Phoenix,
I know there are a ton of posts regarding a child’s mattress but I am hoping you could help me a bit…
We have our 3.5 year old moving from his crib/day bed to a full size bed. I know this wont be his last bed before moving out but I want something durable and economical. He is mostly a side sleeper now. I was thinking about going pure coil but after reading some posts have been considering a latex model. If I know I will have to change the mattress again in 6-7 years, does a latex mattress make sense? Also, we have Parklane near us here and thats where you helped us pick our mattress last time. Any thing you would suggest from there?
As you probably know from last time I’m happy to help with how to choose but I leave the specific choices of what mattress to choose and the the materials it uses up to the preferences of each person. Each person has their own criteria that is important to them and some people may be perfectly comfortable with a polyfoam innerspring mattress for their kids and others wouldn’t dream of using anything “synthetic”. These are all personal preferences.
Some of the better forum threads that have good information about children and mattresses are listed in post #2 here.
I personally would tend towards more natural materials with younger children which means I would lean towards latex (natural or blended), innersprings, rubberized coir, and natural fibers such as wool and cotton and avoid chemical fire barriers (which means I would use either wool or viscose/silica fire barriers) but these are only my own personal preferences and I certainly wouldn’t question someone that had different criteria from mine.
Latex is more costly compared to other materials so this may be an important consideration to you in which case I would consider a mattress that used polyfoam that was Certipur certified and/or an innerspring which may cost less than latex. I would avoid memory foam partly because of the greater risk of offgassing (which can affect some people even when it’s certified) and even more because I don’t think it’s the best choice for younger children who I believe need a firmer more resilient sleeping surfaces.
Parklane would likely have some good value choices but the first step is to decide on the materials that you are most comfortable with for your children and then go from there because this will significantly narrow down your choices. One of the most economical choices you will find is an innerspring, wool, and cotton mattress here and there are also several mattresses that use 6" or so of latex (which is all you would need for a child) with wool quilted covers (or a cotton cover where you could add a wool topper if you preferred wool as the sleeping surface) mentioned in the children’s threads which will be very durable in a medium to firm ILD and you can add a topper for extra surface softness and comfort when they get older and are in their pre-teens or teens and then you would have a “new” mattress that would last them for many more years.