vinyl-free mattress protection ideas?

[Denise K]

I am planning on a homebith next time around, but must admit at the moment I'm dealing with an occasionally bedwetting 3 year old next to me--he won't wear diapers anymore. Anyway, I want to avoid vinyl, and can't find anything really waterproof out there. Any ideas?

[hunnybumm]

I want to know about this as well. We are planning a homebirth with our next one (hopefully) and we are going to buy a brand new (much needed) matress tomorrow. We don't want to get pee, menstral blood, fluids, etc on the mattress.

I was considering getting a few yards of fleece and just hand stitching them together instead of a plastic matress cover. Has anyone tried this? I really don't want to pay $100+ for a wool pad but I want to be able to lay on my new mattress without a plastic layer.

[Jemper]

We used a shower curtain liner under some old sheets for my two homebirths. That was just a temporary solution, though, only kept it on for a few days PP.

[shalena]

I bought a teflon cover for my bed. The king size at target was $22. Anything spilt on it just beads up and is easy to clean right off. Its also just as soft as a sheet.

I don't know if thats what you're looking for, but I thought I'd drop in.

[carlasher]

Would one of those cheap foam (egg crate) mattress pads/cushion work? I admit, I havent seen one since the 80's but I am sure they are still around in the right places.

[hunnybumm]

carlasher - Those foam pads would probably work pretty well but the bad thing is that once you get pee or something on the pad you can't really wash it. With our old mattress I could feel the springs in my back, so my DH finaly got 2 and just put one on top of the other. Well, my son peed on the bed and it got through to the pad. It smells very badly of pee. Our whole bed smelled of pee, it is very gross. But I couldn't figure out a good way to wash them, it is like a huge sponge.

We got our new mattress today and the store sold a water proof pad that was soft on one side, and kinda plasticy on the other. It was suppose to be water proof up to about 4 cups (that's a good amount) but still breathes. They also guaranteed that spills wouldn't get through and if they did they would come and clean your mattress. It was sorta pricey though, I think $60 for a king, but we got it half off so it wasn't that bad. I don't know what it's called because they had to order it.

[Electra375]

I have an allergy cover on our mattress, it is water resistant (maybe water proof).

I have a couple of hospital pads available at home health aid stores and maybe CVS. They are washable and water proof, resembling chux pads. This is probably one of the better solutions for the peeing toddler.

As for birthing, I won't bother with the shower curtain next time around, it only made my sheets slip all over the place and I couldn't get grounded on our bed, I just kept slipping all over the place. If the head weren't crowning I was going to get up and ask them to remove the plastic!!!

With the chux pads on the bed, my old sheets were not even soiled.

[oshunmama]

they have wool covers for beds. They are EXPENSIVE! but worth it....

[sprinkle pocket]

we've been buying wool blankets at thrifts stores. most will get ffelted/lanolized/cut for puddle pads that slip into pillow cases, but we'll keep a couple/few and lanolize them and use them as mattress covers...i'll probably sew some elastic straps on the corners that will slip under the corner of the mattress to hold it in place better. don't know if it'll work, but that's our plan--defintely cheaper that what's sold as a wool mattress pad. i, too, want to avoid vinyl/plastic. when the egg crate pads are heated by body heat, they off-gas some nastiness just like plastic does, so even if it's not slippery, it's yucky to me. thank goodness for wool!!

[alissa_redclogs]

sprinkle pocket - that is such a great idea.hurrah for recycling!
i am going thrifting this weekend and will definately be on the lookout.

how did you lanolize them?

thank you,
alissa

[gottaknit]

I just bought a mattress cover yesterday. You are right to avoid the vinyl - they smell so bad! I ended up buying one that has a layer or two of PUL sandwhiched between layers of cotton/polyester padding. It doesn't seem to off-gas at all. Supposedly the cotton/poly layer makes it "breathable" so we won't get all sweaty. It cost about $50 at Linens 'n' Things.

I also saw the Teflon cover at LNT. It was so soft, just like a nice cotton sheet. I didn't buy it, though, because it just seemed too good to be true. Also because DH is weirded out by anything Teflon. But it looked really nice and probably works great. It was also cheaper - about $25.

[sprinkle pocket]

alissa~ to lanolize them, it's the same as wool diaper covers just bigger (and if you felt/shrink them first as for a puddle pad rather than a mattress pad, there's no worries about temperatures or agitation felting the wool!)...you can use lanolin soap like eucalan, or add melted lanolin (you can get liquid lanolin and put it in some hot water before adding to the wash) to the water. since this is our 1st babe, i haven't done it before. the cool thing is how lanolin keeps the clothing/fabric from needing soap wash, by neutralizing the pee and stuff. i think that's such a cool thing. to get more detailed directions, you could look in diapering and do a search on lanolizing wool. alot of mamas love the wool covers and it gets discussed often. i'm also going to lanolize dh's wool shirts that he wears constantly in the winter (we're in the mountains). they get grungy after a while and i can't get them off him to wash them until spring...so i'm hoping this will take care of it!

happy thrift store hunting!

[mehndi mama]

I'm not positive, but I don't think wool blankets would protect against an amniotic fluid gush very well. Trickes and blood, it should be fine, but a big instantaneous pulld would soak straight through.
I'd probably get a couple yards of PUL (www.diapershop.com or www.janellespuls.com), and sew it to a cotton mattress pad or something. I've never smelled any offgassing from the PUL I have.

[sprinkle pocket]

menhdi mama~unfortunately, not all off-gassing has an odor, that makes it a bit harder. do you think that even with the lanolin it wouldn't be enough? what if there were more layers of the lanolized wool, and the top layers can be removed as they're soaked, soiled or have tissue chunks? i'm planning on being near a tub and toilet during labor, but plans don't always happen during birth, so, this is good to learn about!

[mehndi mama]

Well, the thing with wool is that it isn't a fast absorber. If it's thick & very tightly felted, it *may* work, but I doubt it would keep the mattress dry without a fast-absorbing padding of cotton or hemp over it. Wool under a sheet & poly mattress pad wouldn't do much at all. Wool under a nice thick cotton underpad or two would be much more functional. Lanolizing doesn't "waterproof" wool, contrary to popular belief. If does help tightly felted wool to resist water, as lanolin has waxy properties, but its' main function is as an antibacterial conditioning agent. For wool to work well as a moisture reistant barrier, it has to have something over it that will absorb the moisture FAST & disperse it evenly to the wool fibers, otherwise the wool will get flooded.
If in doubt, try it by pouring a couple cups of water on whatever you're testing all at once. If it stays dry on the backside, you're good.
My bet would be a tightly felted wool underpad with 2 or 3 removable cotton underpads over the top. Towels would work. You just don't want the wool right under the sheet, that's all.

[sprinkle pocket]

good info, thanks. i was planning on going to the thrift store and getting lots of cotton towels cheaply...for me, the wool is going to be used more in bed with the babe, but the other posters got me thinking about wool during the birth. thanks for your insights! it helps our planning.