Painting nursery late - safe for new baby?

[barkfox]

I'm 35 weeks pregnant with my 1st baby, so technically due in 4-5 weeks, although obviously the baby might make an early appearance...

Me and my partner have been very busy workwise (both self employed), and are still in the process of sorting rooms in the house to create a nursery.

I'll be using a co-sleeper cot in our bedroom to start with, so the baby will mostly be in with us, not in their own room. But of course we'll want to use the nursery a fair bit.

However, I'm wondering how sensible it is to be painting a nursery room this late in the day? I've read a fair bit of info about pregnant women painting, and this seems to be mostly common sense (use low/zero VOC paint, a mask if it's dusty/fumy etc). Anyway, I can get my partner/a parent to do the painting, as I'm working right up until my due date, so I'm not concerned about me!

It's the risk to a newborn baby I want to know about. Realistically, we are still a week minimum away from being able to get the room clear to paint - which means it will have been freshly painted 1 - 3 weeks before the baby arrives. I'm thinking 'new baby lungs? paint fumes?'. Hmm. I just feel we may have left it a bit late in the day.

Does anyone have any reliable facts, good sources and info about potential risks here? Frankly, if the room isn't painted, I won't break my heart - as long as it is clean and safe, that'll do, I'm not in an interior design competition. However, if there's nothing at all to worry about, then we may as well slap a coat on...

TIA.

To be honest, I wouldn't. Paint funes seem to hang around for so long afterwards, would hate the thought of a little one breathing them in. If it's not desperately in need of a spruce up then leave it. How about investing in some of those wall stickers to brighten up the place/cover up the worst bits? There are some lovely designs out there.

I would have thought that the fumes will be gone within a couple of days.

In any case, won't the baby be in with you to start with?

I dont have any hard evidence of these Im affraid....but my midwife told me that a room should never be freshly painted within 3 months of putting a baby in there (even with the special ''safe'' paints). i.e. paint it, wait 3 months and then put baby in. Which might be fine if you have baby in your room for first 3 months. Not sure what she is basing that fact on, but thats what she said. Not sure if anyone else has been told the same??

Also, my Mum said she watched an episode of Watchdog or something similar where they tested the so-called 'safe' VOC free paints and they were more toxic than some other paints!!! I didnt see the show myself tho, sorry, so dont know the exact details.

Hope someone else can offer some more substantial evidence! Good luck though.

Why not paper it instead? No fumes once the glue has dried - which should be very quick, in this weather.

I used Ecos paint www.ecospaints.com/ upstairs - it doesn't smell chemically and it was totally wiff free within a couple of days.

We used "breath-easy" paint from Crown downstairs and it still smells 6 months on!

I was told not to put a baby in a newly painted room. But if you air it for a week after painting, it should be fine. Luckily in this weather you can have all the windows open to really get the fumes out.

Also, using any one-coat paints or gloss paints will mean more fumes, so avoid those.

We used "green" paints, not sure of the make now, but they dried and were completely odourless a day after.

Thank you for responding - I think, rather than go to the effort of papering, which I can already imagine going a bit Frank Spencer in our house, I'm inclined to go down the Lionstar route - clean walls and then hide the worst bits with stickers etc!

But I will definitely investigate 'green' paints, thank you for that link fragola.I think that, combined with having the baby sleep in with us for 1st few months,so not being immediately very exposed anyway, might be the best bet at this stage.

Thank you for thoughts/recommendations.

We used Ecos paints throughout our house - no smell at all and approved by the allergies foundation. Would highly recommend.

Well I'm 34+3 and we're only just painting the nursery now.

Baba will be in our room for at least the first 3 months (aiming for 6 in line with guidelines) so I can't really see when she'll actually get to breath in these fumes.

Plus we'll obviously be opening windows to get fresh air in and clear any fumes.