I am in the process of planning the construction of a crawling track for my baby on the way. Glenn Doman’s instructions for building one say to cover the surface with vinyl, which was my original plan.
However I just recently was reading the comments on a post on texaslady’s blog, and they mentioned that vinyl/naugahyde is made with PVC which is toxic.
http://domaninspiredparenting.blogspot.com/2010/01/infant-crawling-track.html
I was actually shocked to read this, considering how conscious Doman and the IAHP are about environmental toxins and diet. Their program for brain injured children is extremely strict in those areas and they are very well informed on the topic.
I’m not exactly normally concerned about being all-natural / organic and am NOT freaking out about my baby being around something minutely “toxic” for a short time. However the main reason it concerns me is the sleep factor. I plan on the baby sleeping in it, and the possibility of SIDS scares me, especially since the baby will be on his/her stomach.
This is something really close to home to me because this past summer, a baby that I watched for 11 hours a day since he was born died of SIDS while on vacation. It affected me and my husband a lot to lose that precious baby and now we are worried about doing everything we can to prevent it.
So, my question for you is, do you know of any alternate surfaces to cover an infant crawling track?
I don’t necessarily want to use any type of “cloth”, which would be difficult to clean and more difficult for the baby to move on.
If anyone has used any alternatives I would be more than happy to hear them!