Hardwood floors and crawling/walking????

[McQ]

We have hardwood throughout our main floor and I'm wondering how difficult/dangerous it's going to be for DS to learn how to crawl/walk. The floors are slick and the only place I have throw rugs is in the kitchen (but I think they are worse for slipping than the floor).

Right now I have this 2x5 mat on the living room floor that he loves rolling off of. He likes to scoot off onto the hardwood and bring his toys with him. And he loves to put his feet off of the mat, slide them around and bang bang bang them on the floor.

For crawling I'm worried that he won't get enough traction. And for walking I'm afraid he'll fall and hit his head. Not to mention when he's older and running.

Any thoughts or tips? Thanks!

Allison
~ mommy to Declan 3.24.03

[nathansmom]

We have hardwood floors. Nathan learned how to crawl on the hardwood and does fine. He seems to struggle a little on carpet. He's standing on his own on the hardwood. I have noticed that he has problems if I have socks on him so he's barefoot in the house. Nathan has banged his head a few times on the floor but I figured that comes with the territory.

[Momof3Labs]

We have hardwood floors and ceramic tile throughout almost our entire house, except Colin's room. They didn't slow him down a bit - he was crawling and cruising by 6.5 months and walking at 10 months! I watched him a little more carefully and usually stuck out my hand to catch his head when he fell, but no injuries beyond the usual bumps and bruises.

I do find that Colin does best barefoot, although socks with grippies and Robeez work fine now that he is pretty steady. But when Declan is first getting his footing, I highly recommend that you leave him barefoot.

[KUvsOU]

At first, my son was a little hesitant about crawling on the hardwood floors. It was no time before he didn't even think anything about it and it was not even an issue when he started walking. I don't usually wear shoes around so I don't make my son do it either and he really is not that fond of wearing shoes or socks around the house so he usually goes around barefoot. Actually, it seemed like he was more comfortable being barefoot when he was learning to walk. However, I have bought him some slippers to wear this winter that have grippers on the bottom so we will see how that goes.

Shawna
Mom of Cade 6/16/02

[egoldber]

Sarah never had issues with our hardwood floors. But I would ditch the throw rugs for awhile when he first starts walking. They can be very dangerous to an unsteady new walker.

HTH,

[etwahl]

beth, are they also dangerous if they have a no-slip mat underneath? we have a couple in our kitchen (with the matting under) and i never even thought about them as dangerous, but it makes sense.

Tammy,
Mom to Lauren Genevieve
03/12/2003
www.evantammy.com

[egoldber]

Personally, I would still remove them, at least for a month or so.

[McQ]

Thanks all. Glad as always for the inputs and shared experiences!

Allison
~ mommy to Declan 3.24.03