Clean floors?

[HelenLG]

DS is beginning to gear up for crawling (it's more like pushing his face along the carpet at the mo) and me and DH were discussing what to do about the kitchen.

It a big room, with wooden floor board and it's where the cats live. I asked him what he wanted to do when DS started crawl, i.e the kitchen, did he want to put a playpen in there?

He suggested that we just clean the kitchen floor everyday (dont think he had really thought it through).

I wasn't particularly impressed with that suggestion as I'm not planning on being a SAHM and wont have time to hoover/brush and mop the floor every morning.

What does everyone else do?

[ThisIsYourSong]

Sweep pretty much every day - clean once or twice a week depending on how it looks. We don't use outdoor shoes in the lounge/kitchen - but they crawl up and down the hallway as well so sometimes I wonder why we bother .

I have kind of got used to it, the crawling is not so bad but they drop food on the floor/pick it up and eat it etc - it seemed gross at first but they are kids, they eat dirt etc!

I've never used a playpen but know plenty of people do. Although the favourite game at the moment is going through through the plastics cupboard and it keeps them amused for ages (at 13 months old) so you would miss out on that. Other than that the kitchen is apparently the most dangerous room in the house so a playpen isn't a bad idea!

[ASecretLemonadeDrinker]

I sweep a few times a day - takes about 30 seconds. Sweep daily & mop (flash mop, not mop & bucket)or get a roomba. Where is your litter tray? Make sure there is no access to that.

[Hanoigal]

Once my DS could crawl I let him crawl anywhere, including playgrounds, hotel lobbies, airports, etc. Pretty much anywhere really. He was fine. I figured it built up his immunities. At home I swept the floor daily (and around the higchair after meals) and washed about once a week. He is 2 now and he still finds old food I have missed and eats it. Yuk. In your case I would just make sure the litter box and food bowls weren't in reach.

[sarahtigh]

I brush up most days have old victorian tiled kitchen and hall, wash kitchen floor 1-2 times a week hall about once a month but my hoover does hard floors,
all kids love dirt, but cat litter is different, don't go overboard and buy up too many anti-bacterials only use those if a family member has tummy bug or such like as overuse of antibacterials makes it more likely that they will be resistant to antibiotics etc, if they really need them at some stage

[SkyBluePearl]

I brush ever other day or so and mop once a week. Cats are very clean animals so i wouldn't worry too much personally - except for cat litter of couse. My kids are always playing outside and crawling on various library/school floors etc.

[dikkertjedap]

I also have a cat. When my dd started crawling, I hoovered and mopped the wooden and tiled floors everyday. If they were not mopped she couldn't go there. I don't agree with the idea it builds up immunity - there are about 100,000 different cold viruses, there are about 20,000 different viruses who cause tummy bugs, so it is neither here nor there if she picks up 10 or 20 viruses, there are still plenty variants she wouldn't have had. My dd is very tall, I think that one of the reasons is that she hasn't had as many viruses as some of her peers. Also, cats can carry lots of diseases, they might look clean but go with their paws in the litter tray, soil etc. Could you otherwise move the cats to another place (maybe utility room if you have one?). Also, like one of the previous posters, we don't wear outdoor shoes in the house, which also helps. I wouldn't allow dd to pick up food from floor and eat it. I think it is a good time to explain that people don't do that. Mice have been nibbling on it (all houses have mice), many mice if not all are carriers of salmonella.

[moajab]

I'm on the 'don't worry about it too much and let your child build up immunity' side of things. I've always been fairly laid back about such things and have never cleaned floors every day (probably every few days, but there's no set routine - just when I or DH have the time!) My DS2 (aged 6 years) used to eat handfuls of dirt from the garden the moment our back was turned when he was a baby. And he has never yet been ill enough for me to take him to a doctor. he throws off colds effortlessly and has only once of twice had a tummy bug. When a bug went through his pre-school he was the only child not to get it.
DS3 is 2 and strangely seems to prefer to eat off the floor. When I took a snack for him to eat recently at a school show. he carefully took each thing out of the pot and put it on the floor before eating it and this was just after all the school kids had walked over it. He's also obsessed with water and sources of water that he can reach are the toilet and the little water feature in the garden - neither exactly clean and not what you want your toddler to have his hand in and then lick! But like his brother he's very healthy and has not yet needed to visit a doctor.
DS1 is quite healthy, but has had the odd infection that has needed antibiotics and has had one hospital stay. He is also the one that I had the time to watch like a hawk and make sure he didn't put dirty things in his mouth....

[cece]

I let mine crawl through the flower beds in the garden so wasn't overly worried about the kitchen floor.

[wannabeglam]

I clean the floor every day. Couldn't keep baby in playpen for more than 20 minutes. I use a powermop which is quick and easy. Otherwise, with a dog in the house, clothes became black quickly and that drove me nuts.

BTW My FIL always cleaned the floor every evening - it was his job. They lived on a farm so there was a lot to clean. So don't assume it's a job for you, if you decide to go down that route.

[AngelDog]

No pets here and outdoor shoes only in the hall. If we're really on top of housework (which is rare), the floor gets hoovered once a week. But often more like once a fortnight. The tiled kitchen floor gets actually scrubbed about once every 6 months. We have Very Low Standards.

11 m.o. DS is still alive and well though. In the early days he spent a lot of time sucking the floor.

[soupmaker]

I'm with AngelDog. We have no pets which does I am sure make things easier. We have lots of wooden floor and rugs, which I'd hoover about twice a week. Kitchen floor has dark lino which I would hoover at the same time. When food when flying I'd try and mop it up there and then. I got the mop out about once a month - if that. DD been remarkably illness free despite (or maybe because) of my sloppy standards. Breadstick with fluff always seemed a treat to DD!

[wannabeglam]

Not all houses have mice, if they did you'd find the tell, tell signs of mice droppings.

[mathanxiety]

The biggest issue with access to the kitchen isn't the floor but the kitchen cupboard doors and drawers, and the oven. You will have to make sure the DS won't be able to open these and then close them on his little fingers or have access to anything hot.

If your oven is not attached to the wall, it's time to investigate doing this. Children can open oven doors and tip them over if they try to climb in. Same goes for the TV and any bookcases you have. A child pulling himself up using a bookcase can tip it down on top of himself. A simple bracket can prevent horrible injuries.

The other issue you really need to be on guard for is small items on the floor that he might choke on, like small coins, buttons that pop, etc. He will put everything he finds on the floor into his mouth. Most of it isn't going to do any harm apart from the choking hazard.

Make sure he can't get into the bathroom, and put a lock on the toilet seat just in case -- children can drown in very little water and they are very top heavy so if they manage to tip themselves over the rim of the loo, it's very hard to get back up on their own.

Floors can be hoovered daily and swept several times daily, and spills of food and drink mopped up immediately, along with whatever usual regular mopping you do, and keep the cat litter and food well out of reach. I have a cat and there's always a certain amount of fur shed here and there. We do take off outdoor shoes (and don't let your DS lick anyone's shoes btw -- yeeeeugh) Your DS is already exposed to the flora and fauna of your home and will continue to be. This is nothing new to him.

If you want to cordon off no-go areas, then safety gates are the way to go. That way he can be confined to one room and still be relatively unrestricted.