Selecting a Crib Mattress

There is one decision that you need to make early on when selecting a crib mattress. You will need to decide if you want a foam mattress or an innerspring mattress.

Innerspring mattresses are what most adults sleep on- think heavy gauge metal springs that are coiled and conform to your body. Foam mattresses are, well, foam. Foam mattresses for cribs that are manufactured today are made of high density foam materials and are widely considered to be the firmer of the two options.

Some things to consider (some of which helped us make our decision):

1) The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) suggests the following to reduce the risk of SIDS: "Make sure that your baby sleeps on a firm mattress or other firm surface."

2) Innerspring mattresses convey durability and familiarity, and many of the brand names we use ourselves make high quality innerspring crib mattresses- Sealy and Simmons for example. What I found disturbing was how many innerspring mattresses were described as "soft" or "luxe" or "ultra", all qualities in direct opposition with "firmness".

3) You will have to constantly be lifting the baby's mattress in order to change the sheets, sometimes in the middle of the night. Innerspring mattresses weigh 15-25 lbs. High quality foam mattresses weigh 6-9 lbs.

4) On the top 5 list from a leading consumer magazine, the number one rated mattress was made from foam.

5) Foam mattresses are banned in the state of California (hippies) due to flammability laws.

After some research, we decided to buy a very reputable brand, Colgate. We chose a foam mattress called the Classica Supreme that has ventilators (allows mattress to "breathe") and border rods (provides support), weighs 8 lbs, and features one very firm side for the crib and can be flipped to a less firm side to accommodate a toddler bed. Babycatalog.com sells this mattress online, and there are only a couple of B&M stores in the city of Houston licensed to sell Colgate. In fact, this brand is the only brand Baby's 1st Furniture stocks. Baby's 1st Furniture sells this mattress for $139.99 plus tax, but I paid $97.99 plus $16 shipping from Babycatalog. All Colgate mattresses have a 10 year warranty.



Another very good brand that I recommend based on my research is the Starlight Support line of products made by Moonlight Slumber. This company was a little out of our price range, but makes similarly high quality bedding products.

An employee of USA Baby tried to shame us out of our foam decision, lamenting that foam was so hard and so uncomfortable for little babies. It's easy to emotionally side with the innerspring mattress because it is what we are familiar with and we hate to think of tiny little babies being uncomfortable. The truth is what adults need is different than babies. Babies have softer bones and don't need cushy bedding to get comfortable. They don't need pillows or fuzzy blankets. They don't need Tivo. They don't even need water. Babies are just different from adults. So comparing or modeling their bedding to ours really doesn't make any sense. Bottom line is their bedding needs to be firm, clean, and dry and it might as well be easy for you to lift.