Paint fumes and babies

[JamesA]

I need to finish the rooms the babies will be going in in about 10 weeks time. Both our room that they'll be in initially and the nursery need doing.
This will involve touching up a few scuff marks in the emulsion and glossing and glueing the skirting on.

I've heard you should really paint at least a month before the babies go in.
I'm wondering if less is OK if it's just touching up with a tiny percentage of the paint.

Anyone know any more about this?
Did you take any precautions when doing your own or other peoples nurseries?

I doubt I'll have much time for it anyway , but do people generally not recommend doing any more painting in the house until they're kids are a certain age?

 

[JohnD]

I expect this is a point about paint solvents.

Paint cans are these days marked to say what proportion of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds, I think) they contain.

Water based paint like emulsion should be very low, and I would have thought will be dried off within a day or so.

Gloss paint will be higher, though you can also get water-based gloss it is IMO not very good.

The baby's bedroom will be the only one to be careful about, other rooms are likely to be open while it is drying, and they will not be in there for hours at a time. It will do no harm to open the windows for a day or two until after the smell goes.

 

[Growler]

Use Crown Breatheasy.
Also B&Q do a brightwhite low odour gloss for interior wood.

You'll have more smell off yer grillpan.

 

[russellm72]

Hi James,

I agree. The emulsion shouldn't really be a problem after it's dry. I would give a few days for the gloss to dry. I have recently painted the skirting boards in my dining room while the baby was away. After a day or two with a nice through draft they are bone dry and i can't detect any smells. Clearly your not going to put a baby in a room when the boards are still drying and you can smell the paint. To suggest you need to leave it for a month sounds like overkill to me.

Regards

Russell.