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I know how you feel - I love white too!
I have a 23 month old, and I think the rug might be a problem for a few reasons... yes, it's white, but some people would be able to keep it clean (not me). But also it looks like it has a deep pile, which I think might be dangerous for an infant because 1. the baby could rip off some fibers and eat them, or 2. little pieces of dirt (pennies, paper clips, etc) might be concealed from view in the rug and the baby could dig them out and eat them. Trust me, crawling babies find EVERY little thing on the floor and put it in their mouths.
I would say you should maybe indulge in something else for the house that goes up on the wall where the kiddo can't get to it.

that reader with the 4 1/2 year old and the flokati would be me...

...frankly, a flokati is EASIER than other rugs to keep clean, because if it gets dirty (we have a cat who suffers from hairballs), you just wash it with some woolwash in the washing machine (we have a European washing machine with a wool cycle).

If you want to make it soft for your baby on those hard tile floors, put a rug pad underneath; flokatis (even thick ones) are still very thin compared to other rugs -- but that is why you can just fold them up into the wash...

you can get a similar look with a sheepskin or goatskin rug, which will provide more cushioning, but they are harder to clean

I have a seven yr old and a 20 month old and a 8x10' white flokati. It is very easy to keep clean and it is very thick. I splurged and bought the thickest one I could find, measured at 4000 gms. It is so thick that my kid sleeps on it occasionally when she has friends over.
The only down side is because the pile is so long, a couple of times the kids have lost small toys and marbles in it and "OUCH" it hurts to step on them or go to kneel down and get one under the knee. But, every once in a while, I pick it up and shake it out.
Ours is too big for our washer, but the big loads at the laundromat work fine.

I had a flokati for a few years when my son was in the toddler to early pre-k period. I had no problem keeping it clean from him . . . my dogs were another story! They ultimately trashed it.

The one problem with the flokati is that it's difficult to do puzzles or play with blocks or similar toys on it . . . nothing stays stable. So if that's going to be the main play rug, you might want to find something a bit more level.

I would recommend floor squares or puzzle mats for babes and tots. To crawl you need traction. Second, what about drool, spit-up, vomit, poopsplosions, diaper leaks... Yeah, yeah, I never thought my kid would have a poopsplosion until he DID on the floor; the Pampers couldn't handle explosive diarrhea up and out the back.

I have regular carpeting at home, and over the last two years, it's been totally trashed with all kinds of baby bodily fluids and products. Stanley Steemer and biokleen Bac-Out are our constant companions.

I would recommend something more baby/tot-friendly, sorry.

Hi we have had a small flokati rug in our daughters room from day one. It is her favorite place to snuggle up with me and read. Like others have already mentioned they are very easy to clean and I would totally recommend one. If your baby is particularly prone to explosive reactions (top or bottom) you might need to clean it fairly often (but frankly that will be the case no matter what rug you use). They are really lovely for new babies warm in winter and cool in summer so lovely for them to lie and kick on. We got ours because it was similar to the sheepskins that they put our daughter on in the Special Care Baby Unit.

Thank you everyone for all your helpful comments!
I think we will go ahead with buying one, as I love the fact that we can just throw it into the washing machine to clean.
We've also decided to put in some floor squares/puzzle mats on one side of the living room, specifically for the baby to play when he is bigger.
So now everyone is happy!

Before you buy wool, my suggestion would be to read up on the abuses that sheep in the wool industry endure, as well as the environmental impacts of using animal-based products rather than plant-based ones. Aside from wool being impractical in terms of the care required, I personally think it's irresponsible to buy something that has such a negative impact on the environment and on fellow creatures, since it's important to me that my children grow up with nonviolent values (and that they still have a planet to live on once I'm no longer here). Obviously, we can't completely eliminate our impact on our planet, but we can at least be informed consumers and decide which purchases and lifestyle choices are ones we truly want to make.

http://www.savethesheep.com/ has great information, though it's unfortunately tied into PETA (which has a history of using violence and terrorism in their activism -- not something I support).

There are some great cotton shag rugs around if you're looking for something fluffy. It's an environmentally friendly material and can be thrown in the wash. Cotton also has the added benefit of not shedding like wool flokati tends to do (well, unless it's super-expensive flokati, which has even more potentially yucky chemicals involved in the processing that the manufacturers aren't required to mention).

There are also synthetic flokati rugs, which involve less overall energy use than animal-based products, and don't involve cruelty, but are of course made of non-renewable materials and are more toxic and energy-wasting than pure plant materials.

Fine for baby, NOT good for pets. With three dogs and three cats, our flokati was mangled badly even after we banished the animals from the room the rug occupied.

Other problems with flokati: usually sheds a lot for the first year, hard to vacuum (and you won't want to be tossing it into the washer nearly as often as you might otherwise vacuum a rug), and you need to vigorously brush it out for about twenty minutes after each time you wash it. They also turn gray fairly easily after you wash them...

I love the look of a flokati, but I wouldn't call them low maint by any means.