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Painting with a 3 month old

7 replies

Flipjango · 19/07/2012 11:24

I'm an experienced property developer, and my husband and I have been renovating the house we live in, which was massively dilapidated when we bought it (doing all the work ourselves) for quite a long time now, and are finally reaching the end of a very long slog, with only the downstairs decorating remaining. We have a three month old son, and I was hoping to paint bit by bit whilst he has his naps (he's a good sleeper so this seemed pretty feasible) as we still have bare unsealed plaster, unpainted new wood on the skirting boards, as well as some old lead paint around the door frames. This isn't just a vanity/interior design thing, I'm actually desperate to get it all done before he starts crawling - for his own safety as much as anything as bare plaster is pretty dusty, and the lead paint needs encapsulating with new paint, and its just really hard to keep everything clean the way things are at the moment. I'm a materials scientist by training, so I'm quite well versed on chemicals etc and had bought minimal VOC eco paint, everything is water based, windows open, not taking him in rooms that have been painted etc so didn't think there would be any issues with safety, and got started about a week ago. But DS seems really unsettled all of this week, and now I'm wondering if maybe its the paint fumes? I can't really smell anything, and as I say, the paints are supposed to be safe. So just wondering what others think? He's 14 weeks old this week (was two weeks premature) and I know that this is a time where babies have some pretty big developmental leaps which can upset them. But i've gone from having a really happy baby who never really cried, to having a little man who is breaking down into fits of sobbing for no apparent reason. Could it be the paint, of is it just a coincidence? And if it is the paint, how on earth can we avoid exposing him to it when we have to get the work done? We can't really afford to get the decorators in, and even if we did, I don't have anywhere to move out to so even with decorators doing the work, we'd still need to be at home most of the time. Its not a case of

OP posts:
Flipjango · 19/07/2012 11:27

Sorry, something went wrong so this post looks a bit weird. Please ignore the last sentence!

OP posts:
TirednessKills · 19/07/2012 12:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Flipjango · 19/07/2012 13:27

Thanks for that. It's so difficult as I'm just not used to him crying and he's my first so have nothing to compare it to. I was just looking at Little Greene. Any opinions? Will look up the other brand, thanks.

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CuddyMum · 19/07/2012 13:55

At that age I would suspect it's teething. I'm not sure it's to do with the paint.

PiggyMad · 19/07/2012 16:09

Ive got a 14week old and we've been painting downstairs. We've just used normal Crown paint and she doesn't seem affected by it, but has had a grizzly few days that i think is down to teething. Probably just coincidence I think.

Flipjango · 19/07/2012 18:31

Could well be teething actually. Had thought it way too early, but je's drooling a lot, chewing anything he can grab, and was 'biting' my thumb with his gums quite hard earlier today. On with the decorating then! Thanks ladies.

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tricot39 · 19/07/2012 18:46

Both my two got very grumpy due to teething about this stage. They also do less and less sleeping so if you want to paint you really better crack on! As you suspect, once they get moving painting will be tricky. Good luck

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