Before A1 was born I was on a mission to outfit her room without spending a fortune. While I would have loved to have a shiny new nursery set for my much awaited baby that just wasn’t in the budget or in my nature for that matter. I just have to find a deal. I searched craigslist and found a nice looking and excellently priced crib. I was happily surprised when I picked up the crib and it came with mattress in tow. I put sheets on, it looked cute and I was set.
Then A2 came along and a friend, Heather, and I were talking about her suspicions that the chemicals in mattresses can cause SIDS. I had heard these suspicions voiced elsewhere and began to be more concerned about the mattresses my girls sleep on. I’m at the point where I need to get another crib mattress and I’d like to get one with less chemicals and without spending a fortune. Most of the organic crib mattresses I’ve seen run about $300 and up and I just can’t fork over that much no matter how much I want to protect my girls.
So, I’m on a mission to learn about what is in mattresses that I want to avoid. I got my start with this article at The Soft Landing blog. It was very a very helpful jumping point into the world of mattress chemicals. PBDEs are the big culprit and they’re everywhere (just about literally). Apparently we all have these chemicals in our bodies due to years of exposure from many household items. CBS reported on this recently. So this finding means that not only are my girls exposed via their mattresses but it started while they were yet being knit together in my womb, lovely. Well, I cannot change that but I can change their mattress.
So the quest continues. It’s rather overwhelming but I have stumbled across a few little lights in the tunnel. The Enviornmental Working Group tells us this:
“New adult and child mattresses, mattress pads, couches, easy chairs, foam pillows (including breastfeeding pillows), and infant sleep positioners do not likely contain PBDEs. However, some manufacturers have proposed to use a different PBDE chemical in these products.”
So, this means there might be more options out there for those of us wishing to be less chemical laden. It does also mean we have more homework to do to figure out who hasn’t just put in a new PBDE.
I have also found that PBDEs reside in dust (and here). Yes, dust. I have lots of that around my home but I can do something about that. I can get out the vacuum and the dust rag. It’ll take more effort on my part but it’s just me against me, not me against the chemical industry.
Well, all this information is great but I’m still spending $300 for a mattress, or am I? Quite possibly the brightest light I found was this from the EWG site:
“The following manufacturers have taken steps to phase-out all PBDEs from their products - IKEA”
Yes folks, Ikea. The wonderful place for design and budgets. Surely I can find a cheaper mattress at Ikea. I’m thinking of getting the Sultan Blunda for about $40. There is one a step up which is probably better but it’s not available for shipping.
