painting with baby?

[magicfairy]

I have been doing some messy hand painting with DS, 9 months, which has been great fun for us both and the pictures are great pressies. But I have been using acrilics as thats all i have in the cupboard and someone has now gone and told me that they contain dodgy metals to get the great colours!! Anyone know of this and anyone know of any thick gloopy paints i could use instead that are baby safe? All the poster paints i have looked at say over 2 years, why?

Hi, I've always used normal poster paints with my boys. I'm sure the age relates to which you might leave them alone with the paint as younger kids (especially my youngest) always trys to eat the paint, but I'm there to watch him and encourage his hands and brush away from his mouth. I think you have to take the age guidelines with a pinch of salt and relate it to your situation.

ELC has poster paint which I have used since DS was about a year. It says it's not suitable for under 3s but I'm afraid I take resposibility for using it and making sure he doesn't eat it as I haven't found any for younger children. There are good colours and he's had a great time both with hands/fingers and brushes (with guidance!)

I have some ready mixed paint from Tesco which is non-toxic. It says not suitable for under 3's due to small parts - this presumably refers to the lid on the bottle so I would guess the paint itself is ok

I dont know what ones they use, but my 10 month old DD does feet/hand painting all the time, coming home with blue toes! I agree that over 2/3 is likely to do with being left alone, rather than toxic material. If it suitable for a 3 yr old to eat, I am sure it wont harm a 9 month old who is less likely to eat it!

LL - how cool!!

until I had boys who also love rolling in paint, I HATED laminate flooring, but I love it now. I roll up the carpet, put some paper out and they stomp all over the place and any mess which may escape the paper is quickly wiped up! Such fun!!!

I used the ELC finger paints as they are so gloopy when ds and I did painting. It washed off him and his clothes easily too.

I second the ElC finger paints, they are great for very little ones.