Choosing adult and kids latex mattresses - cost, quality, layers, warranty, exchange - oh my!

[phoenix]

Hi McJenn,

Thanks for letting us know what you ended up deciding for both you and your kids and for the update … I appreciate it.

For my two young boys I purchased Twin XL Sleep EZ Naturale mattresses which are 100% natural latex with a non removable cover. The cover is a very nice, soft organic cotton knit with wool. It has a firm and medium layer inside. I would say the mattress is firm, but not uncomfortably so, which is good for growing children and healthy spinal alignment. I’ve covered them with Luna Premium Mattress Protectors and am very happy with these. No complaints with these mattresses. I felt they were the best price on the market for a kids mattress that had no synthetic materials and a quality cover all the way around. I found one company with a better priced latex bed but they used a poly material on the bottom and something other than wool for fire retardant properties and I didn’t like those features.

You certainly made a great quality/value choice for your kids. Children generally need firmer mattresses than adults and if a mattress is “comfortable” for an adult then it’s often too soft for younger children so the firmness of the Naturale would be a good choice for your kids.

Disappointingly after all my research, I’ve not been as pleased with the mattress as I would have hoped. My husband has been happy with pretty much whatever layer combination he’s ended up with in all my tinkering but I’ve been waking up with lower back aches for quite a while now. Lots of futzing with layers hasn’t really remedied that. Currently I’m on F, XF, F, S from bottom to top. I like the firm feel with the pillow top and had to do a layer exchange to get there. The SO people have been very accommodating and helpful with all my requests for advice on how to get comfortable. I don’t feel like I’m there yet but am now outside my window for return or further exchanges.

I’m sorry to hear that your mattress hasn’t worked out as well for you (at least so far) as the mattresses you chose for your children.

Unfortunately it’s not possible to “diagnose” mattress comfort issues on a forum with any certainty because you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unique unknowns, variables, and complexities involved including body type, sleeping positions, health conditions, and individual sensitivities and preferences that can affect how each person sleeps on a mattress in terms of “comfort” and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) or any “symptoms” they experience so a mattress that would be “perfect” for one person may be unsuitable for someone else to sleep on.

Having said that … there is more about the most common symptoms that people may experience when they sleep on a mattress and the most likely (although not the only) reasons for them in post #2 here.

There is also more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may also be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support” and “pressure relief” and “feel” that may be helpful as well.

These posts are the “tools” that can help with the analysis, detective work, or trial and error that may be necessary to help you learn your body’s language and “translate” what your body is trying to tell you so you can identify the types of changes that have the best chance of reducing or eliminating any “symptoms” you are experiencing (at least to the degree that any symptoms are from your mattress rather than the result of any other circumstances or pre-existing issues you may have that aren’t connected to a mattress).

The most common (although not the only) reason for lower back pain is a mattress that is too soft (either comfort layers that are too thick/soft or support layers that are too soft) but if you can list the combinations you’ve tried and describe how your “symptoms” changed on each of them (particularly which of them seemed to help with your lower back) I may be able to make some suggestions.

I would also make sure that the support system under your mattress is suitable as well. It should have a firm, flat, and evenly supportive support surface underneath it that has minimal to no flex under the mattress and for larger sizes with at least one center support beam that has good support to the floor to prevent any sagging in the middle of the mattress. The support surface under the mattress should also have enough surface area to prevent the mattress from sagging through any gaps or spaces in the support surface over time but still allow some airflow under the mattress. I would suggest that the gaps between any slats are no more than about 3" (with 1 x 3 slats) although less than that would be better yet. It should provide similar support to having your mattress on the floor.

The other thing I don’t like about the bed is how squishy it is. It compresses greatly when you sit on the side of it and feels a bit like a big pillow sometimes. Even with putting all the firmest layers on one side, it still squishes. We tried a three layer version by putting one layer aside for a few nights and this helped with the squish factor but DH preferred the feel of four layers.

The “squishiness” and resilience that you are describing is part of the “feel” of latex and is one of the reasons that some people like it and others don’t. As you mentioned this would be more noticeable with softer and/or thicker mattresses. Latex mattresses don’t generally have or need edge support (and mattresses are designed more for sleeping than sitting) although there are certainly some people that tend to sleep on the very outside edge of their mattress or that sit on the outside edge of the mattress that may prefer it. There is more about edge support and latex mattresses in post #3 here but for most people that sit on the edge of their mattress it’s normally just a matter of getting used to sitting more towards the middle of the mattress rather than on the outside edge.

Also, I’ve put a Gotcha Covered organic cotton waterproof mattress protector on our bed. I feel that the wool and the mattress protector somewhat interfere with the feel of the latex and make for a more taut sleeping surface.

There is more about wool quilted covers vs thinner and more stretchy unquilted covers in post #6 here but this is also a preference choice and some people prefer one and some prefer the other. It may be worth trying the mattress without the protector and trying the mattress with the top of the cover unzipped (one at a time) to see if you can isolate whether what you are feeling is coming more from the mattress cover or the protector or a combination of both.

Thanks again for your update and hopefully you can share more details about yourself (body type and sleeping positions etc) and your experience on different layering combinations that may provide some insights into the types of changes that may help.

Phoenix