Comfort/safety for babies when they are down on hardwood floors?

[infomama]

We have Pergo on our entire first floor and I am trying to decide if I should buy in some large area rugs or those interlocking foam playmats (and lay blankets over them) for when DD (#2 due in Sept.)is down on the floor. Any suggestions/resources?

[dules]

We had interlocking foam mats, as well as a couple of old, soft quilts, that were washable and fine until she became really mobile.

She did slip in Robeez or socks and we eventually put down some wool area rugs.


Mary

[denna]

Foam interlocking mats worked great for us. I found a great deal on them at www.greatmats.com and later on Amazon. We also got a nursery tent to go in the corner and he layed in that with his Gymini play mat over that.

DS did slip in his Robeez at first, but now walks like a champ!

(All of our floors are either marble or hard wood so I feel your pain).

HTH

[cellenly]

Under our existing rugs, we put 2 layers of carpet padding (purchased from home depot). It's pretty cushiony.

For our exposed hard surfaces, we bought the interlocking foam playmats from Sam's club ($20 for 8 squares - 1 side colored red/green/yel/blue & other side black).

When DD falls & bumps her head, both seem to do the job fairly well. It's a close call which one cushions better. I think that the foam mats are actually softer, but my husband thinks the rugs are. I think it may depend on how thick your rugs are. Both have done the job. The one thing is that part of our house looks like legoland w/ the colored mats. I don't think my more aestheticly sensative friends who like to keep their adult spaces looking very adult like appreciates this look.

[smilla653]

We found that the time period DS really needed padding was fairly short... maybe only two months or so as he was solidifying his ability to sit up. During that time, we put a quilt or two over an area rug. We love our hardwood floors, and the type of rug that has worked best with the kid and two cats is FLOR. You can just pull up one tile and rinse any messes under the sink!

http://www.florcatalog.com/