Expecting a baby; switching from coil to memory foam mattress

Mattress Talk General Mattresses Questions
1

Hello everyone,

We haven’t shopped for a new mattress in over 10 years, and are looking for some advice.
We currently use a “Sealy Posturepedic Mira Loma Queen Mattress”, puchased from costco over 10 years ago. We are expecting a little one in a few weeks, and are shopping for a king sized mattress. We tend to prefer firm/ultra-firm mattresses. Tried a few coil & memory foam mattresses. To give you a sense of what we’ve like…here are some models that we have liked so far.

  • Simmons BeautyRest Elderberry viscoplush (at a mattress outlet)
  • Sealy icomfort Revolution (at Sears)
  • Memoryworks Olivewood Euro Pillow Top Cushion Firm (at a mattress outlet)

We tried a few plush mattresses, and didn’t like it as much (eg: Costco’s Roseville Plush). We looked into Costco.com selection of memory foam mattress, but are uncomfortable buying it without being able to try it out.

A few questions…

  1. We are tending towards memory foam mattresses – any gotchas to be aware of, especially with a kid on the way? Is it better to stick to col mattresses?
  2. We are looking at buying the Memoryworks Olivewood (from an outlet). Any thoughts on this make/model?
  3. The one concern is that purchases from an outlet isn’t covered by warranty. How important is warranty when it comes to memory foam mattresses?

PS: We are in the Seattle area.

2

Hi smariner,

Congratulations on your upcoming baby first of all :slight_smile:

The first thing I would suggest is to read this article which may help you avoid most of the traps and pitfalls of mattress shopping.

I’m a little confused about your firm/ultra firm preferences though because the mattresses you listed are anything but firm or ultrafirm.

The iComfort Revolution is the softest of all the iComfort line.

The Memoryworks Olivewood has 6" of memory foam which IMO is more memory foam than anyone should be sleeping on and would risk alignment issues and back problems because it has such a thick layer of soft memory foam in the top layers. This would put almost anyone much too far away from the support layers of the mattress.

The Elderberry viscoplush sold at Macy’s doesn’t have a complete description but even though it’s a little firmer than the other two, it still has over 3 1/2 inches of lower quality/density polyfoam (and a “sprinkle” of memory foam) and it also uses the softer Simmons coils so it’s also not really in the firm/ultrafirm range.

Regardless of the firmness/softness though, I wouldn’t recommend any of these (or any major brand).

In terms of memory foam, if you plan to have your new baby in bed with you from time to time or especially on a regular basis, I would avoid memory foam completely. IMO, memory foam is a valid choice for adults but it is the worst possible choice of all for young children and in some cases can be dangerous. There are several reasons for this including …

  • Children have less developed immune systems and can be more susceptible to any offgassing or particle dust from the memory foam.
  • Children … especially when they are very young … need a mattress that allows for free movement. With babies especially … the memory foam may trap them in a face down position and impair breathing
  • Children have a far more supple spine and need a sleeping surface that is much more supportive for the spine than memory foam.
  • The mattress microclimate needs to be breathable and temperature regulating and memory foam is the least breathable (and hottest) of all foams.

So overall I would avoid all these choices. Your best quality and value is almost always with local manufacturers or smaller brands who either sell factory direct or through sleep shops. they are far more knowledgeable about what is in their mattresses, why it is there, and how it may benefit you in terms of pressure relief, posture and alignment, and your preferences.

I would be very wary of outlets that were not factory authorized dealers and didn’t offer factory warranties unless I knew and trusted the owner or knew for sure and could actually validate where their mattresses came from or I was comfortable with the probability that they included returns and exchanges from previous sales. While warranties are mostly used as a sales closing tool and don’t protect against the most common issues that consumers have with their mattresses, the absence of a warranty is a warning sign IMO.

Some of the better options in the Seattle area are in post #2 here.

Good luck … and feel free to post if you have questions along the way.

Phoenix

3

Thanks Phoenix for the detailed response. Thanks also for the link to the article – seems like I was doing some newbie mistakes while shopping. I am rethinking the plan of buying a memory foam mattress (from the perspective of baby’s health & safety).
I don’t know much about smaller/independent manufcaturers in my local area (Seattle). And, with a baby on the way – I may not have a lot of time to research :frowning:
Do you have any thoughts on the Sealy RoseShore firm mattress from Costco? Since it’s only sold on Costco.com, is there an equivalent model of Sealy that I could try out in a different local store?

4

Hi Smariner,

I tend to avoid all major manufacturers (Like Sealy, Simmons, Serta, Tempurpedic, and the other larger brands) because they either use too much lower quality materials (or worse yet unknown quality materials) and if they don’t their prices are higher than local manufacturers or smaller brands that use the same or better quality materials in their mattresses.

For example … the Sealy you mentioned uses over 5 1/2" of polyfoam and much of this is low density foam (which softens and degrades much too quickly) or foam that they don’t disclose the quality. The advantage of Costco of course is that they have a return policy which is great but they don’t have the knowledge to “fit” a mattress to a person and unless you know which type of mattress is suitable for your height, weight, sleeping positions, and preferences and the differences between materials and mattress layering that can provide them … buying a mattress based on a much more subjective idea of “comfort” or making a blind purchase from an outlet with little knowledge of how well a mattress may work for you can lead to some very uncomfortable sleeping a few months down the road when the lower quality foam will have softened and degraded to a point where the mattress is no longer comfortable or suitable. Even a $50,000 mattress (and there are some) which uses the absolute highest quality materials and the best construction methods may be completely unsuitable for a particular individual.

The Seattle link I provided in the last post gives a few of the better outlets in the Seattle area and focusing your research and testing there with the help of people who have the knowledge and skills that otherwise would take you too much time to learn will almost certainly lead to better value choices and a much greater likelihood of long term satisfaction with your mattress.

Phoenix