New and expectant parents are often faced with the stress of outfitting their homes with items to ensure the safety of their new born baby or toddler. Some of the most common items purchased or requested are baby safety items such as safety gates, cabinet latches, and outlet covers. One item that is often overlooked however is portable shock absorbent flooring or kid’s mats. In this article, the most popular products will be discussed and recommendations will be given to help explain when and where these products could and should be used.
Baby blankets are often the gift of choice at baby showers to give parents a comfortable and portable floor covering solution to lay their babies down on. However what do you do if the primary flooring in a living room or family room is a hard surface such as wood, cork, or ceramic tile flooring? Obviously a blanket alone is not going to provide the necessary cushion and softness to keep a baby’s tiny joints comfortable by just laying a blanket over hard flooring. Because of this, many times, parents are forced to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on designer rugs to match their room décor and add more cushioning for their little one. So what do you do if you cannot afford a new rug? A few options to consider include portable foam kid’s mats and soft interlocking tiles.
Kids mats are often considered the easiest and most portable soft flooring solution for a parent to have readily available for a kids play area. In addition, these mats are often the cheapest option available and require very little maintenance. Kids mats are often made of closed cell EVA foam which is non-allergenic, water proof, easy to clean, and can be very colorful and fun. Foam mats for kids can usually be rolled up like a yoga mat and are also very light in weight for easy transportation.
Soft interlocking tiles that are designed for use as play mats for children are also most commonly made out of EVA foam. This means that they will also be inexpensive, light weight, easy to clean, and very colorful. The main difference is that the tiles usually come in the form of many different tile pieces that can be locked together like a puzzle to form a larger mat surface. If enough tiles are used, these soft foam floor tiles can even be used in a kid’s bedroom or playroom as a complete foam flooring solution. Many times, foam tiles can be purchased in educational kits that include the alphabet or different numbers on them in many different colors to aid in the fun and add to a child’s natural learning process.
A good rule of thumb when trying to determine what is the right kid flooring or play mat solution for an individual parent and their children is to first look at how much space they have to work with. If the area is very small, soft foam matting would probably be the best place to start a product search. If a parent has multiple kids and or is looking to cover a larger area, an interlocking foam tile kit would probably be the best option to consider. For more information about available kids foam floor mats, please visit www.rubberflooringinc.com.
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