Here’s my confession: we’re not buying an organic crib mattress for my second child.  It might not seem all that shocking unless you read my long-ago post on organic crib mattresses.  I lamented not buying organic with my first child and declared that I would do differently with my second.

Why then haven’t I bought a new organic crib mattress for my daughter who will be arriving in just a few months?  Honestly, I have been wrestling it for months and finally ended up with a compromise. 

The thought of spending nearly three hundred dollars on an item that my child would use for a little over a year was tough to swallow.  Our first son slept in our bed with us until he was nearly six months old and then was in his toddler bed before the age of two.  Since we now have two children, I can imagine that our little one will co-sleep with us longer just for convenience and because we haven’t yet figured out where to put her in our small house.

We also considered the that non-toxic choices aren’t always earth friendly.  It might be less toxic to rip the carpeting out of our baby’s room, install bamboo flooring and repaint the walls with soy based paints, but it wouldn’t be as good for the planet as living with what we have. The thought of throwing out our perfectly functional crib mattress made my chest ache. We could give it to a thrift store, but we’ll do that anyway once our daughter is finished using it. 

So, I’m planning on buying a wool soaker pad, or making one from a full sized wool blanket we rarely use.  It will provide a natural barrier from the mattress surface and also soak up liquids that sometimes flow onto those crib sheets.

Does this mean I now recommend used crib mattresses?  Hardly!  I still wish I would have purchased a new organic mattress for my first child.  Then I would have had the chance to use it for several years with both children and it would have easily paid for itself.   What have you done to accommodate your desire for non-toxic products on a budget?