No more jam butties in the video (Graco Pack'n Play Compact Primary)

Member Name: chele2002

Product:	Graco Pack'n Play Compact Primary
Date:	28/04/02 (625 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compact storage, reasonable weight, portable, doubles as playpen or travel cot,, easy to erect and to pack away, ideal for when you are out of the room, stops little munsters feeding the video and so on ........

Disadvantages: Difficult to clean the mesh panels

What's the first thing most people think about buying first when expecting a baby? Prams, clothes, paint for the nursery, cot? Then there's us, having had two children prior to meeting my husband (a very special man he is too), I know how hard it can be to keep a constant eye of your growing, developing young child, trust me, when your backs turned for just a few seconds you will be amazed of the spaces, gaps, hiding places or simply but can be tragically many potential danger places or hazards most people don't even realise they have in their homes, until it's too late. That's why after discussing what equipment we needed for our expected baby we decided that one essential item would have to be a playpen/travel cot, which we fell in the interest of the safety of our baby and the practical purposes of taking some strain out of parent hood, we made it one of our very first nursery related item.

You probably think to yourselves, why buy something that isn't going to get used till your baby becomes more mobile, well why wouldn't you? After all newborn babies only make small movements, and most of the time they are too busy sleeping (I sure wish I had the chance to be too busy sleeping) and true in most cases, but there is always a chance than a small baby could roll of from anywhere, haven't you seen the warning signs about leaving your unattended child in a Moses basket, placed on a table, or sofa? No! Well those warnings that if I may say so are not published enough, and it's because it can happen, does happen and has happened that the warnings are there. So before you think that we had a moment of madness and should have put buying it until it was needed, think why did we? Because naturally as a parent we want to do everything to protect our children from any unnecessary harm that could be avoid simply, we a little thought, care and planning. Even after coming home from the hospital, we put our playpen/travel co
t to good use, by simply playing our small child in his carrycot and then placing the carrycot into the playpen/travel cot, and in doing so avoided our child being another statistic baby who was unfortunate to have a bad fall, whilst in a room alone and unsupervised. We also had the relief of knowing that our baby was raised off the ground and sheltered from any cold drafts whilst residing in the playpen/travel cot, avoiding any unnecessary illnesses such as colds or feverish colds.




The Graco Pack 'N' Play Compact Travel Cot
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We first purchased our Graco Pack 'N' Play Compact travel cot in the middle of 1999, from Argos, it wasn't hard for it not to catch our attention, what with it's brightly coloured design and the shear size, with the feeling of spaciousness. It's a good idea to get a bright coloured one, not only does it help with eye and hand co-ordination but also helps to stimulate the child's attention, which at that age they can become bored (you try it one day, give a child everything, clean bottom, hugs, food and a drink, then put a very plain and boring toy there that doesn't do much, once all the foods gone, the bottle will get thrown and the child will cry, simply because they want mental stimulation), but don't worry, if you intend to use this for sleeping purposes mainly the bright colours won't keep your child alert when you want to sleep, but with the mind being activated more and used more, with concentrating on the bright furnishing, your child is more likely to become more settled because it has gone bed with the satisfaction of having a fulfilled and stimulating day. Our two youngest children are proof, we have never once, with the exceptions of illness had any disturbed nights from over alert night babies.

At the time of purchased it cost us just £48.99 and I am happy to say unlike most of our more ex
pensive purchased has not dropped or raised price in any way, not bad for something that was brought nearly 3 years ago. Which in my opinion makes Graco one of the leading nursery equipment manufactures for competitive prices for safety, quality and value. Not only do they offer a wide range of quality equipment through various shops selling baby items but if you take a close look at some of the mothercare pushchairs you will notice that many parts are manufactured from Graco themselves, which pretty much sums up what you can expect from purchasing any of their products.


Design
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The design may look plain in comparison to the navy blue ones, neatly trimmed with dancing bunnies, the wipe able material that encases the metal structure, with its crisp straight lines; in it's plain (un-patterned) but bold and striking colours, the combination of red, green, yellow and blue and large fine white mesh panels, really do speak volume with a lasting impression of style, that would not look out of place anywhere, not even in granny's moth eaten cottage, how could it, when it could very well draw the roaming eyes away from the sofa that's been damaged by the cat, or that stain in the carpet from that wild party you had when everyone thinks of you as square, or those moth eaten curtains that look like the inside of my purse, that's always so reluctant to part with it's contents.

