Do you let babies crawl on carpets?!

[Jimmyjammymammy]

I've just been scolded for being irresponsible for letting my baby crawl on a polypropylene rug. Apparently full of PFAS and most likely flame retardants and i should be using a baby mat.

My mind is blown by this. I'm a very anxious person and take precautions (probably too many) but I feel this is a bit extreme. Surely most babies crawl on a carpet? Do people actually just buy wool rugs or put baby mats down specifically to avoid a baby being exposed to potential toxins?

So, I'm very curious, AIBU to let a baby crawl on a carpet?!

some people's ability to sensibly assess risk clearly never developed

Ideas like this must make our parenting practices of even 25 years ago seem horrifically neglectful!

As for the generation before - well apparently, set down on the nearest patch of ground, off I'd crawl to find the most interesting mouthful of nature to eat. Earth, dirt, grass, leaves, berries, butterflies, moths, worms, ants, flies; dead or alive; doused in who knows what wee or poo or now-banned herbicides and pesticides. Wee handfuls of whatever I could grasp crammed in my mouth (or partly wriggling free). I hear tales of hilarious/disgusting photographic evidence in long-lost albums, so obviously never a great rush to thwart my exploits.

Yet here we all still are, more of us alive on this poor beleaguered planet than ever before.

This is me as well and I agree.

I'm sometimes ashamed to admit that my anxiety does take over a little in my life. But seeing things like this (and there seems to be more and more of it these days) just makes me think what a sad life some people must live. I don't mean this nastily. It's genuinely sad.

I was a very anxious first time parent and would not have thought of this. Most baby mats will also have micro plastics etc. I do not think there's decent proof anywhere that carpet crawling is a risk

yes, I did. by the time they're crawling they're sticking all kinds of shit in their mouths. I don't think a carpet is that big a risk.

Sounds a lot like where I grew up except the asbestos factory was a couple of miles away but my primary school was next to the lead works. I remember having blood tests a few times because of it.

Wow well I didn't even know a crawling mat excised so clearly I'm the worst of the worst!

Good heavens! Not letting them crawl on a carpet that presumably gets vacuumed regularly is just bonkers. Especially given all the chemicals and flame retardants in just about everything else, including clothes. Not sure why that person has it out for carpets specifically.
Humans have survived this long.

I wouldn't say anything aloud. But it depends entirely on what the carpet is made of.

I am very wary of microplastics and the effect on our health of inhaling filaments all day long that we know are endocrine disrupters and perhaps have some part to play in the precipitous decline in sperm count. When I see bedding and throws made of synthetic fur it boggles my mind that anyone would buy these.

If you throughly wash the clothes you remove most of these chemicals. Especially if they're natural materials. Nobody puts a carpet on a boilwash

🤣

But most people do let babies crawl along (the equivalent of) a wet pavement outdoors - at playgrounds. They use their hands, knees and feet to climb ladders, go across bridges, go through tunnels etc. They crawl and play on grass/fields, too.

And what about your pots and pans with their anti-stick coating, and the water supply generally. Just let the baby crawl.

My kids are teenagers now and I believe this is the first time in my life I've given the phrase 'carpet fibres' any thought whatsoever.

Then again, my daughter ate a scab off of the floor of a hospital waiting room so I'm not a brilliant barometer of good parenting.

Who told you this? Do they not realise that babies eventually turn into teenagers who live on monster, fruit loops and vapes?

Yeah I don't use them. What's the worry about the water supply?

I think the reason so many children have allergies nowadays is that they are not exposed enough. That's where they get their immunity from. Parents seem to want to keep their kids in a bubble nowadays and everything spotlessly clean and not wanting them to get dirty.

Literally nothing, at all. Stay hydrated and keep those babies off carpets, grass contaminated by surface water run off, and eat no food made away from the home at restaurants, other peoples houses, and just keep living your best life generally.

Exactly, I would consider two risks about crawling in a coffee shop - hot drinks and annoying people. If they are ok in a given setting then it's all good in my book.

When mine were babies and on the floor I would put a play mat down or a blanket if at someone else’s house but I never once thought of doing that because of fibres, dirt or anything I just thought they’d be more comfortable

Erm...you can't catch HIV from saliva. Please don't propagate this dangerous myth.

Omg my kids crawled on all sorts. My carpets are wool but i was not precious at all this sort of thing.

Baby crawls then put hands in mouth. Becomes infected. That's quite literally how viruses spread 🦠

Except it isn't.

Its quite hard for viruses to spread from surfaces as they don't live long on them.

Most viruses spread via aerosols (droplets thrown out when people cough, sneeze, vomit) or via much closer contact (eg cleaning up bodily fluids, touching others skin directly combined with poor hygiene, hugs/kisses/sex).

Well your baby isn't also fitting carpets is it? Very different crawling in one versus fitting carpets on a daily basis.

If I let my baby crawl through mud in the woods - and I do - I can’t be fretting about a bit of carpet.