Hi. I’m looking for a twin-sized mattress for my 4-year-old boy, and the myriad posts on this forum have been hugely helpful. With your recommended manufacturers, is there much difference between two mattresses of similar construction? For example, would a kid notice much difference between a latex mattress made by My Green Mattress vs. one made by Sleep on Latex vs. one made by Arizona Premium Mattress vs. one from SleepEZ? I’m sure that there are some differences, but are those differences subtle enough that it’s just an issue of splitting hairs?
My dilemma: The more I read, the more possible mattresses I add to my list of options! If the differences between these mattresses are subtle, then I’ll just decide on whether to go with latex, hybrid, or coil, and then I’ll choose whichever seems to offer the best combination of price and customer service. But if I’m missing anything, and there are indeed some dramatic differences between any of these options (aside from the details in their online product descriptions), I’d love whatever info you could provide. Many thanks for your ongoing work and help!
Most children’s mattresses are 8" (sometimes 6") and will be relatively firm to cater to the needs of their malleable, growing skeletons.
The differences you’ll see are Dunlop vs Talalay (“poundcake vs angel food cake”).
The Arizona Premium mattress allows for the consumer to choose plush, medium, or firm where My Green Mattress, for example, is not going to allow that choice.
I think you’re on the right path, ultimately narrowing it down to all-foam vs a hybrid. Is there one in particular that stands out to you?
Thanks for your response, Nikki. Arizona Premium Mattress’s “kids mattress” stands out to me because it’s so much cheaper than the rest ($359). Ditto for their hybrid ($497).
If I spent more $$ on a mattress from another manufacturer, what differences would I see?
For example, a local store sells the Whitney Lil’ Joey latex mattress for $879 and the Berkeley Ergonomics K2 hybrid for $899. Those prices seem consistent with what’s online, and they’re competitive with the mattresses I’d listed previously from My Green Mattress. In my efforts to be an informed shopper, I’m wondering why I would spend so much more on any of those than what I’d spend on one of the options from Arizona Premium Mattress… Can you please provide any input? Thanks again.
The differences you’d see would be slight and probably mostly in the firmness. As a rule, children’s mattresses need to be firm to support their flexible and growing skeletal systems. These mattresses also tend to be much more simple than an adult mattress (no bells and whistles in terms of zoning, etc) because their needs are not as nuanced as, say, an elderly person’s would be with numerous potential pain points, injury history, etc.
A lot of mattress pricing is subjective and really just comes down to markups. I’d say in your case, you’re safe to go with the more affordable options here without sacrificing durability or quality.
The short answer to your question about the APM mattress is from an aesthetic standpoint the APM will not be as good as the other ones since the APM uses glued strips of foam for those mattresses but from a performance standpoint you should see no visible difference. Latex foam is an extremely durable bedding material and the glued strips will make it impossible to feel any seams.
If I were to DIY a latex mattress for my four-year-old, who sleeps mostly on his side and back, how might I put together a “medium-firm” configuration, which seems to be recommended for kids? I read in another post that dunlop tends to be better for kids than talalay…
Do others in my position often find success with 3" firm and 3" medium dunlop?
Or perhaps 3" firm dunlop, 3" medium dunlop, and 2" medium talalay?
Or some other configuration?
(It seems that I should go with just latex, since a hybrid mattress gets rather tall for a little kid: 8" of coils plus a latex topper = 10" or more. Or am I misunderstanding something there?)
