Crib Mattress recommendations?

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
1

Hello,

Do you have any recommendations for a crib mattress? There are so many - but I have no idea what to look for! It seems as though most crib mattresses are spring based and there are a few foam ones. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the foam mattresses sagging though.

I was looking at the Sealy Organic Soybean mattress - but from what I’ve read it has less than 5% soybean foam and the rest is Polyurethane foam and there have been complaints of it sagging.

Willing to purchase online, or go local - but not sure if there are any local manufacturers in the Northern Virginia area.

Thanks!

2

I see SleepEZ has a Latex crib mattress for about $300 - but that is also around the same price for the Nook Sleep Pebble Lite, and other “high end” organic mattresses.

I am currently looking at this mattress from Willow: Amazon.com

Also found here: Toysrus.com, The Official Toys”R”Us Site - Toys, Games, & More

3

ryanc,
We had purchased a “Simmons Kids Beautyrest Beginnings Naturally Restored Comfort” two-sided mattress from Costco for our newborn’s crib. After sleeping on our own SleepEZ 13000 king mattress for 3 months and loving it, we returned our baby’s Simmons crib mattress to Costco for a full refund and purchased a crib mattress from SleepEZ instead. I asked Shawn to customize our crib mattress with one side soft and the other medium, instead of how they usually make them with medium on both sides. It was a great decision for us. Our baby sleeps much better on this mattress, and we have confidence in the natural materials. $300 is not a lot compared to some of the other latex crib mattresses out there. The Nook Sleep Pebble Lite you are considering is not made of anything close to 100% latex, like the SleepEZ mattress. Plus, you get their great customer service and free shipping. Even the $400 Pebble Pure is only partially latex and the rest is coconut coir.

The only caveat is I think you should make sure your latex crib mattress will be sitting on a solid base -the latex mattress is quite heavy and very flexible. Our son’s crib has a tension spring / lattice-type support under the mattress that was not firm enough for the weight of the latex mattress. It turned out that the mattress had a substantial sag in the middle once it had been sitting in the crib for a few days. I went to Home Depot and they cut a dozen 28" wooden slats for me that I put under the mattress and solved that issue for like 30 bucks.

We really have been happy with SleepEZ.

4

Hi ryanc,

I haven’t done a lot of research into crib mattresses but for me personally I would tend to focus on materials that had the least possible risk of any harmful ingredients and offgassing. This means I would focus on more natural ingredients such as coir, latex, innersprings and natural fibers or on synthetic materials that don’t offgas like PET or food grade polyethylene. I would definitely avoid anything with memory foam in it. Post #2 here and the links it contains has more about mattresses and children. I would tend to avoid polyfoam or any materials that weren’t Oeko-Tex certified (or equivalent). I would also focus on materials rather than brand just like mattresses for adults except I would add an extra margin of safety for babies and infants because their immune system isn’t as well developed.

A few comments about some that I have come across or you have mentioned …

Sealy Organic Soybean mattress:

This is not in any way organic except for the cotton cover and calling polyfoam organic is simply misleading. Soy based polyfoam simply means that a small percentage (usually under 20%) of the petrochemical polyols (which are one of the two main chemicals used to make polyfoam) has been replaced with a polyol that is derived from soy oil. You can read more about soy foams in post #2 here. I would also want to know the details of what is used in the fire barrier. I would pass this one by.

DaVinci Willow Natural Coconut Palm Organic Crib Mattress:

This also contains “latex-free foam” which means polyfoam.
It is certified by JPMA which doesn’t list any testing for harmful chemicals or offgassing.
Meets Federal Flammability Standard CFR-1632 and I’d want to know what is used in the fire barrier.
I would pass this one by as well.

Nook sleep Systems:

All the materials used in these are non toxic including the natural latex, PET plastic foam, and the fabrics which use eucalyptus viscose fiber. If these are made by Lenzing then they would also be environmentally friendly unlike much of the viscose fiber production. I would certainly consider these.

Naturalmat:

These use latex, wool, mohair, and horsetail hair all of which are “safe” materials. I would certainly consider these as well.

Naturepedic crib mattresses:

Various models use innersprings, polyethylene “springs”, polyethylene waterproof surface, organic cotton. I would consider these as well.

SleepEz crib mattress:

These are made from 100% natural Dunlop latex and 3 lbs of natural wool and the layers can be customized. These are great value and I think my thoughts would run in a similar direction to LAsleeper who has first hand experience with these (thank you LAsleeper for your comments :))

There are many more of course but these will give you an idea of the types of materials I would look for and strongly lean towards in a crib mattress and as I come across more I will add them to this list. Of course if other forum members have any they would like to add I’d welcome other options in this thread as well.

Phoenix