There's not enough power output to be concerned about. It wouldn't be damaging to the eyes and you would feel it if there was radiant heat output.

Anyway, wouldn't the child have its eyes closed most of the time?

Yeah mosty closed

Could you not just paint the kid a glow in the dark colour?

Check out the following link

http://www.derwentcctv.com/datasheets/safety.pdf

Funny Story about IR's. At low levels you aren't going to have any damage. But my company was looking at putting together an extreme camera. 4mile day range, 2 mile ir Night range. We contacted a soviet reseller in canada about the ir for it. So in a thick Russian accent the guy explained to us that the IR melts eyeballs. 'What range does it do that?' Any range!

And that is when we stopped thinking about Extreme Cameras. Granted, it doesn't actually melt eyeballs, but an IR of that heat and focus does work like a supersized laser pointer shooting into your cornia.

Also, howdy. I am new Nice to meet you all.

Not a expert optician, but common sense kindof makes me think if you would not stare into a normal 'floodlight' you should not stare into a equivalant IR one.

You would not stare directly into a bright torch either, so I would not stare into any bright IR source, as the eye will not see it, and therefore the retina will not contract, nor will you blink or naturally look away. All your natural eye defences will not come into play. Also search google for infra red and cataracts, there is a definitive link.

But it all depends on the intensity, and the actuall infra red source, as they come in different wavelengths, and intensities.

Overall though, I would not expose a person, least of all a babie, to ANY very local bright light source, wether visible or invisible, its just not worth the risk.

If its not pointing directly at the baby, and its just illuminating the room then its probably not a problem, but you could always check with a optician to be on the safe side. You only get one pair of eyes.