You’re prepared to witness and join in your little one’s journey to exploring the world on all fours—until you think of bruised knees. The thought of their cute and chubby little knees getting wounded makes you forget all the exciting things that await you in the crawling phase.
But are these knee injuries bad? It depends. First of all, crawling doesn’t need a lot of intervention because it’s part of the baby’s development. So a little irritation won’t hurt and can heal quickly. However, when your little one is more active than usual, you can do something to protect their knees from injury.
This article will discuss baby knee protection basics, from setting a safe environment to wearing baby knee pads.
The Essence of Crawling for Babies
While crawling is an exciting milestone, it’s also important to note other important benefits. Crawling is the first sign of a baby’s independent exploration and usually starts around nine months old. Therefore, it’s a crucial growth stage and provides the baby with the following.
Foundation of Strength and Stability
Crawling builds the strength and stability of your baby’s arms and legs. As a result, they can learn how to feed, dress, and play with toys independently.
Development of Sensory and Awareness Skills
In addition, crawling enhances their sense of awareness toward the environment and a deeper understanding of their movements. This includes balance and sensory systems, cognition, coordination, and problem-solving skills.
The Knee Protection Project: How to Build a Safe Crawling Environment for Your Baby
It’s important to ensure your baby’s protection as they start to crawl and explore the world around them. If you’re a first-time parent unsure of where to start and what to use, here’s a quick guide to environment setting and protective clothing for crawling babies.
Moreover, we’ll highlight the next big thing you should have in your knee protection kit: baby knee pads for crawling! Clear misconceptions and find out how to use them for maximum knee protection.
Environment Setting
Not sure of how to build a safe place for your crawling baby? Now is the perfect time to get serious about babyproofing. Here are some safety basics for crawling.
Electrical Equipment
Cover all electrical outlets with safety plugs and move cords out of the way to a place where your baby can’t reach them. You can also use easy-to-install and self-closing electrical outlet blockers for convenience.
Potentially Harmful Substances
Keep all potentially harmful substances (e.g., cleaning supplies, medicines, and fragile, heavy, or sharp objects) away from your baby’s reach. You can store them in cabinets and use child-safe drawer locks on the doors.
Danger Zones
A danger zone is an area at home with a heightened risk for accidents. Some danger zones might be generally safe for adults, but it’s not the same for babies. These areas include the bathroom, kitchen, garage, stairs, fireplace, or pool area. To babyproof these places, use gates or sliding door locks to block access.
Heavy and Sharp Furniture
Your crawling baby might climb on furniture and get hurt. Use safety tip straps to secure dressers, bookcases, appliances, TV, and other heavy objects in the corner or against a wall to prevent accidents. Additionally, cover sharp edges with corner guards to keep the baby safe, even if they come into contact with them.
Small Objects
Babies are naturally curious and will put everything in their mouths. This puts them at risk for choking from small objects (e.g., coins, buttons, or pet food). Keep these items out of your crawling baby’s reach (especially on the floor) or dispose of them properly.
Hard, Rough Surfaces
Crawling babies explore every inch of their surroundings, especially the floor. Ensure that it’s free from any harmful substance and generally safe for them to crawl on. As much as possible, avoid letting your baby crawl on cement, marble, or gravel. You may also add rugs, mats, carpets, or blankets on the floor for extra protection.
Knee Protective Clothing
Now that you have a safe crawling space for your baby, it’s time to think about what they wear. Naturally, you’ll want something that makes them feel comfortable, allows freedom of movement, and provides knee protection. Below is a list of protective clothing we can recommend.
Cotton Pants
Cotton pants are a great choice for baby clothing because they’re soft, lightweight, and breathable. Consequently, they prevent irritation and protect the knees from injury. They’re also stylish—they come in various designs to fit your baby’s personality.
Leg Warmers and Knee-High Socks
Leg warmers are protective and fashionable. Primarily, they keep the baby’s legs and knees warm, but they can also protect the knees when crawling. Knee-high socks also work well as knee protectors because they cover more parts than regular socks.
Knee Pads
Here’s the next big thing in your knee protection arsenal. Knee pads are such a great idea because of their multipurpose nature. Not only do they provide extra protection against bumps and bruises, but they help keep your crawling baby’s knees warm in colder weather.
Knee pads also help your baby crawl in the sense that they don’t restrict movement. Moreover, they are thicker and firmer than socks, putting your baby’s knee safety on another level.
Knee Pads: Knowing When You’ll Need to Buy One
Ultimately, you know your child best. This means using our list as a guide and deciding whether the items on it are essential or not. Thus, we understand if you don’t find knee pads necessary. Still, how do you know if you need to get knee pads for your baby or not?
Here’s the catch: crawling helps babies develop proprioception depth, which is the sense and awareness of body positioning and movement. Babies need to feel the surface they’re crawling on to develop this skill, and wearing knee pads might interfere with this development.
So when are knee pads necessary? Experts recommend that they’re a must-have if your baby suffers from certain conditions such as muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, hemophilia, or slow development. Additionally, if you mind scrapes and bruises on your baby’s knees, you may consider getting them knee pads.
Protect and Cushion Your Little One’s Knees With Ashtonbee
Crawling is an exciting phase, but it is also worrisome, especially when your baby’s knees aren’t protected. However, you can solve this problem by creating a safe space and investing in knee protection clothing for maximum security.
That way, you can keep your baby safe while enjoying their first steps to independence. If you’re looking for protective clothing for your baby’s knees, try Ashtonbee’s colorful set of baby knee pads for crawling with high-quality cushioning and support.
It’s breathable, comfortable, easy to wash, and comes in three, colorful pairs to choose from. Aside from that, we also included an additional pacifier clip in the pack for your little one, so you get great value for the money. Make your baby’s first crawling adventures safe and enjoyable with Ashtonbee!
