How To Know What Baby Crib Mattress is Best to Buy - An Advanced Buying Guide for New Parents

Determining how to know what baby crib mattress is best to buy can bring the nursery furnishing and decorating process to a standstill. Finding mattresses offered by trusted name brands is the easy part. There are hundreds to pick from.   The huge number of choices adds to the problem rather and can leave even the most savvy parents standing confused in the aisle of the mattress store.

To (possibly over) simplify things there are several very important primary objectives, when determining what baby crib mattress is best:

• Fit
• Firmness
  

And these two features translate into safety. I spoke with a mattress salesman while doing research and gathering facts for this article and he said that practically every parent he ever assisted asked the question, "What is the safest crib mattress?" The next most-asked question is whether they have any of the safe models on sale but let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

So, What Is the Safest Crib Mattress?

This can best be determined by hands-on test because what is safest for one crib may be downright dangerous for the next. As far as testing a crib for safety, there are several boxes to be checked including:

What Baby Crib Mattress is Best Fitting?

A safe choice is one that fits the baby crib perfectly leaving no gaps that are bigger than the width of two fingers. Spaces wider than that present a dangerous risk of suffocation or injury.

Taking a "tighter the better" approach towards the fit inside the frame is an excellent approach.

How Much Firmness is Desirable?

The thought of a good night's sleep on a soft, pillow-y bed is the dream of many new moms and dads but a soft mattress is not safe for a baby. A mattress with a very firm surface is important to your baby's safety according to Government Safety Standards and Guidelines. Do not make the mistake of choosing a soft mattress thinking that it will make the baby's crib more comfortable. In reality, a soft crib mattress presents a suffocation risk. Another reason firmer is better is to possibly decrease the risk of SIDS.

Is there a crib mattress that will baby from having a flat head? We do not have the answer to that question but would strongly advise NOT to choose a softer mattress for that reason.

A firm mattress is a must to avoid risk of suffocation but firmness is also important for your baby's bone growth.

How to Know if a Crib Mattress is Firm Enough

A simple test using your hand or similar object while shopping in the store may determine if the firmness of a selection is sufficient for your infant's health and safety.

Simply press your hand or the object firmly into the surface of the crib mattress that you are considering. If the mattress features the correct firmness a baby needs there should not be a "print" or impression.

Prepare to spend an afternoon punching, pushing, pressing, reading content tags and quizzing sales associates until you are satisfied that you know what baby crib mattress is best for your child.

What Baby Crib Mattress is Best

As if finding the perfect fit and firmness were not enough you must also sort through and decide which of various types of mattresses is best out of:

• crib mattresses with springs or coils
• memory foam crib mattresses

and even

• coconut fiber crib mattresses
  

Shopping for a Crib Mattress Without Certain Features

Several features are absolute necessities but there are also features that we would rather our crib mattresses be without. For instance we might prefer:

• a crib mattress without a vinyl cover or a plastic cover
  
• a crib mattress without polyurethane foam
  
• a crib mattress without springs or coils
• a crib mattress without fiberglass or any materials that could off-gas or cause baby allergic reactions or breathing problems
  

Do Crib Mattresses Need a Cover

It is always a good idea to use a waterproof mattress cover even though crib mattresses are waterproof by design.

Crib Mattress Care Tips

Tip No. 1

Unpack your chosen mattress as soon as it arrives and air it out for as long as possible, several days at least. This will help to get rid of that icky new mattress smell which is nothing as nice as the more desirable new car smell that we all know and love.

The new mattress smell just makes us worry about potentially harmful VOCs hiding inside the mattress. Handling this situation is easy, just unwrap, unpack and leave it until the chemical smell has disappeared.

Tip No. 2

One of the ways that baby mattresses are just like big people mattresses is that they will get a sunken spot if not rotated on a regular basis. The process is much simpler than with a king-size mattress which usually takes two people to accomplish.

With a crib mattress one person can perform a "flip and rotate" maneuver every few weeks to avoid excessive wear or a sunken spot on one side of the mattress. Just so you know, a hollowed out spot is not just uncomfortable; it could be unsafe.

Read the owner's manual that came with the mattress to see if there is a recommended schedule and follow it! If there is no recommendation, do a flip and turn every two weeks and keep an eye out for those dreaded sinking spots and rotate the mattress accordingly should one appear.

Disclaimer: Unique Baby Gear Ideas.com cannot guarantee what baby crib mattress is best nor the safety of any crib, crib mattress, cover or sheet for infants or toddlers.