# Are foam play mats a choking hazard?



## moonjunio (Feb 1, 2009)

I'm in the market for a play mat for my 11 month old. I see a lot of interlocking EVA foam mats on amazon, with puzzle-piece tiles that fit together. Some have pop-out letters and such, others are solid tiles.

Some of the mats say "warning small parts" (even the plain-tile ones) or "great for ages 3+"... am I to understand that there's a risk of babies ripping off pieces of the foam and choking on them? I don't see what else the "small parts" could be for the plain tile versions.

The reviews do seem to agree that babies enjoy pulling up pieces and chewing on them...

Have you used foam mats? Do they get torn up?

Or is there another solution you might use for a just-started-walking tot? This would be used on top of a laminate floor.


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## soxthecatrules (Oct 20, 2008)

We have the mats with letters and numbers that pop out. DD puts absolutely EVERYTHING in her mouth and she has never once tried to put one of these tiles or their parts in her mouth.


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## desamom (May 23, 2008)

We have this http://www.amazon.com/Skip-Hop-Play-.../dp/B000RZR16E Skip Hop play mat and I bought it specifically because it was for children 0+.

I don't know about its safety in terms of what it's made of, but my DD chewed on it like crazy when she started putting stuff in her mouth and it totally held up. It was not cheap, but we love it.


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## SaraMum (May 17, 2009)

I have the foam play mats and my 2.5 y/o DS has never bitten a piece off.


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## reducereuserecycle (Jan 16, 2007)

i've never seen one of those play mats that wasn't full of chew marks! i would be more worried about all the chemicals the baby was getting from chewing and playing on the mat than it being a choking hazard. the small parts are the inside of letter...such as "B" or "R" or "O"....also the dots of letters such as "i"


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## moonjunio (Feb 1, 2009)

I looked up EVA foam on this forum and supposedly it is in fact non-toxic. I think I may avoid the letters though, they sound like a bit of a hassle.


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## just_lily (Feb 29, 2008)

My kid loved pulling up the edge pieces. She never managed to bite a piece off or anything. The dog's nails poked holes in them though.

Ours only lasted a couple of weeks before I got rid of them. Hair and dirt would stick to them and they were impossible to clean, and always looked dirty. So I got rid of them.


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## PretzelMama (Apr 19, 2009)

I guess it depends on the brand you use, but we had to get rid of our foam mats because DD was biting chunks out of them on a regular basis. So I'd say yes, definitely a choke hazard.


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## ashleyhaugh (Jun 23, 2005)

i hate the number/letter ones because they always get chunks bitten out of them. the solid ones (i've seen 24"x24" squares) would be harder to pick up, therefor harder to bite chunks out of id think


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## buttercups.nest (Jul 2, 2009)

I too have the foam mats, I used them for my daughter, and a little boy I was babysitting. They were about 9months at the time. With something like that there's of course a risk of choking....but its not going to happen in an instant. It'd be something that is knawed and chewed on over a period of time, and finally after working at it for like a week the piece would fall off.

Neither one (my daughter or the little boy) ever chewed on it. The cats every once in awhile when they were spastic would chew on it, or claw at it, but never enough to warrant getting rid of them or being concerned.


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## Aubergine68 (Jan 25, 2008)

You could always put a rug or a blanket on top of the mats if you were worried....but I've used the 2 ft by 2 ft mats for years and never had a child chew on one.

I got rid of all smaller foam puzzles and toys because of toddlers chewing on them, though.


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## LaughingHyena (May 4, 2004)

We have two kinds at our playgroup.

The first small squares (30 cm ish) and pretty soft foam. The kids can rip these up and do tend to try and chew them. I gave up on the ones with the letters as they were constantly getting bits broken off.

The second are bigger ons which I got from a hardware store in the flooring dept. They have the soft foam on top but a much harder foam base. They have held up really well and the kids don't seem to be able to get them apart.


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## ErikaS57 (Jul 15, 2008)

We use these: http://softtiles.com/

They're nice and thick, colorful, and no pop-out pieces. We covered our living room in them when DD1 was about 9 months, and they still look great a year and a half later. In fact, we just ordered them to do our basement (had to rip up the rug due to water damage - no worries about that with the foam)

Oh - we tried the alphabet/numbers ones first. Only assembled the ones without the smaller pieces. Drove me nuts with all the letters popping out all the time. Hated it!


