crawling baby

[Eythi]

i have a strange problem. they dont let babies crawl on the floor in my country. so my lil girl who is 9 months now has been crawling only on our bed. i know its wrong so 2 days ago i put her in our living room floor and she bumped her head. also she stands with support now. i have a feeling that she does not even realise that if she falls it would hurt her cuz one minute she is holding on the side of her bed and next minute she would just remove her hand. ofcuz she falls on the bed so does not get hurt. there are no spefic baby safe furniture available here. i know i must sound very strange to you all but thats how things are here. people dont baby proof their houses at all. even the plug point cover had be bought from another country. sorry about the blabbering.

my point is i am clueless about letting my baby crawl freely too. so yesterday i bought interlocking mats. i have goggled a lot but dont seem to find photo's of how ppl have used it at home. any suggestions.. i dont want to keep saying.. "no darlin dont go beyond the mat'.

the whole house hs tiled flooring so im scared to let her crawl on the floor without any protection.

[blessedbear]

Hi, I have a set of the colorful interlocking mats I got from Toy's RUs here and we love it.  They are a goodsize mat, very padded, and colorful so I think something like that would be nice for your baby.  Protect her knees from the hard floors etc, we use just 12 letters right now (she isn't crawling yet) but she does tummy time and is practicing turning a bit.  They also clean up very easily spit up and stuff jsu wipe with a bib, rag, but I have heard of the paint coming off we haven't experienced that but like I said she isn't crawling yet so not much wear and tear.  If there is anyway to get a baby gate where you are or pet gates just make an area w/mat where she can crawl around but still be supervised.  Could you move it around so she could get different views?  Just a few thoughts.

[Eythi]

there are no baby gates or pet gates available here

[lilisuze]

can she crawl on a rug? you could get a big one for your lounge floor or for her bedroom and let her crawl on there? can you buy playpens? she could have a go in one of those, travel cots can double up as a playpen, although they are quite small so she wont get very far!!

Is it likely to cause some upset if you let her crawl on a carpeted area at home but not when you are out? If its just you at home, and you dont mind her being on your floor (in that you know it is clean and safe for her) then she could have some freedom sometimes. Which country are you in shahu? I have never heard of this before....what do other moms do? What do daycare centres do?

[Eythi]

thanx for the reply lilisuze.

i knew at some point someone would ask me which country i'm from. i dont want some mother who does let her child crawl on the floor to attack me by saying i'm blamin the whole country. so let me rephrase, i dont know anyone who lets babies crawl on the floor in my country that being said im from maldives.

as far as i know and heard mom's let babies crawl on the bed. which according to me is very restricted. they dont have daycare centres for babies (this i'm 100% sure). recenty they have opened a few day care centers for children who are around 3yrs and above.

i do have a playpen (or maybe its a travel cot cuz its very small). she does play in there when im cooking. but ofcuz she cant do much of crawling. i dont have any carpeted area in the house. its all tiles. do you think that it would be very dangeorus to let her crawl on tiled floor?

[~ Vik ~]

I have hardwood floors and my ds crawls all over them! So I would think tiles are ok too, as long as there are no sharp edges that she could cut herself on. If you are concerned about her knees you could keep her in long pants or cut the feet off some old socks and pull them over her knees. If crawling on the floor bothers her, she'll let you know! Just make sure you watch her very closely if nothing is baby proofed

[lilisuze]

we have hardwood floors throughout our lower level and DS seems fine. We have a big rug in the centre of the living area, but he's not sure about that because the wheely toys work much better on the wood!! I would think its not dangerous to crawl on the tiles, as long as like vikki says, you make sure they are generally level and not going to cut her. We have had no incidents from DS crawling on our hard floor and thats been for a few months now!

One tip though, i think i might invest in some little shoes with rubber toes on, because DS did slip about quite a bit at the start, just to provide a little grip you know!! 

Sending vibes to people from the maldives to read this thread and give ideas!!!!!

[Mashi]

We have ceramic tile floors in our kitchen and DS crawls all over them!  Mind you, he is 14 months old so he really only crawls if he's being lazy! But, my mother in law has tile floors in her kitchen and when DS was younger we had no problems in letting him crawl on her floors. Sometimes they were quite cold, but I suppose that's because it's England not Maldives!

