My daughter just started crawling, and we’re currently in a house with slippery wood floors. She can just barely crawl, and tends to push off of the floor with her knees (rather than fully lifting them), to propel herself forward.
This disqualified the regular (and slippery!) baby knee pads that I saw on amazon.com and various DIY sites–they were just focused on padding and didn’t include non-slip provisions. (Note: lots of people whose babies crawl normally seemed pretty happy with them, so I’m not saying they’re terrible for everyone). :)
The Snazzy Baby knee pads looked WAY too bulky for her little legs, and several reviewers complained that their babies were uncomfortable wearing them.
My first attempt at non-slip baby knee pads was an EPIC fail. I took a pair of baby legwarmers (since I knew they fit), and drizzled them with glue. I figured that the glue would dry as a grippy substance. I forgot that not all glue dries flexibly (there’s a special fabric glue that does, but naturally that’s not what I used).They were stiff and incredibly uncomfortable.
I then thought about chopping off the non-slip pads from a pair of footed PJs and ironing them onto tube socks via fusible web.That COULD work, but was a lot of work….
Which lead me to my next idea….why not just use socks that already have grip? Like slipper-socks?
I took a pair of slipper socks, trimmed off the toe and the material above the heel, slipped them on her legs, and she was off and crawling!
I used fleecy-chenille-like textured socks, so they didn’t unravel when cut, thus eliminating any need to hem or finish the edges. They stay in place surprisingly well, even when she’s crawling on carpet. I think it helps to leave the heel of the sock on as extra material to prevent slippage.
Here’s what another version of the sock looks like (before being chopped up).
The socks are made to be “one-size fits all,” so they’re pretty roomy. My daughter’s legs are very small, so there are about 2 inches of extra room inside each pad, so she’ll definitely be able to grow into them.
The down side is that the slipper socks are pretty warm, so I’m not sure how great they’d be during hot weather.
For cooler weather, though, they’re flexible and comfortable protection against hard floors AND slippery surfaces!
Stars, Camouflage, a Dash of Sparkle 
Clever. :) Glad you found a solution!
These are amazing! Awesome craftyness.
Thanks so much, Emily and Meghan!! :) I appreciate you stopping by!
This is a great idea! We live in Texas and unfortunately this idea will be too hot, as you wondered about, for our summers. I too have a crawly 11-month old and until I could find the perfect knee pad and PRICE (gosh, they are expensive!), I decided to make something myself for a temporary solution. I have neoprene work gloves that I’ve worn out – there are holes in the fingertips. So as I was getting ready to throw them out, I decided to cut the fingers off and the thumb and slipped them onto my baby’s legs with the wrist-end of the gloves on her lower leg and the open finger-end of the gloves on her upper leg. The neoprene (scuba wetsuit material) doesn’t slide on hard floors, and are great protection for her little knees! They are NOT pretty = downside, but they are a way to recycle what I already paid for!
That’s an awesome idea! Thanks for sharing your innovative solution, Julie! :) I love the upcycling aspect, and I’m sure your baby’s knees appreciate the extra padding.
Those dots come off and become choking hazards…
Ooo. Thanks for the tip. I haven’t had that happen b/c we didn’t use them for long enough, but that’s a good note of caution to keep in mind!
I was looking up a way to make non-slip socks as well as knee pads for my daughter. I haven’t tested this out yet, but a way to avoid the choking hazard could be to use the socks with out the nonslip dots on them then use the foam clothing paint to make them nonslip. I’ll be trying this out after I go to the craft store tomorrow.
Samantha, I’d love to hear how the foam clothing paint works! Thanks for the suggestion! :)
thanks
GOD BLESS YOUI
Has anyone attempted just plane hot glue? That tends to be bendy when it dries. I was just looking myself for my little one who is about to start to crawling and I have tile and wood floor through out the house.