Comments on: Did You Buy an Organic Mattress for Your Baby?

By: Bee Desloge

Bee Desloge — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:20:09 +0000

this is great ive bookmarked this one hehe

By: Andrea

Andrea — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:24:25 +0000

I don’t think the SIDS people should be taken too seriously. People have agendas. Who wants to say, “Oh, sorry, regular mattresses are killing us”. I am actually pretty impressed that this “miracle wrap” (Babe Safe) is actually only $30. That being said, I would much prefer to avoid the chemicals all together, rather than try to cover them up with more plastic. I have found some wonderful mattresses in our price range and even some natural latex pieces that can be covered with cotton. And wool combined with cotton or latex make the mattress flame retardant enough to meet standards. BUT I live in Alaska and none of them will ship to me for under $100! Most say $140. I am so sad. I don’t know what to do. I am thinking that I’m just going to have to buy the wrap, cover it with a thick natural cotton pad, sheets, etc. and call it “good enough.” Tell you what, next time I travel out of state, I’m bringing one back with me! At least for baby #2!

By: Joshua

Joshua — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:40:40 +0000

I wish people had been this aware of organic bedding when I was a kid. I hate to think of what toxic crap I've been exposed to in my formative years. I ended up getting an organic cotton and latex crib for my little girl at The Futon Shop. Sure it was a little pricey, like everything organic is, but it's my little girl.

By: Tara

Tara — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:09:02 +0000

I chose to buy an organic crib mattress and an organic co-sleeper mattress for my baby, but she has slept in my bed 90% of the time. I still think they are a good idea, I just wish I’d invested in an organic mattress for my bed instead. They are more expensive, but I think it’s worth it. My mom ended up in the emergency room from off-gassing from her brand new tempurpedic mattress and then they agreed to take the mattress back.

I wrote more about organic mattresses here.: http://www.growbabygreen.com/?p=22

By: Joy (from Just Plain Joy)

Joy (from Just Plain Joy) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:43:20 +0000

I bought our organic crib mattress from Costco online. It was the same one for sale at our local boutique, but half the price!

By: Sara

Sara — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:40:00 +0000

Joy- I went back and checked my own post since I’ve obviously forgotten what I learned! It was that IKEA has PBDE free mattresses which apparently is the most offending of flame retardants. So better than nothing or I guess better than the other option. I guess we could go to Canada to buy our mattresses! I wonder what shipping would be like from there!

By: Joy

Joy — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:12:10 +0000

Sara:
Ikea beds are definitely better than most mainstream crib beds because they aren’t covered in vinyl which is loaded with PVC but they are treated with a fire retardant. (I recently called them and checked.) If you live in Canada, Ikea’s mattresses are free from chemical fire retardants but here in America it’s required.

The mattress wrapping campaign of Dr. Sprock involves using polyethylene plastic to wrap around the top and side surfaces. Since polyethylene is food-grade and doesn’t decompose in the way vinyl does, he believes this method will be enough to protect the baby from toxic gases that are emitted as the mattress breaks down. You can buy a mattress wrap for just $30 on a few of his websites, but the facts are a little shaky. Apparently his campaign reduced SIDS by a huge margin in New Zealand, but I’ve since written a green mom blogger in New Zealand who said she didn’t find the whole movement very credible. There are also quite a few questions about the quality of the data. Still, if an organic mattress is too expensive and the mattress wrap would make you feel better, it’s nice to know there is a cheaper option. Environmentally, it’s a toss up–buy a plastic mattress wrap or throw out your old crib mattress and purchase a new one. It’s a tough dilemma!

By: Sara

Sara — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:54:28 +0000

We don’t have organic mattresses for our girls but I wish we did or that we at least had something to wrap around their mattresses. I’m confused on that point, what exactly do you wrap your mattress in? Orgainic mattress pads or something else? Gotta work on finding that out.
A little bit back I did do some research and found that the IKEA mattresses weren’t as bad as regular mattresses as far as flame retardants (because they don’t have them) and they’re a whole lot cheaper. I got that info from EWG ( I actually did a post on it too). I was hoping to get one for our crib as I moved our littlest little into it from the pack n play (which I’m sure has it’s own issues). I never did get one though b/c our nearest IKEA is 5 hours away and I think there’s only one, maybe 2, mattresses that ship.
After being reminded again of it’s importance maybe I’ll go back and think about getting some from IKEA. We definately will for the twin. Right now we’re in a crib and a toddler bed so I have a hard time shelling out for something that won’t be used for very long.

By: Larisa

Larisa — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:35:04 +0000

We used a regular (non-organic) crib mattress for my son, who’s now 2 1/2. I knew organic was better (in a vague way) but didn’t actually know about the toxins. He moved to a “big-boy” bed (a futon with a cotton-and-foam futon pad) at 15 months–though he spends half the night there and the second half of the night (whenever he wakes up) co-sleeping in our bed. We do have a mattress pad on the futon and I don’t know what chemicals may be in that… but for our bed we just use an old, thick blanket as a mattress pad (we have a pillow-top mattress).

I do hope that as more people start to use organic items the price will become more affordable. I think for a bed mattress it makes sense to spend more if you can, as you will probably use it for 10-20 years. For items that will be used for a year or less I find it a little harder to get worked up about it.

By: Betsy

Betsy — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:04:19 +0000

This has been my biggest green challenge. If I used a crib, I would buy an organic mattress. However, I co-sleep. When my son was born, I didn’t know anything about these issues, and just continued sleeping on my conventional mattress. Once I looked into the issue, and it was time to get a new mattress, I settled on a mostly synthetic latex mattress from IKEA, since that avoids PU foam, which supposedly off-gasses forever as it breaks down, and also avoids the worst flame retardants (since IKEA doesn’t use them). As for bedding, it took me a LONG time to find waterproof stuff which was not vinyl. I found some decently priced crib wool puddle pads (about $50). Then I got organic twin sheets on clearance at Mervyns and a twin-sized wool puddle pad for “just” $70 (still painfully expensive, but the best price I could find by far) when I thought I was moving my son to a twin bed. But he’s still with us. I couldn’t cough up the money for a queen wool pad, so instead I bought a waterproof queen pad at IKEA, which is made of PUL, not vinyl. And it didn’t smell after I aired it out and washed it. I figure, it’s in his cloth diapering covers, so it’s not too bad, right? A mattress is one thing I will not buy used. I believe that waterproof covers and wool covers are both supposed to reduce the amount of gasses from the mattress that reach the sleeper, but I’m not 100% confident about that.
It’s basically been compromises all the way. By the way, I got most of my info on bedding choices from The Green Guide by National Geographic. I feel they are reputable and reasonable — not too alarmist. They also look at environmental and personal effects separately, which is nice for those who prioritize one above the other. I also looked in Healthy Child, Healthy World — some useful suggestions, but I agree with this website’s authors that they can be a bit over the top.