Hey sb 1234,
Welcome to the TMU Forum 
! Good having you here and thanks for your question.
[quote]We’re looking for suggestions for a non-toxic mattress. We tried the avocado green mattress with a soft topper but are finding that we have a two-fold issue. First, the latex is too firm. My husband and I are both side sleepers and while we find the sleep to be cooler than our former Leesa mattress, our hips hurt when we wake up (and this is after trying the mattress for 60+ days). We find ourselves rotating from side to side throughout the night because of discomfort on our sides (shoulders and waist/hip bone contact points are sore). The second issue is that the mattress does not have enough support to keep our body lines relatively level, so our backs are out of alignment. Other background info: we are both skinny folks, and weigh ~115lbs(female), ~145lbs(male) and average height.
What would you recommend for a non-toxic mattress that is supporting but not too firm that sore spots arise when side sleeping?[/quote]
Thanks also to expert trusted member My Green Mattress for their quick response and suggestion of their Natural Escape mattress as an alternative to your Avocado Green Mattress, hope you found their thoughts helpful.
As there is quite a bit of confusing information available online about toxicity, safety and organic, there is more about the different types of organic and safety certifications such as Oeko-tex, Eco-Institut, Greenguard Gold, C2C, and CertiPUR-US in post #2 here, and more about some of the differences between organic and safety certifications in post #2 here and there are also some comments in post #42 here that can help you decide whether an organic certification is important to you for environmental, social, or personal reasons, or whether a “safety” certification is enough, and what those certifications can mean to determine whether the contents of any particular mattress are “safe enough” for you.
There are many choices of safe, natural and organic mattresses but it is always good to keep in mind that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and I would be cautious about using anyone else’s suggestions, experiences or reviews on a specific mattress (either positive or negative) as a reliable source of information or guidance about how you will feel on the same mattress or how suitable or how durable a mattress may be for you. In many if not most cases they can be more misleading than helpful because a mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person or even a larger group of people in terms of comfort, firmness, and PPP may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on (even if they are in a similar weight range). This is different than a manufacturer comparing their products to a another products you are considering … “talk you through” the specifics of their mattresses and the properties and “feel” of the materials they are using (fast or slow response, resilience, firmness etc.) and the options they have available that may be the best “match” for you based on the information you provide them, any local testing you have done or mattresses you have slept on and liked or other mattresses you are considering that they are familiar with, and the “averages” of other customers that are similar to you. They will know more about “matching” their specific mattress designs, options, and firmness levels to different body types, sleeping positions, and preferences (or to other mattresses that they are familiar with) than anyone else. Post #2 here and this topic have more about the pros and cons of a local vs an online purchase.
Just curious, how are you coming along with your mattress shopping?
Cheers,
Sensei