence can be enclosed into different space sizes, babies can play in this space, continue to explore the objects and toys in this space, in the slow learning and exploration, gradually find more fun and healthy and happy growth.

• Provides a sense of security and freedom

A baby enclosure is restrictive for an adult, but it's a great safe place for babies to play. When your baby is playing in a familiar setting, he or she will be able to play with the toys in his or her hands as he or she sees fit, and won't be able to bump into a table or wall, or be accidentally injured by other pets in the house as he or she might in other situations.
As you can imagine, children are free to use their imaginations and focus on what interests them most in an undisturbed space, where they are free to explore, learn and master new tasks at their own pace.

However, in real life, we often encounter infants who encounter various accidents resulting in injuries. For example, a series of accidents often occur when infants accidentally bump into table legs while playing.

How to build a playpen for a baby？

Before buying a baby playpen, you must know this.

There are five main types of baby fence materials on the market: EVA, EPE, PVC, XPE. According to the shape of the style of the main three categories: splicing type, the whole type, folding type.

• Styles: mainly four-side fences (full enclosure fences), single-side fences and portable fences

1. Material:

• EVA material: the worst hit by the toxic substance formamide, long-term excessive exposure will cause irreversible damage to the baby;
• EPE material: softness, resilience is poor, and flammable;
• PVC material: the disadvantage is water absorption, once the internal water will be difficult to discharge, in addition to the price is more expensive;
• XPE material: better overall performance and more cost-effective than PVC.
• Patchwork Style: Easy to store and adjust the size freely, but the seams of the patchwork are easy to hide dirt and are easily damaged by babies;
• Integral Style: No seams, not easy to hide dirt and better care, but can't be folded for easy storage;
• Folding Style: The advantages and disadvantages lie between the first two types, and the current market is relatively niche.
  

2.The advantages and disadvantages of different materials

        2.1 Wooden

• Advantages: better transparency and wear resistance, the surface is easy to sanding gloss, do not need additional paint to brighten.
• Disadvantages: hard and bulky texture, not easy to store, move, but also not moisture-proof.

• Pros: better wear resistance, easy to polish the surface gloss.
• Disadvantages: metal fences are generally heavier, not easy to store and move.

• Advantages: moderate elasticity, waterproof and moisture-proof, lightweight. Rich shape and color, stable structure, cost-effective.
• Disadvantages: poor permeability.

• Pros: soft, portable and easy to store.
• Disadvantages: pure cloth is easy to bend and the structure is not stable; supported by V- and X-shaped rods, there is a risk of pinching hands and head. The overall weight is light and the protection ability is relatively weak.

• Advantages: soft, portable and easy to store.
• Disadvantages: Pure cloth is easy to bend, the structure is not stable; the overall weight is light, the protection ability is relatively weak.

• Advantages: soft, drop-proof, lightweight and versatile.
• Disadvantages: closed space, poor permeability, the structure is not stable enough.

On the whole, the children's play fence made of plastic is the most ideal. At present, most of the four-sided fences on the market are mainly made of plastic, using the blow molding process, and the raw materials are basically BPA-free HDPE and PP.

Size:

you can choose according to the size of the family, the largest size can choose to customized.

Price:

$80-$2000

Duration of use:

different material fences use different lengths of time.

The most important safety issues to focus on

The first thing that moms and dads need to focus on when picking out a choice of enclosure for their baby is safety.

⚠️You can pay special attention to these points:

• Check to see if the fence has been certified by JPMA, ATSM and other professional organizations.
• JPMA (Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association) and ATSM (American Society for Testing and Materials) certified products indicate that the fence meets the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) standards, which will give mom and dad more peace of mind in terms of safety.

• The height of the fence should ideally be higher than 24-26 inches (62-70 centimeters). If it is too low, the baby may "break out" and climb out of the fence.
• It's best to avoid fences with round holes. Vertical bars are safer.
• If it is a wooden vertical bar fence, it is best if the width of the inner seam of each vertical bar is no more than 2-3 / 8 inches (5.08 cm). So that your baby's head doesn't get stuck.
• If it's a mesh fence, the mesh holes should ideally be no larger than 1/4 inch (0.6 cm) in diameter. That is, the denser and smaller the mesh holes will be better to prevent baby's fingers or small buttons on clothing from getting caught.
• The edges of the enclosure should be rounded and smooth, without sharp corners, otherwise the baby may bump into it and get hurt.
• The bottom of the fence is best to have non-slip tape or a separate support corner reinforced design (such as the following picture), the two pieces of the fence connection to ensure that it is relatively tight, not easy to fall apart, or fence in case of fall apart or fall, smashed into the baby will not be good.
• Some fences will be designed with a safety lock on/off gate, and it's best to have the safety lock on/off switch out of the baby's reach. In fact, most safety locks are usually designed near the top of the fence or on the outside so that the baby usually won't be able to reach it.

Baby playpen details shopping advice

• look at the height of the side panels: the shortest piece of the side panels or the vertical distance between the lowest point of the foot point and the upper end of the side panels needs to be more than 62cm.
• touch the fence texture: thick fence is not easy to be pushed over, better protection, soft and hard moderate, not easy to knock the baby.
• Look at the way of reinforcement: gear-type pins do not need to use plywood to be able to stabilize, and can be spelled out in more shapes.
• Look at the non-slip way: suction cup fence grip, but in the mat on the non-slip ability is poor; silicone cushion strip fence is more suitable to put on the mat.
• Look at the holes: choose the holes with high openings, or the bottom of the straight bar fence, the fewer the better.
• Look at the screws: the fewer the better, if you buy a fence with more screws, you can tighten the screws as far as possible, so that the screw head is fully sunk into the holes, and then sealed with protective stickers.
• Look at the locking method: double buckle is the best, pull the bolt second, buckle is easier to open.
• See if there are structural defects: small parts, small gaps, sharp edges, should be carefully looked at one by one.

To summarize: just remember these four things when choosing a baby fence:

"Is the material safe?" , babies are exposed to gnawing in the enclosure and need environmentally safe materials;

"Is it comfortable enough?" , a comfortable crawling mat will allow the baby to create good crawling conditions;

"Is it durable?" , determines the service life of the crawling mat, after all, the crawling mat is required to use a relatively long period of time;

"Is it good to clean?" , baby contact more, naturally need to go often to clean, keep clean.

Within a safe budget, buy the baby enclosure that can solve the needs of the moment!