I’ve mentioned a few times lately that Toby is well and truly on the move. He has been commando crawling for a few weeks now and is really fast when he sees something he wants! This meant that it really wasn’t safe to leave him on his own any more – which was starting to be a problem when I was on my own with him during the day. Unless he was in his highchair or upstairs in his cot I couldn’t even leave him to go to the loo! So, we needed a play pen, and we were delighted when the lovely people at Lindam said they could send us one.

The Details

Lindam make two different play pens; one metal and one fabric. We chose the Safe & Secure Metal Play Pen which has an RRP of £94.49 (It is available for less than this – at the time of writing you can get it from Tesco for £65). The play pen has six panels (one of which has a gate in it) and can be used as either a free standing play pen, which can be rectangular or hexagonal, or attached to the walls and used as a room divider or multi-panel safety gate. The play pen also comes with a padded hexagonal mat with ties into the bottom.

The Pros

• The play pen was very easy to set up. It was simply a case of clipping the sections together and then tightening up each joint with the allen key which was in the box. It would also be easy to take the play pen down again and it folds up relatively small if you wanted to take it on holiday or store it.
• The play pen is a great size. It measures 125cm at the widest point and there is plenty of room inside for Toby to have some toys and roll and wriggle around without it taking up the whole of our living room.
• The included mat is a great addition. It makes it nice and comfy inside the play pen and it is machine washable which is fantastic for us as Toby is in a very dribbly phase at the moment! We’ve hung our other play mat over the side of the play pen as it’s nice and colourful (and also stops Toby playing with the plug socket switches on that wall!)
• The gate is easy to open and close one handed.
• The play pen is very sturdy – there’s no danger of Toby pushing it over or moving it.

The Cons

• The bar at the bottom of the gate comes right up to the frame – we had a little accident (which was more my fault that anything to do with the play pen but I thought it worth mentioning) when I left Toby for a second in the play pen with the gate open. He grabbed the get and managed to trap his thumb between the bottom of the gate and the frame. There was no serious harm done, and I know for future not to leave Toby even for a second with the gate open!
• This isn’t really a negative but the play pen is quite heavy so if you are putting on carpet and don’t want to leave a big dent I would recommend putting something underneath it. We had some thin foam sheet that we use when we’re camping and we’ve put that underneath.

The Verdict

We absolutely love the Lindam play pen and it has made my life so much easier. Toby seems very happy to stay in the play pen with his toys while I clear up after meals, hang the washing out or do whatever it is I need to get done. I know some babies might not take to being confined by a play pen so I’m glad Toby is happy to stay in this one. Lindam are a brand I know I can trust, the play pen is really well made and I’m confident we’ll get plenty of use out of it in the coming months.

**Disclosure: I was sent a Lindam Safe & Secure Metal Play Pen in return for this review. All opinions are my own.