****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I bought this for my 5 year old daughter to safely practice her tumbling/gymnastics at home. The chemical smell was pretty strong when the mat was opened on Christmas morning. We had extended family visiting from out of town who brought with them a horrendous stomach virus. Their child quickly vomited all over my daughter's new gymnastics mat proving it be be both waterproof and easy to clean...well, aside from the banana chunks in the hard Velcro, which I can say come out pretty easily with the assistance of a toothpick. In fact, I actually became fond of the strong chemical smell. Anything is better than puke, but alas, after being thoroughly sanitized and allowed to air out outside for days, while the viral tragedy played out upon each and every member of our family, the strong chemical smell has diminished.My daughter loves the mat. It's very well made and of high quality materials. It's comparable to those in her gymnastics class, if not better because it is thicker. One thing though that recently happened scares me. I have a 9 month old as well who is crawling. After my 5 year old practiced her gymnastics, I sat my 9 month old on the mat. Anywhere the mat touched her bare skin, it appeared as though she had a minor chemical burn, after having only been on it maybe 3-5 min on her stomach, just lying there chewing on a teething ring. She does have very sensitive skin, but still, it really made me wonder exactly what that strong chemical smell in the material was. It gives my five year old no issue, but I'm that mother that is wondering if I'm unknowingly exposing my family to some seriously harmful chemical, now that I've seen what it did to the baby's skin. Also, without a doubt there were no sanitizing chemicals remaining on the mat to cause this.
