Natural Mattresses

[lcolton]

My son is just about to move from a crib to a big boy bed, and I'm researching mattresses. We got an organic crib mattress, but the "organic" twin mattresses I see online are $1000+. I'm wondering if anyone knows the difference between "natural" and "organic" when it comes to mattresses, and/or have any recommendations of brands or products I should consider. I want to avoid the off gassing from foam, etc. A futon is another possibility -- and I welcome any input on having kids sleep on a futon mattress instead of a spring or foam mattress. Thanks! Lisa

[debc]

we bought the most awesome (though expensive) beds from obasan. we bought natural rubber mattresses (as far as i know, you can't get organic rubber, which is the difference between natural and organic there). when people come over, if they lie down in our bed, they comment on how comfortable it is. 100% of the time. we also got shredded rubber pillows. so great. and there are no chemicals or anything to offgas. that was my biggest criteria. no crap in it. all natural. there were many other options for beds, like organic cotton futons and mattresses, but dust mites can't live in rubber, which is why we made our choice.

[*clementine*]

Ahhh.....I'm in the market for a natural bed too. I just have to keep dreaming though as they are so expensive, and I tech. need 6 mattress lol. In the meantime I've converted everyone's bedding over to organic cotton and wool. It's heaven. (We have some of the shredded rubber pillows too. They are awesome. Better than wool filled even.)

[3girlmom]

The organic mattresses have been our big investment this year. You really want a latex/rubber mattress ($$$$) rather than an organic cotton mattress with innsersprings ($$$). Check out this site: www.savvysleeper.com for more information about off-gassing and such.

Prior to buying the beds our kids slept on futons and it was fine - and, unlike the beds, the futons aren't any fun to jump on.

[lcolton]

We did it

Update: we bought a mattress from the savvy sleeper. Very nice folks. We actually live in Charlottesville VA where they are located, so it was a bonus to buy locally. They matched the lowest price I found online, saving us a bit of cash. Our son will have this bed until he goes to college, or maybe beyond. They seem to last forever. I lay with him reading books at night and it's SO comfortable. Dog won't get off the bed, and I wish I could sleep there all night too. I feel great about our decision, even though I agonized about the money for many weeks. Can't recommend the product highly enough.

[Holiztic]

Originally Posted by lcolton

Update: we bought a mattress from the savvy sleeper. Very nice folks. We actually live in Charlottesville VA where they are located, so it was a bonus to buy locally. They matched the lowest price I found online, saving us a bit of cash. Our son will have this bed until he goes to college, or maybe beyond. They seem to last forever. I lay with him reading books at night and it's SO comfortable. Dog won't get off the bed, and I wish I could sleep there all night too. I feel great about our decision, even though I agonized about the money for many weeks. Can't recommend the product highly enough.

Did you get the Talalay or the Dunlop and in 11" or in 8"? We have been planning on getting a king mattress for our soon-to-be family bed for over a year now (even have the $ sitting in our savings account), but have been afraid to commit. We live in MD and our fathers live in Richmond and in Harrisonburg, so we might actually plan a trip to see one or both of them and bring a mattress home (or will they only ship?). Do they have a show room so we could try it out?

Thanks!

[lcolton]

choices

We got the dunlop I think (it was the less expensive of the 2, but research actually said it was more durable), and only 2 layers (firm and med) but this is for a child. We decided we could always add a third layer if he is still sleeping on it when he's a teen. I lay on it all the time and think it's plenty thick/soft, but over 150 lbs I think they recommend 3 layers. The layers are very light, and come rolled up - you could easily stick it in the back of your car and drive away. They have a showroom in Ivy (about 15 min outside of Charlottesville, VA) and can swap layers so you can compare. Very helpful staff. Their warehouse may be separate, so you might want to call ahead and ask about ability to buy and pick up right then. They delivered the same day as I ordered. ENJOY! I feel so good (physically and mentally!) about our purchase.

[Holiztic]

Thanks so much for the quick reply. I am really liking their website and am LOVING that we might not have to buy something from across the country without even trying it!

We'll definitely give them a call and maybe schedule a trip down to VA!

Thanks again!

[newmom80]

I just wanted to comment...