That's not where it stop either, when thinking about its design, there is also the shape and of course the dimensions that we took into consideration, with it being of the rectangle shape, it was possible to fit into most of our rooms but more importantly the living room, our bedroom and then the children's bedroom, with the shape being of a pretty normal kind it is far easier to fit into one's room compared to those ugly lobster pot design playpens. Boasting a pretty large piece of baby equipment at the dimensions of: overall size (L)
73, (W) 69, (H) 74.5cm, it is spacious enough to be used for a sleeping place or a play place for a young child with out the feel or being restricted in any way. This could put some off purchasing it as it does give the impression that you would need a pretty spacious room to host it, but trust me it doesn't really take up that much room if placed in a particular way that's not obstructive in any way and is in no way dominating, well with the exception of the bold, striking colours.

Then after taking all those detail on board, what really works design wise and sealed our purchase is the practical design and concept, this clever design is not only stylish but is very simple to erect and collapse for storage or travel. Hidden in the design is release buttons, which can only work if the padded base is removed and the floor structure raised, again showing attention to safety. It is so simple that they boast it can be erected or packed within 1 minute, and trust me it can, provided you do everything in the right order. For erecting simply unzip the carry bag, remove the padded base but undoing the Velcro fasteners, lock each side of the frame by simply raising in an upwards direction, once all four side are locked into place push down on the bottom to flatten base and insert the padded base. To pack away reverse the instruction, by removing the padded base, pull on grip in the base so the bottom become loose, squeeze each catch, one after each other so it folds freely, then wrap up with padded base and then place in bag and zip up...............and it works like a dream (I wish making beds were as quick).


Bits you may want to know
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Dimensions:
Size folded (L) 76, (W) 26.5, (H) 25cm.
Overall size (L) 73, (W) 69, (H) 74.5cm.

Personally we find the overall size and folded size to be just right, it?s compact enough when folded to be transported around by public transport or in th
e boot or the back seat of a car, and with overall size just right for comfort and space for our little ones, or for use in any of our rooms used in with out it over crowding us or making movement around the room at the time restrictive in any way.


Weight:

It weighs in at 8.1 kg, so not all that light, and not all that heavy either, but comfortable enough to carry without the discomfort of it digging in and cutting your fingers to pieces.


British Safety Standards:

As with all product designed to be utilised by parents for their children it is only natural that they should come with some kind of British Safety Standard number, this one happens to come with two: BS 7423 and BS 4863. It is important to make sure that the goods do follow these standards of safety and comply with them, children are our tomorrow, and following in the interest of their safety helps secure a future life for them to build.



My bit now
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Having owed this for nearly 3 years and used it for a good 29 months, I only have one point to note that I have found I am not too impressed with and that is the difficulty in cleaning the mesh panels, babies being babies do make a mess, with bottles, food etc, so the mesh can become a little grubby looking, the only way I have found is to use a bowl of warm soapy water, with a dash of bleach (not too much, can cause sensitivity to skin or eyes) and a sponge, then rub over each of the panels, then leave fully erected in a airy room to dry. The rest of it simple, a damp cloth brings the colour back beautifully, with out any fading of any kind (please not avoid bleach on the coloured areas, big white patches on red, very noticeable). The wear and tear has been superb, apart from the odd splash of hot chocolate that I haven't got round to sponging off, it still looks as good as it did when we first erected it.

It has been such a good investment, not only does
our youngest son love to sleep in it at night (never took to his cot) but he has also spend many happy times playing around in it and now enjoy interacting with Rebekah, his younger sister when we put her into it too. We all know that babies can be so innocent that they often get into danger places or in trouble with out really noticing they have done anything wrong. I am sure this has saved our video from being fed sandwiches, our telly used as a wall to hammer with the hardest toy that remotely resembles an hammer, fridges raided and so on but has given us peace of mind when it has not been possible to supervise them at the time.



Last but not least
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Children need room to develop and find their own feet, so I would not advise this as a permanent place to put your children to play, they need to communicate with their siblings if any and with their parents, but for those times when you have a fussy child that doesn't take to a cot as such or for those difficult moments when you need to get something done, this playpen/travel cot is ideal.



Thank you all for reading :o)

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