for infant and toddler napping equipment? I have two infants right now, one is 4 months the other is 7 months. I have them in their own rooms to allow for any crying without waking up the preschoolers. The four month old is in a portacrib, and the 7 month old is in a pack n play. Well I'm looking at my daycare rule and it appears that pack n plays just aren't acceptable napping equipment for any age.

Is that right? Do I have to have a bunch of cribs in every room of my house? If I do so be it, but it would just be nice if I didn't have to kwim? I want to do the right thing so help please!

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I know in our state rules it says we are to use cribs for infants but I use PNP's and my licensor says it is ok. She also said that there will be changes and stricter guidelines coming after this year in regard to PNP's like we have seen happen with cribs recently.

I do NOT use cribs but I use the bassinet thing inside the PNP for the small infants and then just use the PNP normally after the child is to big to be in the bassinet part.

She says she thinks the rules were written when there was no such thing as a PNP, only those older play pen type things which weren't intended for sleeping purposes.

If I were you though, I would call your licensor and double check just to be sure your area is ok with PNP's.

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What I find weird is in one section of the daycare rule it says I can use a playpen for an infant. Then in another section about newborns and infants, it says I can't use a playpen with mesh siding. Well they ALL have mesh siding!!! The one crib I have is in the preschool nap room (our guest room) and no one uses it because the babies would wake up the preschoolers! And the only dck's I want in my kids' rooms and my rooms are the infants and toddlers who can't get out of their cribs/whatevers to mess with our stuff.

It's frustrating sometimes going through all this stuff! I'll call my licensor

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yeah, I know....the frustration of having to interpret the rules is exhausting!

I think the issue though is the words they are using. There IS a difference between pack'n plays and playpens so that is where the confusion cone from. They need to clearly define what they mean.

I have NEVER seen a play pen or a PNP that wasn't mesh sided either so

I agree, to be 100% safe, call your licensor.

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I use pnp's too. My licensor doesn't have a problem with it as long as I do the montly inspections on them.

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I just attended a training on SIDS. The CCR&R trainer said pack n plays are fine for infants because of the firm rigid sleeping surface.

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Thanks for all you answers. I talked to my licensor and she said it was fine to use them, even for younger toddlers who won't stay still on mats. I knew I had read a lot of you mention that you use them, so I thought I'd make sure I wasn't totally crazy before I bothered my licensor about this.

Thanks again!

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