I went through this with my husband about six months ago. He wanted to buy a memory foam mattress from Sam's club, and researching it and seeing how toxic they were, I said no way! I researched alternatives and fell in love with a natural latex mattress but was quite disturbed by the high prices I saw online. My husband insisted that we check out our local mattress making store to make sure we couldn't find one locally. Well, not only can they make these for us and order any kind of cover we want for the mattress, they were much cheaper. Our is a queen 8" and it was only $800 delivered and set up in our home. Now I want my husband to build us a little co-sleeper type thing for our baby to sleep in attached to our bed, and the same store quoted us $70 for the natural latex to make the crib sized mattress. So, be sure to check any local mattress stores in your city. Sometimes people overcharge you online by making you think what they are offering is really rare.

[Holiztic]

From what I know, most mattress stores sell the Sealy type mattresses (inner-spring, chemical). I don't think they'd have any clue about natural latex, let alone fair trade, organic cotton, wool instead of PDBEs, etc.

Do you live in a crunchy area and have regular mattress stores that actually do this kind of thing????

[mom2x]

We need 3 twin mattresses not more than 5" thick (for loft beds). Any suggestions?

[minicooper]

Where do you buy rubber pillows?

TIA!

I've been wanting a natural mattress for ever... we're sleeping on foamies for the time being... I don't want to buy a 'regular' mattress because I feel like it will take longer to get a natural one if we already have a bed.

[newmom80]

Originally Posted by Holiztic

From what I know, most mattress stores sell the Sealy type mattresses (inner-spring, chemical). I don't think they'd have any clue about natural latex, let alone fair trade, organic cotton, wool instead of PDBEs, etc.

Do you live in a crunchy area and have regular mattress stores that actually do this kind of thing????

Well, we do live in a big university town so it is somewhat crunchy. However, from my limited research on mattresses, latex was the original non spring style of mattress and has been around for many many years. Only in the late 80's / 90's did the memory foam / man made foam mattresses become popular and with Temper Pedic and their marketing, the prices soared. Since there are no well known brand names for latex, the prices have stayed low in the non-organic style of mattress stores ("yeah, we have latex if you want it"). The local mattress store we used builds their own mattresses and can also order the TemperPedic mattresses. They can order the natural latex in varying thicknesses and then combine multiple layers of latex to make the mattress to your spec. It all seemed to be on the level, unlike the ads on the web for "natural" mattresses that were also very $$$$$$$$. Going with a local store also got us free delivery.

[airmide_m]

Wow I'm so glad there's a recent topic on this! We've been putting off getting a new bed, like a previous poster we've got the money in savings, are just nervous to commit especially without being able to try something in real life.

So Newmom80 what sort of questions did you ask to find a place that could order what you want and to make sure it's exactly what you want? We want a king-sized natural latex mattress with organic (non-flame retardant) cover...probably cotton only since we're both a bit allergic to wool.

Right now most of the prices I'm seeing are way expensive ($1,500-$2,500) for a king sized, and it's difficult to figure out exactly what we should be going for - I assume thicker is better? What else is there to know?

[newmom80]

Well, I we just went into one of our local mattress shops (not a big chain or department store that happens to sell mattresses), and we told them we wanted info on latex mattresses. They showed us the varieties they had and let us lay on a few different thicknesses. The owner said covers are very easy to come by and he basically can order any cover a person wants. My husband wanted a "Coolmax" cover for our bed so that's what we went with. For the little bed we're making for the future baby, we asked about a wool cover, and the owner said no problem. A good mattress store where they make mattresses on-site will have a ton of info for you. They told us about the different types of latex and different thicknesses and different covers - it was extremely informative. The best part was free local delivery and set up.

One way we saved a little money ($100) was by skipping the box spring. We have a platform bed, so a box spring was totally optional.

The thing I was shocked about was that the store was not one of those "All Natural" stores at all. I didn't even want to go there because I was convinced from researching online that latex was very expensive, very special and hard to find. Not true. The city we shop in has a population of less than 100,000 people, and we bought our latex mattress at one store, and my father-in-law went to a different store and bought a latex over innerspring mattress with wool cover. So there were actually several options in this same city. These stores also sell $2000 Temperpedic mattresses, but when we told them we weren't interested because of offgassing, the owner was like "yeah, some people really can't handle that." They were very honest with us, and I was very pleased with the whole transaction.

I'm not in anyway against buying a mattress online - I only want people to be aware that they may have less expensive local options. I came away from my online research thinking that latex was the latest greatest thing, but in actuality latex was very common just like 20 years ago and very easy to come by.

