Mattress to help with SIDS

[riehlism]

So I saw this on the internet the other day. I did some hunting and it's growing more popular. It's actually been in a few news spots.

It's a breatheable mattress. The videos for it are cheesy, but I've read great reviews.

http://www.securebeginnings.com/

[jenprzygoda]

We found a plastic protector that goes over the mattress with air holes on the bottom. (It goes under the mattress pad and sheets to there is no hazard) There is a lot of research our of Australia about SIDS being linked to gases produced by the breakdown of the fire retardants put in the baby mattresses. This research is much more solid that anything I have seen out of the US.

[riehlism]

What is the mattress called?

[angieb]

The thing in Australia (and there is also a company in the US), is called "mattress wrapping". Basically, you wrap the mattress in a plastic bag to prevent fumes. (Also, if you use a mattress pad over the plastic wrap, then you supposedly aren't doing it properly unless your mattress pad/sheet/etc. is 100% organic cotton.)

All of the research that supports that this work comes from the companies selling it (unless maybe I've missed it), so I'm not sure how much I really buy into it. I did some googling about all of this supposed research and came up with nothing, though I did find this blog that tried to track down the source of some of this supposed research and you can see some of the glaring flaws: http://www.joannabk.com/babyblog/2006/10/sids_and_mattresswrapping.html

That being said, we did buy an "organic" mattress (no PVC, etc. but it's not 100% organic- they don't really enforce claims like that- because it has been treated with boric acid as a flame retardant).

I read somewhere that babies are 7x more likely to be stillborn than to die of SIDS, so while I'm definitely neurotic enough to take the risks of SIDS seriously, (and believe me, in addition to the stuff above we have 2 different types of movement/breathing detection monitors), I'm not buying into this special mattress business at this point. I haven't decided about if we will wrap it, apparently there are some links out there which tell you how to make your own wrap from the same material at Lowe's/Home Depot/ etc.

[libby123]

Along with different mattresses, there are many things you can do to prevent SIDS. Whenever I see a SIDS post, I like to share them just because they are so easy and can't hurt but could save lives!

1.)Back to sleep (we all know this one!)
2.)Nothing in the crib but the mattress and fitted sheet. No bumpers, blankets, toys, pillows, etc.
3.) Supposedly a fan going in the room will reduce SIDS by 70%. Not sure how much I believe it, but we still always have a fan on just cause it can't hurt.
4.) keep the room between 67-70 degrees.
5.) We put our daughter in a wearable blanket (Halo sleep sacks are good0 so that she doesn't get cold.
6.) Pacifiers are also known to reduce SIDS.

[libby123]

Oh, and be careful about hats too! We had a bad scare with our daughter, we used to put her in hats because she was so tiny and got cold easily. But she once pulled the hat down over her entire face while she was sleeping and we woke up to her screaming because of it! Luckily she was fine.