Baby Heads & Hardwood Floors, YIKES!

[mimies]

My husband and I are new parents and our son will be 11mos. as of March 30th. He currently loves to walk around on his own and we try our hardest to catch his every fall but it seems impossible. He manages to fall backwards & hit his poor little head on our hardwood floors at least once a day. We would like to know if this happens to any of your children or are we being horrible parents?
Thanx

[Sleuth]

Ours bumped his head off the marble quite regularly and we tried to employ the same catching skills you describe. Babies don't fall from a great distance, though, so it just ended up being a long series of bumps and bruises.

[turtle]

Agree with Sleuth, once our LO had done it a few times and really hurt herself she didn't do it again. Sounds a little harsh I know, but as you say you just can't be there for every single stumble/fall.

[kashismum]

Mine tend to fall on their bums once they start to walk.
It did happen a few times from sitting position but only once or twice.
If it's a problem, have you thought of getting a carpet or two?

[bekyboo44]

Or you could put down the foam ABC tiles...they protect heads a little better.

[alibali]

We had the same problem. As bekyboo44 said, put down rubber tiles in a large area where he can practice walking (we laid the tiles around 11 months for our daughter. We put them down in the living room - b/c we have an l- shaped sofa, we were able to block off the sitting area- didn't look pretty, but it was a safe & sociable place for her to walk and play. After she was good on her feet, we let her out of the rubber tiled area once in a while to see what would happen. She had the occasional fall, but it got better after 2 weeks or so- she learned to fall forward, rather than back, and protect herself with her arms/ hands. When that went ok, we took away the rubber tiles and she now walks freely around the flat (we took them away at 13 months), even the tiled kitchen floors & bathrooms! So, step by step.