The survey responses and comments to Chapter 3 were great. Becky + Andrew took everyone's suggestions into consideration. This past weekend they took the plunge and purchased...
Chapter 3 Revisited: Becky + Andrew Buy a Crib
What Becky + Andrew say:
We liked the clean, modern lines of the crib, and, honestly, could not discern why it is nearly $800 cheaper than the Oeuf crib (no offense to Oeuf). Plus there was a very serious couple nearby, with the husband measuring, pulling, pushing and otherwise inspecting the crib, who seemed impressed. (Andrew, on the other hand, took one look at the crib and its price tag, and made up his mind. He then sat down on a toddler bed waiting for Becky to make up hers!)
So, now that we feel so good about saving money on the crib, we are considering whether it makes sense to invest in a more expensive mattress that is organic (or at least hypoallergenic). I have allergies and asthma (as do most of my siblings), so the Wee-Tot has a pretty good chance of inheriting the same conditions. Also, if you're pro-organic, please share advice regarding where to purchase. We've looked, and it is a bit overwhelming. There are so many different websites that sell so-called organic crib mattresses, and it is hard to tell which are legitimate and which are not.
Becky + Andrew - good places to start are here and here (although this focuses on twin-sized mattresses).
AT:Nursery readers - please share your mattress resources and opinions with Becky + Andrew in the comments.
Comments (11)
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The TerraNova 2000 that I recommended in that post is actually a crib mattress. It is natural latex, and as such is hypoallergenic (dust mites won't hang out in it!).
As the Gulliver is a non-standard North American size, if you get your mattress anywhere else than IKEA, you will have to pay for custom work. We actually had a custom basinette mattress made by the company that makes obasan, Sleeptek, and found it wasn't too bad.
Here are the links:
http://www.obasan.ca/frames_collection.htm
http://www.sleeptek.ca/
view monika1's profile
excellent choice, Becky & Andrew!!
view exxon23's profile
Instead of getting a custom organic mattress made (I would think that might be on the pricey side), would it help Wee-Tot's allergies if you get hypo-allergenic mattress covers? I've seen them for pillows and large mattresses - I wonder if you could find them for a crib mattress?
view cc's profile
geat choice! and smart to think of wee-tot's allergy situation in advance... never had to purchase an organic/hypoallergenic mattress, so no help from me there. the only thing that would make hesitate is that i know a lot of people that have wool and latex allergies so i would imagine that choosing materials would be quite a challenge.
view molly h's profile
We just ordered a crib mattress from these guys:
http://www.naturepedic.com/
Good choice on the crib. We were thinking about getting that one, but then we got a free one from family.
view kris tina's profile
I bought an organic crib mattress, and a number of other things, from here: http://www.tinybirdsorganics.com/
The website isn't much to look at, but they were friendly, fast, and a bit cheaper than other websites, and definitely cheaper than stores. After shopping around, I got the impression that there are really only a couple organic crib mattress manufacturers (the product descriptions tend to be identical) so I shopped by price.
FYI: I bought an organic mattress not because of allergies, but because they don't have flame retardants (wool is naturally flame retardant). Flame retardants are nasty chemicals (most of them are banned in the EC) and I make the baby put out his smokes before bed, anyway.
view Burton's profile
Make sure you check the dimensions of any mattress you are considering and the IKEA crib. In my experience, IKEA products are typically only compatible with other IKEA products (IKEA crib fits IKEA crib mattress fits IKEA crib bedding, etc). Although I don't own an IKEA crib (we were given a hand-me-down), I did look at their toddler beds only to discover that the IKEA toddler bed we were considering was not compatible with the standard US crib mattress (it would, of course, work with an IKEA mattress!). Double check this since if an organic mattress is the most important objective for you (and possibly a larger choice of bedding options), you may have to once again look at other crib choices. I hope I'm wrong and the affordable IKEA crib will fit a standard US crib mattress, but I would DEFINATELY double check all the dimensions.
view debra's profile
just of our curiosity, i checked the ikea site - the dimensions for their mattresses are 52 x 28" give or take a half and inch depending on which mattress you choose. and the sealy crib mattresses i looked at on the target site just for comparison are the same dimensions - so everything should fit standard.
view molly h's profile
also, i checked out the naturepedic site that kirs tina posted about - they offer organic or natural cotton mattresses with dust-mite proof covers that contain no wool or latex. 28 x 52 x 6 inches. $219 - $259. sounds pretty good to me.
view molly h's profile
The Gulliver crib does in fact hold a standard US mattress. We had both a Sealey and Simmonds to try because of a shipping error and they both fit fine.
view JudiAU's profile
Thanks to everyone for all your suggestions!! This is so helpful to us. We had looked at the dimensions of the IKEA crib mattress to see whether it was standard before buying the Gulliver, but I'm glad to know (from JudiAU) that it really is standard. And Molly -- good tip re: latex/wool allergies. We're going to check out the naturepedic site. Sounds like a good price for a good product. - Becky and Andrew
view becky d's profile