[airmide_m]

Wow thank you SO much for sharing your experiences!! Are you sure that your mattress is 100% natural latex? I know sometimes they bill mattresses as talalay or something but they have like 15% manmade, it can be complicated. You say not a chain or department store, you mean not like mattress world or sleep country or those names you recognize from commercials (not sure if they're the same names cross-country)? You've really inspired me! As soon as I get over this icky flu thing I'm gonna start calling around! I would be SOOO happy if we could get something locally and less expensively!! Thanks again!

[newmom80]

Yep, it's 100% natural latex. They normally add a synthetic layer to the bottom of the mattress to make it standard depth so it fits the store bought sheets more easily, but I didn't want that layer, so they didn't add it and my mattress is a little less than 8 inches deep. I haven't had any problems with my sheets though - I just tuck them in a little more on the corners.

Yes, I'm talking about a local business - one that wouldn't have national ads. Look in the yellow pages for stores that use the name of your city and like "mattress factory" - like Springfield Mattress Factory or Springfield Mattress Store.... sometimes they are also named after like a local family or sports team.

[airmide_m]

Hey Newmom80 I hope you're still reading this thread cause I need to bug you (and anyone else with info) again!

I just started my local calling. It's so annoying that even though so far I know more than anyone I've talked to, I find I have trouble articulating everything under the "pressure" of a phone call.

So everyone keeps trying to tell me that Talalay only exists with synthetic which I know isn't true. Now I found out that Latex International (which is usually their supplier) makes/carries 100% natural talalay.

Then one of them told me they have one that's 100% natural, made in Indonesia, and it's through Englander. It's a 6" core and then you can add whatever on to it. Quoted a fantastic price ($995 for a king) but doesn't know anything about it beyond who it's made by and that they say it's natural, doesn't know if it's talaylay, dunlop or who knows what else.

Another said they have one called Togetha, again he doesn't know if it's dunlop, talalay etc. It's about 10" altogether, with a firm core, then a soft pillowtop with wool cover. $1645 for a king doesn't sound *too* bad if it's talaylay?

Another just said he wasn't sure but did tell me their supplier is Latex International and what mattress company they work with so I'll further into that.

And a few people have asked WHY I want 100% natural. I've said "because it's the safest" and tried to explain about off-gassing with synthetic and also with flame-retardants, but I don't know if I'm expressing it as well as I could. Since they are showing an interest (who knows how sincere I suppose) I'd like to be able to offer them information and maybe educate them and their future customers about safety concerns. How would YOU explain it?

Also something I'm hearing from a lot of the stores is "If we special order anything, you're totally stuck with it" ...apparently no return policy and possibly even no guarantee - does that sound reasonable? That makes me want to order online even if it might be more expensive just so I have more security in my purchase if anything does go wrong or I just hate it.

[airmide_m]

Answering some of my own questions, figured it might be of help to someone else! (let me know if you think I should start a new thread about it)

So I called Latex International since I think they're one of the major suppliers. They confirmed they DO have a 100% natural latex mattress. I spoke with Angelica at the west coast regional office in California 1-888-528-3987. The number for the East Coast office is the same except 1-800 instead of 1-888. She gave me the number of several places that carry the 100% natural mattresses but none of them were local (California and Colorado) but they might at least have info on what all is available if I can't find more info through websites.

She also confirmed that there is at least one place locally that works with Latex International, and said that basically any company that works with Latex International can special order anything you'd want, and that they can call her at that number for help in special ordering.

So now I guess I'm on to finding exactly what options are available, what I want, who carries it the most inexpensively and with a decent return policy and guarantee!

[marnie]

http://www.economyfoamandfutons.com/

this place is in my neighborhood, i went and got 4" natural rubber latex mattresses with plain cotton muslin covers. nothing fancy, but under $500 (queen - i think the twin ones were $350?) and extremely comfortable. the 4" is not too thin at ALL. I have a very bad back (and am currently 34 weeks pregnant) and i love love love this mattress. the bonus to me of the 4" height is when i put them on my daughter's bunk bed, there is an extra 4" of protection (the sides are safety rated for max 8" mattresses).

they say they deliver, so maybe give a call?

i got natural rubber latex pillows at bed, bath, and beyond and LOVE them.