# Would you let your kids jump into a big pit of foam?



## Mere (Oct 1, 2002)

That's right - just like a ball pit, only this is a pit filled with big foam cubes. Dd has now been to several birthday parties at the local play gym/gymnastics place that houses the foam pit (2 foam pits, actually), and I have to say that it is great, great fun to jump into (I've tried it







). Dd loves it, and as far as I can tell every other kid loves it too.

Then there's this little part of me that wonders, is this a healthy thing to do? Is foam safe? I've heard about foam off-gassing in mattresses being dangerous, but I don't know much about it. This foam doesn't look new though, which maybe is a good thing if it's not off-gassing but a bad thing if it's releasing little particles of something into the air every time you jump into it?

The other thing I wonder about is cleanliness...there's no smell or obvious grime, but a *lot* of kids pass through this place and jump into those pits. I've heard stories about ball pits before, but I can't decide if a foam pit is better or worse.

Any thoughts?


----------



## mama ganoush (Jul 8, 2004)

ummmm, when i was young and wild (read as when i took lots of drugs) i used to go to foam parties and often the foam would sting and irritate my eyes.


----------



## chersolly (Aug 29, 2004)

But that was liquid foam?

Foam blocks sound fun. I'd like to jump into a pit of them.


----------



## mama ganoush (Jul 8, 2004)

oooooooooohhhhhhhh.

south beach's foam parties were legendary back in the day.








:


----------



## sleet76 (Jun 2, 2004)

We went to a gymnastics place that had a few of those for an open gym. I didn't let DD jump in at the time, but only because I felt she was too small. She was only 18 or 19 months old. I didn't think she could maneuver herself well enough to get her self mobile again and out and also avoid jumping on someone or help herself be safe if someone jumped on her.

However, if we go again and she is old enough, I would let her. I'd just wash her hands after being done playing (for illness prevention). I figure whatever level of off-gassing there may be would not likely be damaging for the few minutes she'd spend in it--she spends MUCH, MUCH more time on our couch and in the car--places where there is foam that she is in daily contact (under fabric, of course).


----------



## wildmonkeys (Oct 4, 2004)

I do. I actually teach gymnastics two hours a week at a place that has a foam pit and my classes jump into it at the end - I even play a game where I have them balance foam blocks on their heads and have them pop them off like jack-in-the-box when I call out their names.

I take my kiddos to open gym there and let them both go in as well....

I do know that there are specific companies that sell the foam for that very purpose so I would think they would create it with environmental safety in mind.

That being said - INSIST they jump in feet first - foam pits are soft but kids can really hurt their necks if they treat it like water.

As for cleanliness - they are gross - if you ever see a pit emptied the bottom has a layer of socks, bandaids, and ponytial holders that would make you gag - the good news is that pits are required to be six feet deep so it is just about impossible for kids to come into contact with the stuff on the bootm.

HTH
BJ
Barney & Ben


----------



## sahm (Nov 19, 2001)

I'm glad you asked the question.

My kids are going to their first birthday party at a gymnastics club on Sunday... I had never even heard of these things before but I'm sure there's one there...


----------



## bendmom (Sep 4, 2003)

My dh coaches his snowboard team at a gymnastics place so the kids can jump in the foam pits too. We let our five yr old go every time, but I agree that you should not jump in head first. They have one pit that is NOT 6 ft. and I have seen the bottom-


----------



## hotmamacita (Sep 25, 2002)

feet first!


----------



## blessedwithboys (Dec 8, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *wildmonkeys*
I do know that there are specific companies that sell the foam for that very purpose so I would think they would create it with environmental safety in mind.

:LOL :LOL :LOL :LOL :LOL

sorry, please dont be offended.







:


----------



## wildmonkeys (Oct 4, 2004)

Sorry to offer my idiot opinion


----------



## Mere (Oct 1, 2002)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *wildmonkeys*
As for cleanliness - they are gross - if you ever see a pit emptied the bottom has a layer of socks, bandaids, and ponytial holders that would make you gag - the good news is that pits are required to be six feet deep so it is just about impossible for kids to come into contact with the stuff on the bootm.

Ugh. I'm glad to hear there's an actual rule that they're supposed to be 6 feet deep though.

I had no idea foam pits were such a common thing! I had never heard of such a thing before.

Thanks for the feedback!


----------



## charmarty (Jan 27, 2002)

yup I do!

My kids just finished taking 10 weeks of gymnastics. Thier fav thing was the foam pit! Well that AND the trampoline!







They have a blast in there. We wash thier hands as soon as we are done tho. IMO they really arent in there very long. SO my worries about health is not much of an issue for me.


----------



## wende (Oct 4, 2003)

My dd is a gymnast, will start competing this summer, so we've seen many a foam pit. I've never questioned letter her jump into it, actually.


----------



## Gidget (Aug 31, 2002)

I dont know. We all know the whole McD's needle in the pit is an urban legend, but all the possibilities freak me out. I read on Special Needs (I think) that those are good for kids with SID so I am thinking of buying a home sized one for dd. Should be fun.


----------



## beth568 (Jul 1, 2004)

I'm going to build one for my daughter who has SID - a bunch of foam blocks stuffed into a duvet cover for her to jump into.

I'm sure the public ones are filthy - think of the way the foam can absorb fluid.







But sometimes you just have to put such thoughts out of your mind. I'd probably let my kid do it.


