Most of the time, we tend to think that the surface on which our baby rests is not of great importance due to the child’s light weight; this is a mistake because with a bad mattress we are preventing our child from having proper rest during their development period and at the same time it affects the parents by preventing our rest at night.
Experts tell us that no type of pillow is necessary until 2 years old nor any type of duvet; a good mattress, a bumper, a fitted sheet, and a sleep sack are enough. In this article, we will help you better find the right mattress for your child’s crib.
What are the most important points of the crib mattress?
-
The Cover: it is the part that is in contact with our baby, on which we must ensure it is breathable to eliminate any possible moisture and hypoallergenic to avoid allergens. If our cover is fixed to the mattress, we will not be able to wash it, and we recommend buying a mattress protector to maintain the best hygiene.
If otherwise our mattress has a removable cover, always wash it when the baby has wet it.
A final tip is to rotate the mattress so it is used evenly on all sides.
- The padding: provides comfort and body support and we recommend textile fiber to improve breathability.
- The core: is the part we must pay the most attention to as it determines the firmness level and the length of its useful life; we can find them made of springs, latex, viscoelastic foam, and other materials.
- The sides: provide the necessary reinforcement so that the mattress has great resistance and maintains a good useful life.
What is the recommended firmness level?
We must find a medium firmness neither too firm nor too soft, we will simply choose a mattress that presents some firmness while offering good adaptability so the baby does not sink but their body is perfectly supported by the mattress.
It is very important that the base distributes the baby’s weight correctly to avoid developmental problems and, as we said before, avoid being too soft since this will eliminate more serious breathing problems during the baby’s rest.
Should our mattress release heat?
To maintain a balance in our child’s thermoregulation system, we should not have an ambient temperature above 21-22º nor use excessive layers of clothing. There are mattresses that can increase the temperature by 2 to 4º, and these are the ones we must avoid.
What guarantees that the mattress materials are safe for our baby?
The non-use of harmful substances in the mattress manufacturing and that the material can be in contact with the most sensitive skin like that of a baby without causing any harmful effect is guaranteed by the OEKO-TEX class 1 certificate.
It guarantees that there is no toxic, carcinogenic, or mutagenic component in the product composition. You can check if the manufacturer has it by writing their name on the certificate website: www.oeko-tex.com
Finally, what type of mattress to choose?
- We recommend viscoelastic and natural latex mattresses as long as they have a proper ventilation system.
- The viscoelastic mattress reduces pressure and distributes weight excellently in the same way to provide great support, and the natural latex mattress offers the perfect firmness for the baby although we must ensure it is natural; otherwise, it will increase temperature by releasing heat to the child’s body.
- Recently, mattresses made of less common materials such as HR, coconut fiber... have started to appear as there is growing concern that they have anti-suffocation function, although other mattresses also have it.
OUR RECOMMENDATION