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## sapphire_chan (May 2, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ErikaS57* 
We use these: http://softtiles.com/

those are great! thanks for pointing them out!


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## kai28 (Sep 9, 2008)

So I bought a set of these tiles with pop out pieces at a yard sale (for $2). i figured that if there was on off gassing issue, it'd already would have happened. BUT - as far as the pop out letters are concerned, I think it's likely that eventually pieces will get lost/thrown away, and then you'll have empty spots in the foam, which I suppose could be a tripping/ankle roll hazard for a kid toddling around.

We have cork floors in DS's room (not too hard, not too soft). he's not walking, or crawling yet, but we put him down for play time on a blanket on top of these foam things, and I can see how we might just continue to do that to keep the foam clean. The foam has little raised anti-slip ridges on it (good idea), but they could easily hold grime. I'm NOT going to be scrubbing these things, although I could toss them into the tub once in a while to rinse them off. Anyway, with a blanket or washable throw rug on top, you could just pop whatver covering you have into the wash when necessary. We have 2 large dogs & 2 cats, and I can totally see we'll have to wash this sort of thing a lot.


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## VeezieTG (Nov 10, 2006)

we have soft tiles too. the whole play room was covered in them. my son is 3.5 yrs old and we've had them and the letters and numbers ones since he was a couple months old. neither sets ever had any chunks taken out of them where i would think it was a choking hazard, but i agree with a pp that they're hard to clean. about once a month, my bf took 'em all outside and pressure hosed them all. not the letters ones. we don't even have them anymore. just because they're so small compared to the big huge tiles. the soft tiles are about 3/4in thick. i'd like to see a baby pull a piece of that off in a few seconds! plus, can i just say that if you take care of them, they're amazing for a preschooler/toddler. my sons did tumbles and cart wheels on them. i even used carpet tape and put them around on the walls (one tile high) all the way around. i personally love them.


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## moonjunio (Feb 1, 2009)

Thanks for all the feedback, I will look into Soft Tiles  Sounds like the safety all depends on brand and style...


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## ScarletBegonias (Aug 24, 2005)

well, for the typical child, no. for my 16 mo ds, yes! he loves to bite and easily takes bites out of foam. he will lay on the ground, put his face on the floor and bite a chunk out!


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## JudiAU (Jun 29, 2008)

We have a smaller size mat with letters and pop out pieces and what not. DS was never much of a mouther but I don't recommend because it was a huge pain to move, put away, the pieces were always coming up, etc.

Instead, we have big ol' boring mats that are much larger, never come apart, and are super-protective. We have sealed concrete floors in most of our apartment. We bought them at BRU but they sell them all over the place. Designed for weightlighting and whatnot. Super safe for falls. Never had a problem with tears even after a huge amount of use. I can cut with a knife but I would be shocked if it was something you could bite through.


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## moonjunio (Feb 1, 2009)

DD's daycare has a letter mat, but they put packing tape over the whole backside so nothing pops out


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## RunnerDuck (Sep 12, 2003)

Anything that can remotely be choked on is labeled a choking hazard. We live in a CYA world.

We had a alphabet mat and no one choked. But my kids were always pulling it apart and scattering pieces and driving me INSANE. Plus it was really hard to clean under - somehow tons of dust and dirt and hair would work it's way under, and when you went to pull the mat up, static held the pieces to the floor (hardwood) so it fell apart... DROVE ME NUTS. Cannot emphasize how much I hated that thing. I ended up getting a kiddie rug from Ikea instead. Not quite as big and not as cushy but I can wash it in the washer and it never falls apart.


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## Tizzy (Mar 16, 2007)

Both my kids have taken the letters out and bitten on them but have never actually bitten a piece off.
Foam balls on the other hand...


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## moonjunio (Feb 1, 2009)

I ended up getting the Soft Tiles brand, nice high quality mat, very cushy and comes in your choice of many colors! I went with alternating blue and orange. I like how the border pieces are beveled so there is less of a tripping hazard on the sides.

Unfortunately our pets love them as well... I have to put the floor away every night (it's on top of laminate in the living room) otherwise the cats would scratch it to pieces!


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