Hardwood or carpet with a baby?

aroberts7106

Having babies that are crawling or will be crawling soon, what does everyone prefer, carpet or hardwood?

We had hardwood, but when we were first starting TTC, we put in carpeting throughout a lot of the house, thinking ahead to having babies...we had thought that carpeting would be more homy and baby-friendly. 

But now, two years later, the carpets of course have some stains on them (which I could care less about, but it drives DH nuts), and we are worried that the carpets are holding a lot of dust, and making DS sneeze and get stuffy noses.  So DH wants to rip out all of the carpets (which makes me cringe to think about...we just finished paying them off!  And they are not in bad shape at all!) and re-finish the hardwood underneath....

I just keep thinking about DS slipping and falling on the hardwood and hurting himself.....it just seems dumb to me to get rid of all the carpeting just because of a few stains.  Plus, I don't want to go through the hassle of moving all of the furniture and having to live with the IL's for a few days while they re-finish the floors (too many fumes).  Ugh....

Kelsey and Nick

I definitely prefer carpet! My parents and my sister (who both watch DD during the day) have all hardwood. They both went out and bought big area rugs for her b/c she slips and slides so much when crawling on the wood. Plus, I feel like her falls aren't as hard at our house with the carpet.

nemtown

Carpet by far. We have wood floors but thankfully bought an area rug for the living room. It helped him learn to crawl (he started about one week after we bought the rug). Also, when he started pulling himself up he, of course, fell several times. If he hit his head on the hardwoods, it would have hurt a LOT more.

(He never fell far or hard, but he has bonked his head a little bit a few times. He's more scared than hurt.)

I wish we had more carpet. We do in the basement. We're going to clean it when we get rid of our dog in 2 weeks and then we'll be down there a LOT more.

MattysGirl81

We have wall to wall carpet and I hate it!  But I've always hated carpet because it's so much dirtier than tile/wood and doesn't look as nice.  DS is scooting around and it's nice to have a soft place for him to hit his head, and I'm sure that will be even better once he starts walking and falling down.

However, he does cough and sneeze a lot, and I have to think it's because of the carpet.  We live in a very dry climate with lots of dust, and the carpet just traps that stuff.  I vacuum as often as I can, but it's impossible to get it completely clean.  I even steam cleaned it before DS was born, and every time I'd empty the water canister it was completely black.  Gross!

I think we're going to change our flooring once DS is walking well and we don't have to worry about falls as much.  Sorry this wasn't too helpful, but I wanted to answer because DH and I had the same conversation this weekend! 

nemtown

You can buy a better vacuum and pledge to shampoo them once per year to keep the dust to a minimum. But better filters for your furnace, too. Anything will help!

penguingrrl

I prefer hardwood because of the dust and mold that carpeting traps, especially since I'm asthmatic.  My allergist has told me I'm never allowed to live with wall to wall carpeting and shouldn't have any throw rugs that aren't machine washable and washed frequently.  It is a bit harder with a crawler/new walker, but the health implications are more important.  I  actually can't stay too long at MILs or SILs because their carpeting bothers me too  much.

Lulu0802

Our first floor is HW, but we have a big area rug where whe plays.  She seems to do okay on the HW floors if she doesn't have socks on, but if she does, she slips and slides all over the place.  And since she's still falling and plopping down on her butt so much I think carpet is preferable for now.  We will probably put HW in upstairs in a few years, but for now we'll keep our carpet.

courtneyaok

Carpet! And I hate carpet because of my allergies and the dust . . . but it's so much better for them to crawl and fall on.  A rug over hardwood just doesn't cut it -- it's still so much harder than actual carpeting (we have a combo in our house). 

Can you just get the carpet cleaned?  That's what I would do.

aroberts7106

courtneyaok:

Can you just get the carpet cleaned?  That's what I would do.

We actually had the carpets cleaned over the summer in preparation for the baby, and all of the stains in the carpeting have happened since then.  I guess cleaning them removed the stain blocker that had been on the carpets previosuly....the cleaning people put Scotchguard on, but it isn't working very well....

Before we had them cleaned DH spilled BBQ sauce all over the one carpet and we got it all up with some elbow grease.  Now, our dogs throw up a little bit and the stain won't come out.  If I could go back in time I never would have gotten them cleaned! 

Fish4Fun

I love my tile floors.  Messes are so easy to clean up, and it just feels cleaner, you know?  But we do have a large area rug where DD plays, and our bedrooms are carpeted.  She's normally fine on the tile, but she slipped once while crawling and it scared me a lot.

grinsandgiggles

I HATE our hardwood and DS definitely prefers our area rugs more for crawling.  He wouldn't crawl on the wood for the longest time and still doesn't venture far on it.  He slides quite a bit (I have sometimes too in my socks lol). 

I hate the hardwood for numerous reasons.  Our house doesn't retain heat as well, the air is dryer so I get bloody noses and my feet are the driest/roughest they've even been (I also think this has to do with my feet not rubbing against the carpet), and every little sound travels through the house.  Not to mention it just doesn't feel as homey.  I also prefer to vacuum vs. sweep/swiffer. 

mjlx207

We have wood in our living room and playroom, and I love love love it (except that it is really dark and that sometimes gets annoying).  We kept the carpet in our bedrooms, but I would change it out in a heartbeat if we had the money too.  I am just not a fan of carpet at all.

electricdoctor83

We have wall to wall HW in our home (and tile in the kitchen) and I love it.  I am a little concerned about when Jack starts crawling. 

The only bad thing is that the HW is hard to keep clean during the winter months when everybody is tracking in all the mud and slush.

rebus82

Our downstairs is wood laminate and the upstairs is carpet. I hate the carpet. It gets dirty and stained so easily. I'd much rather wood (or laminate) everywhere and area rugs in the places most frequented by the baby (living room and his bedroom.) If we were planning to live here for a long time, I'd rip out the carpet, but since we're moving next year or 2012, we're keeping it because a lot of people do prefer carpet.