Sweet Dreams: is the secret in your mattress?

If you're a parent of an allergic child you know that sleep is the most valuable commodity in your life! Sleepless nights don't ever seem to end. Even when your child is a toddler, there are numerous nights that you spend scratching and comforting your little one so that they can sleep in peace. Sometimes you know the triggers, some times you don't..... which brings me to the topic of mattresses.

When our daughter was a few months shy of being three, she was growing out of her toddler-bed-from-crib conversion and ready for a big-girl bed. She was thrilled to upgrade and so were we.  We picked out a Maxtrix bed (http://www.maxtrixkids.com/), which is awesome of city living. They are made out of  wood and super adjustable. We totally love it! 

Of course we also needed to get a mattress to go with it. So after looking at the mattresses available at the store and explaining to the shop attendant that our daughter has allergies, he recommended we go for the EverTrue Grand (http://evertruemattress.com/). It comes with an impressive resume, an adorable picture of a happy baby on the front page and a line up of certification, including international recognition, which means higher bar and stricter testing criteria than if it was US alone.

Quoting the EverTrue Collection description followed by a sweet adorable and happy baby:

"Introducing the EverTrue Collection, a beautiful and modern line of crib mattresses, handcrafted from the highest-quality materials. The new line consists of five innovative foam mattresses, with exceptional features and designs. Each EverTrue model uses our exclusive SecureCore Technology™, a sleep system engineered to enhance air circulation for sound sleep, proper development and safety. EverTrue products not only meet, but exceed the industry’s highest safety standards, each earning the coveted Greenguard® Gold seal of approval giving expecting parents the peace of mind to sleep like a baby."

That's the mattress we purchased. We were excited to get the delivery, but then unexpected events followed. Week one, we were loosing sleep, our daughter took forever to fall asleep and started waking in the night and not just to use the potty and took longer and longer to fall back asleep. We initially explained it as an adjustment period for the new bed, even though she totally loved it. Week two, we were exhausted and I couldn't stop questioning the somewhat sweet smell of the mattress (note: I've got a very sensitive nose). We re-read the labels and re-confirmed that VOCs should technically be minor if any as it claims "exceed the industry's highest safety standards". By week three, I grew more and more determined that it was the mattress. I started reading about the mattresses and polyurethane and visco elastic foam and became convinced that we need to consider alternatives. We've done an experiment and moved our daughter to our bed once she fell asleep and she slept better. Not perfect but better. As typical for children her age, they tend to think of their bed as sleep time but their parent's bed as play time, so having her fall asleep on our bed would not be a good idea. We tried a few more nights just to be sure it wasn't a fluke and she was calmer. Of course we still weren't getting all that sleep :).

I've fully plunged to investigate the simplest of mattresses, not VOCs, no memory foam, no polyurethane, no plastic, no fire retardant soaks, e.t.c. And I came across the Berkeley mattresses (http://berkeleyergo.com/). I liked how simple it was, some German coils, an inch of latex for firmness, wool, and organic cotton cover. No flame retardants (wool is a natural fire retardant), no toxins. I also was so lucky to actually find a retailer in NYC who sold it. I was thrilled, my husband was still not fully convinced. He felt that I had it out for that EverTrue mattress! Regardless, after almost four weeks of total sleep deprivation we set out to the store the next morning and bought it.

And then, a miracle.... our daughter slept "like a baby" again! First night we agreed that it could be a fluke... but it continued...

I just want to be clear that I'm not in any way connected to any of the products that I've mentioned here, I'm just sharing our experience and perhaps there is another mom or dad out there who is pulling their hair out wondering why their little one is itching the night away when they've ruled out every possible trigger.... perhaps it's the mattress!

I hope you find this helpful and I am so grateful that there are still companies out there who manufacture truly clean products, clean of man-made material and of toxins.

We know where we are buying our crib mattress for baby #2 :)