Baby Mattresses

What age group spends up to 20 hours a day in bed? What age group stands to gain the most benefit from healthy bedding? The answer of course is babies! They spend most of their time each day with their faces just a few inches from their mattresses. Baby mattresses have come under scrutiny because of the materials and chemicals used to make them. Let's talk about the birth of a baby mattress:

1. First comes the shell, the vinyl surface of a baby mattress, which is made from polyvinyl chloride or PVC (remember dangerous plastic #3?). Then phthalates are added to the PVC, making the mattress more flexible. Phthalates are hormone disruptors and considered by the EPA to be probable carcinogens.
2. Next, the mattress is filled with polyurethane foam. This foam eventually breaks down into tiny particles called VOC's, which can irritate the child's airways or mucosal linings. These VOC's can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, fatigue, nausea, dizziness and allergic reactions.1
3. Lastly, a cocktail of chemicals is dumped onto the mattress to make it flame retardant, as required by law. The most widely used ones are PBDE's, which have been banned in Europe because they are hormone disruptors.

You can find many places online that sell mattresses made from organic cotton and wool. The layer of wool, which is a naturally flame-retardant material, meets the standards of "flame retardancy" required by law, rather than using chemicals. I purchased mine online about 3 years ago and have been very pleased with it. These natural or organic mattresses are rather expensive, usually running around $250-300, but I felt it was well worth the money to prevent potential health problems in my daughter. The Healthy Child, Healthy World organization also recommends an organic wool mattress pad if you simply cannot afford the cost of a mattress, as the pad will help shield the child from the toxins of a regular mattress. Check out this site for more info on the dangers, as well as one of many places to shop online for products: Natural & Organic Crib Mattress.

1 - http://www.healthychild.org/, Emily Lynne Ion, "Do you know what's in your baby's mattress?", updated August 2008.