----------



## mom2savannah_grace (Jul 31, 2004)

My dd is in gymnastics and the foam pit is one of her favorite places to be. I try not to think about what's on the bottom.


----------



## charmarty (Jan 27, 2002)

do you guys have links to direct me to the home kind for SID?


----------



## MamaBug (Jun 13, 2003)

My ds who is 4 takes gymnastics and I never even thought anything of it but that it looked fun and I wanted to do it.:LOL It does sound very gross what is under all that foam though, and how exactly do they clean the blocks? Or do they just replace them?


----------



## TiredX2 (Jan 7, 2002)

I would and do "allow" them to on a weekly basis.

Both DD & DS take gymnastics as a place with a foam pit. They like it.


----------



## chalupamom (Apr 15, 2002)

I'll have to think about this.

The balls in a ball pit are hard, right? So they can at least be (theoretically) hosed off. I'm not sure how the foam could be even nominally cleaned.

Hmmm. I wouldn't want to let my kids play in one but no doubt I would end up saying OK because I'd get lots of jumping up and down and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE and, at the end of the day, it seems relatively harmless.


----------



## yaM yaM (Nov 9, 2003)

WAAAAAAY FUN!









Just make sure no one jumps in too close to someone else who's already in the pit, because, sometimes, there's someone covered up by foam blocks and others, who are jumping in, may have a hard time noticing them before jumping!


----------



## seren (Jul 11, 2003)

I don't know. The cleanliness issue is pretty big for me. Maybe if it was 6 feet deep, but otherwise I'm not sure. Dh used to work at a McDonald's with a ball pit. He said it was so nasty when they cleaned it. He refuses to let our children play in them. But it hasn't really been an issue since all the McD's here have taken theirs out.


----------



## Llyra (Jan 16, 2005)

Yuck alert.
***********************

My mom worked at an amusement park when I was a kid, and I spent a lot of time there. They had a large ball pit there. We would routinely find such nastiness as puke that nobody ever reported, poop that had apparently leaked out of a diaper or something, food that had already gone moldy... I'm being totally serious. The pit was emptied and cleaned on a weekly basis, and I can remember how gross it was. And balls can be hosed off. Foam is worse, I think.

Anyway, my mom always let us go in it, but we weren't allowed to put our heads under the balls and we had to wash our hands really well after we came out.

I would think that a foam pit somewhere smaller and less public would probably be a whole lot less gross-- we had hundreds and sometimes even thousands of people in and out of that pit on a daily basis, with very little supervision. So the ones in gymnastics class are probably okay. But McDonalds? I can't imagine.


----------



## Mere (Oct 1, 2002)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *llyra*
Yuck alert.
***********************

My mom worked at an amusement park when I was a kid, and I spent a lot of time there. They had a large ball pit there. We would routinely find such nastiness as puke that nobody ever reported, poop that had apparently leaked out of a diaper or something, food that had already gone moldy... I'm being totally serious. The pit was emptied and cleaned on a weekly basis, and I can remember how gross it was. And balls can be hosed off. Foam is worse, I think.

Alright, I WAS starting to feel okay about the foam pit until I read that! Puke, poop, moldy food and foam - not a good combination. Now I'm feeling really conflicted about it again.


----------



## LittleYellow (Jul 22, 2004)

I've never seen one of these, so maybe I'm picturing it all wrong, but if a foam pit is 6 feet deep could a child sink down into the foam and not be able to get out?


----------



## Ruthla (Jun 2, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *LittleYellow*
I've never seen one of these, so maybe I'm picturing it all wrong, but if a foam pit is 6 feet deep could a child sink down into the foam and not be able to get out?

The foam blocks are pretty firm. A child can't just jump in and find herself stuck at the bottom. She'd have to wiggle her way there. If a child had trouble getting out, the supervising adult could help her. (I think it goes without saying that there's at least one adult supervising the foam pit??)

My girls jumped in the foam pit when they took gymnastics. It never even occured to me not to let them. They can handle a few germs!!!


----------



## BusyMommy (Nov 20, 2001)

Oh, my kids LOVE the foam pit at our gym. I can't imagine saying no to this. We'll just wash hands afterwards. And, yes, just teach them to make sure the area's clear first.

We even have a balance beam over one corner of ours--very fun.

Try it Mommas, jump in and see what it's like.


----------



## wildmonkeys (Oct 4, 2004)

I hope it is okay that I am going to chime in again...

I do think that foam would be harder to clean that blocks - the gym where I work actually replaces the top few layers of blocks every three - four months and has the team kids "fluff" it every two weeks to make sure that different blocks make it to the top and that the blocks do not become too compacted.

Any decent gym will have at least one staff member supervising kids in the pit at all times - thus if anybody throws-up or whatever they would know to target a huge segment of blocks to throw away whereas at McDonalds there is rarely anybody watching the pitballs.

It is actually very difficult to get wedged down too far into the foam and the kids should NEVER be allowed to put their heads under the foam - to begin with another child might jump right on top of them if they were out of view. Again, a decent gym would have staff members supervising pit time.

I actually got roped into supervising three birthday parties on Sunday - the kids had a great time in the pit - I myself was in there throwing blocks with the kids!!! We actually did have a child throw-up but it was on the trampoline and made for a much easier clean-up than the pit would have.

BJ
Barney & Ben


----------