As Vikki said, as long as there are no sharp edges she can hurt herself on, I say let her try it!

[Eythi]

thankyou so much for the replies.

i have been putting down my LO in the bedroom floor for the past few days. she still does not seem to hold on to the furniture like other kids do (i think). Like i said earlier one minute she is holding, next she just lets go!! she's hit her head  2 times now. no major crying. but I'm keeping a very very close eye on her.

lilisuze : i thought i read some where that its better for them to be bear feet till they get the hang of it. but i think i will get her some shoes and let her decide wether she likes it. thanx for the advice.

after reading this post a did a very close inspection of the floor. indeed there is one not so even tile bit. i have now coverd that part with a rug.

[lilisuze]

i just m,eant soft shoes, so not ones that restrict her feet at all, just to give a bit of grip!!!!! And not all lo's need them, just see how you get on!

[koe2moe]

We used to let DS crawl in our bed only because he could actually crawl in very soft surfaces and not on even padded mat on the floor.  He knew it would be ok to let go at any time and he wouldn't get hurt.  (He knew falling on the matt could still hurt because a while back he wasn't able to balance himself well while sitting.)

But he started crawling too fast in our bed and it's getting dangerous unless i had my arms around him the whole time.  So we let him explore on very thin mat which has non-slip backing.  He fell a few times but understood very soon that it's ok.  He cried a few times when it really hurt bad.  I guess it's part of learning.  Afterall, when LOs start to walk, or run, they will fall even harder.  And unless you can get the whole floor carpetted or padded, LO will venture out of the area very soon.

Perhaps let your DD crawl while you can be with her for a few weeks?  In the playpen when you can't be with her.  She will master it very quickly! 

HTH

[Mashi]

i have been putting down my LO in the bedroom floor for the past few days. she still does not seem to hold on to the furniture like other kids do (i think). Like i said earlier one minute she is holding, next she just lets go!! she's hit her head  2 times now. no major crying. but I'm keeping a very very close eye on her.

if she is just starting to crawl then it may take a while before she holds onto furniture.  my DS crawled for about 2 months before he started getting the arm strength to pull himself up to stand in front of the furniture. maybe at about 10 months or so? and, yes, when he started doing that he fell backwards and hit his head a LOT. i did have to stand behind him a lot of the time, but only for a couple of weeks until he learned how to balance a bit better. my friend's children who are the same age could not hold on to the furniture at 10 months, they took longer - it's just all about the child and some develop earlier or later.  help her practice lots during the day and she may surprise you and learn quickly!

good idea to put the rug down!

[koe2moe]

actually DS didn't like crawling on the hard floor, so he would only pull himself up on furniture.  He learned to pull himself up in the playpen and since he fell hard backwards, I taught him to sit down and he got the hang of it in a few days. 

How I did it was just to hold him standing on me and sit him down when saying "sit down".  It's really useful and I could see how he gradually sat more and more confident and graceful even hehe. 

[twiseasnice]

Without sound harsh here. What did poeple do many many many years before us. There was no gimict and baby proof doors etc. Why go though the whole expence to aby proof a house. Let the child crawl on the floor. They are going to hurt them self they are going to get bruises, as long as you make it safe. The only thing in my house thats baby prove is the doors in my kitchen where i have either things that can break and chimical. I have twind boys and i want them to have a great childlife, without hold thing away from them.

Crawling on the bed.... NO! My one boy fell off the bed about 3 weeks ago and at the hospital the doctor laughed at me and said i must remember they still gonna hurt themself alot. Its part of growing up. I must never put the child on a place where they can fall off and hurt them self. My one is at the moment griding over the floor in my study. When i go to the front of my house where the tv is, i put down a blanket on the floor,

But think about this, a child needs to learn and the only way to learn is to explore and in the prosess do stupid things. How do you learn in life? From your mistakes, how will a todler learn, by making mistakes.

Put them in a safe environment but dont keep them away from things like a floor or grass... its called baby development.