Baby Play Mats

I've been meaning to write about the baby play mats for a while but I kept forgetting about it whenever I sat down in front of the computer.  We bought ours a couple months ago after visiting the play mat aisle at Homeplus every week for a month and also looking at different retailers to see if they offer other types of play mats, we bought the biggest (i think 140 x 250 cm) and thickest (1.5 cm) PVC mat online at about 90,000 won.

In Korea, Parklon is the main manufacturer of the play mats.  Yes, at Costco and Toys R Us, you will see Fisher Price play mats but if you look at the mat itself, Parklon is still embossed onto the Fisher Price mats.  When it comes to baby play mats, it either is made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) or PE (polyethylene).  I know PVC has a really bad rap with it containing carcinogens, but apparently PVC can be safe.  What makes PVC dangerous is the phthalates (I kind of like saying that word.  It reminds me of Daffy Duck sputtering his spit everywhere :) and the other different metals that can be used in manufacturing PVC. It's like nearly impossible to avoid PVC altogether but there are alternatives (click here for those alternatives), and thankfully, the mats made by Parklon has been certified to show that there are very little to no phthalates or other harmful metals in their mats. For their certificate, click here.

The play mats made out of PE are actually cheaper than the PVC, but there are some tradeoffs.  While PE is "safer" in terms of plastics, it isn't as dense as the PVC to protect your little baby's head from impact.  Squeeze PE and PVC and you can tell the difference right away.  PVC feels more like a memory foam, while PE feels like a packaging sponge.  We were thinking that it might be cheaper to just buy two of the PE mats and lay it on top of each other but I was afraid that it might be a problem when Luna starts to run around and the mat might slip...like you know how rugs can be super dangerous when you don't put down a grip under the rug?  Also, with two mats on top of each other, it would be like 3 cm tall and I didn't know how much I would like that.  I already have problems with tripping over Luna's toys; I don't need another thing to be tripping over.

I think the other alternative to the mats would be the puzzle mats which I think are made of EVA or ethyl vinyl acetate.  There seems to be some past issues with the use of EVA but there isn't anymore? Something like that.  I don't know too much about EVA because I wasn't looking for puzzle mats.  I felt like puzzle mats would pose more as a choking hazard when my Luna decides to bit a piece of it off so I didn't even consider the puzzles.  Besides, if Luna figures out how to pull apart the puzzles, that would turn into a nuisance too. But you can read about EVA on these websites
http://toxicfoammats.com/
http://www.healthybuilding.net/pvc/SortingOutVinyls.html
http://healthychild.org/easy-steps/find-safe-foam-mats-for-toddlers-to-play-on/

So much to read, huh?  I tried to sum it all up for you here but you might want to do some of your own reading too.

Here are additional reads:
http://www.parklon.co.kr/parklon_eng/matstory/sub_matstory02.html
http://www.parklon.co.kr/parklon_eng/products/sub_products.html#2
http://www.parklon.co.kr/parklon_eng/service/sub_service03.html
http://www.motherearthnews.com/green-homes/the-vinyl-debate.aspx#axzz2bLoQE5eL

If you're not gonna read any of them, at least read this one: http://www.green-4-u.com/2009/02/02/why-plastic-is-bad/

My one last concern for the mats is this: during the winter, Koreans turn on the under floor heaters which I do love but I hadn't thought about how the heat would affect the play mat.  The FAQ on the Parklon website says to avoid direct sunlight/heat and that it should be fine in room temperature but nothing about heated floors.  It does say not to clean with a steam cleaner too.  I also read the FAQ in Korean too just because their English was a bit funky.  I'm thinking that I will probably lay out a rug under the play mat in the winter to avoid overheating the mat and possibly melting the print onto the floor permanently.

I hope this helps you in choosing your floor mats and good luck!  (As always, you should know that whether you are in Korea or the U.S., it is generally cheaper to buy online)

This is when we first got our mat so the ends were curled a little bit.

It was really cute how Luna would try to "grab" the bird printed on the mat. She doesn't do that anymore....