One of the most important decisions you can make for the care, comfort and health of your baby is your choice in mattress. Babies and toddlers spend 10-14 hours a day sleeping and playing on a bassinette or cot mattress. A child’s every breath inhales air no more than six inches away from it. As such, for the first few years of a child’s life, the mattress is the single most prominent object in the child’s environment.
Conventional synthetic mattresses (foam and innerspring) are made using an array of toxic chemicals and more parents are becoming aware of the negative effects these chemicals are having on the health of their children.
Polyurethane foam, for example, is made from a base of petrochemicals combined with a staggering array of additional chemical ingredients used as stabilizers, catalysts, surfactants, and blowing agents. Each of these chemicals is associated with a host of environmental problems as well as numerous health hazards.
For example, polyurethane foam is extremely flammable. To combat this hazard, toxic industrial fire retardants are added. The most common chemical fire retardant used to treat polyurethane foam has been pentaBDE, a toxin asociated with hyperactivity and neurobehavioural alterations. PentaBDE is not bound to the foam, so it leaches out into the surrounding air. It has recently been banned in Europe, and by the State of California as of 2006.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the surface material used in nearly all baby mattresses, is widely considered to be one of the most toxic and environmentally unfriendly plastics in use today. Phthalates, associated with asthma, reproductive effects, and cancer, make up 30% by weight of the PVC surface of a typical baby mattress.
The FDA and Consumer Product Safety Commission have issued general warnings regarding the use of phthalates, yet the PVC surfaces of baby mattresses still contain phthalates. The PVC surface of a typical baby mattress is also often treated with toxic fire-retardant chemicals such as antimony, arsenic and phosphorous.
Our natural cot and bassinet mattresses are free from all synthetic and unhealthy chemicals. The materials we use have been specially chosen because they allow good air circulation and provide the best comfort and support for a young child. A baby’s lungs, nervous and digestive systems are still developing and a natural mattress is the healthiest choice for young children who deserve the best start in life.
