Protecting Mattresses?

[tigress]

I'm not sure this is the right place to post, so please move or suggest a move if you think there is a more appropriate forum.

DS is 3 1/2 and sleeps in his own twin bed. He has been sleeping without a diaper for about 6 months and has been adamant about not wearing one since he decided he didn't want to back when. He occasionally pees the bed if we switch up the routine and get him down earlier, or have a late dinner, or whatever. It's rare, but happens and is not a big deal. Many nights he joins us in our bed at some point too, so I am concerned about both mattresses!

We have invested a lot of money in good quality mattresses for both beds and I want to keep them free of pee stains and smells! They are not billion dollar organic mattresses, but we did try to lean towards more natural fibres and materials as much as we could.

Back some time last year--I think maybe when we bought ds his big boy bed (and mattress) for his 3rd bday and shortly after we had got a new one for us, I bought mattress protectors--I think ds was still wearing a diaper but occasionally peed through or something and one pee stain marred my own pristine new mattress . Anyway, they were cheap(ish) for that kind of thing and are cotton on top and plastic/rubber on the bottom layer. I'm not thrilled about the material but was daunted by the price of more natural options, without having any knowledge about what's out there, and needed an immediate solution.

I still don't have a lot of knowledge about what's out there, but was washing ds's bedclothes today and noticed the plastic on his mattress protector has cracked open in one spot. Time for something new. I would love to get something that doesn't have plastic in it (for both our beds, but am budget conscious and want to do ds's bed at the very least and maybe ours a little later).

So does anyone have any recommendations of where to find more info that is reliable? Or does anyone have any info? A brief search has brought up wool mattress protectors, but would that really protect the mattress from a full on, no holds barred pee? Would love any info that would help to steer me in the right direction and help with keeping the price down as much as possible.

Thank you!!

[orangatan]

We have a queen size mattress and bought a wool mattress protector off ebay (new) for $99. It has protected or mattress from a lot of stuff, urine, birth, ect. I do wash it and dryer dry for a bit and then line dry. On DD has a wool puddle pad and that has worked well too. The difference between the two is that the puddle pad looks like a wool blanket topper that repels liquid and the protector surrounds our mattress and has a wool repelant layer on the top but also somewhat lightly absorbs bigger wet spots.

A friend of mine bought a wool blanket from a thrift store, lanolized it (sp?) and uses that. Same thing as a puddle pad, for more than half the price off. With that or a puddle pad I would put two bottom sheets because the sheet will absorb the liquid and there could be a chance that it would leak on to the side of the mattress and/or onto the floor. (Although that's never happened but I could see it happening though with a big enough spill.