Do crawling babies actually need knee pads on hard floors?
Hard floors will not hurt a crawling baby's knees, though parents often feel pressured by advertisements and family to buy knee pads. While babies may develop some skin hardening or darkening on their feet from crawling, they do not actually need knee covers.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Using slide-down knee covers or padsDid this help you?
- 2Putting babies in pants or leggingsDid this help you?
- 3Adding play areas with padded mats, area rugs, or interlocking foam tilesDid this help you?
- 4letting the skin protect itself naturallyDid this help you?
- 5leaving feet bare to maintain sensory feedbackDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I was wondering if my baby really needs covers for her knees and is the hard floors really that bad?”source ↗
“We got them since one we thought she would also be hurt plus so many ads told us (dumb thing we did was listening to stupid ads) and family kept bugging us.”source ↗
“Our 10 month old son’s skin around his toes (on both feet) upper side is darkening/hardening quite a bit more compared to the rest of his feet.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 6How to keep a fearless toddler safe who doesn't understand danger
- 4How to protect old wooden floors without ruining them