Cot Mattress - foam or spring?! does it matter?

[lilly77]

When we bought our cot it came with a foam mattress as a deal together - it's a space saver cot (55cm by 95cm instead of the usual 60cm by 120cm) as it's going in our room and the regular one would've been too big.

However, the mattress seems REALLY basic, like just a block of foam. It doesn't look very comfortable and after googling (bad google!!!!) I found an article on the bbc news page about related cot death and foam mattresses (obviously other factors included pre-used foam mattresses and formula fed baby sick, and no wipe clean cover) but surely people wouldn't sell it if it was dangerous??

The cot being the size it is we would need to custom order a fully sprung mattress which is extra cost..

So what is everyone else doing, does it really matter which mattress? I'm happy to spend more £££ if it's better for LO!!

 

[palange]

Hi,

At a mothercare event I asked the same question. The foam mattresses are fine, clean, comfortable and safe but they don't last as long so you may need to buy another.

As we're going for a cot bed we are intending on buying a pocket sprung coolmax mattress - its only about £10 more than a foam mattress - we don't get the mattress with the cotbed so an extra cost we'll need to incur anyway.

Why don't you just stick with the foam mattress - it came with the package anyway - and then only incur the extra costs if you really need to.

Hope this helps

 

[Mya209]

All the matresses we've got are foam. One from Ikea, one from John Lewis and one came with the Moses basket. All are safety certified so not sure.

 

[Emmy1987]

They only recommend sprung cause it lasts longer, you can get away with foam in a normal cot/spacesaver because by the time it starts to go flat and horrible, LO will more than likely have grown out of the cot.

I'd stick with the one you have and it should last you

(ah I may be on mat leave but I still do my job ) xx

 

[Starglow]

When I asked in Mothercare they said foam Is perfect for the first 2 years in a cot. After 2 years a sprung mattress is better because the child is heavier and the springs give a better support. The reason you need a sprung for a cotbed is because of it lasting longer than the baby would be in the cot.

Hope this helps lovely xxx

 

[amy_1234]

All mattresses have to go through safety tests now so they are all as good as each other in terms of safety but the sprung will last longer x

 

[CLH_X3]

iv got this for our cotbed

https://www.mothercare.com/Premium-...&pf_rd_i=0&pf_rd_p=231490887&pf_rd_s=center-7

iv heard sping is better then foam if its being used LONG term...

I have a swinging crib in our bedroom that the baby will go in first of all and thats a foam mattress that come with it... As the babys probs not going to be in it more then 4-6 monthd im happy with it

 

[Brieanna]

As long as it is firm enough it shouldn't be a problem and since it's new that shouldn't be a problem. Even though lots of mattresses look uncomfortable to us it is actually better to not have soft, comfy, fluffy mattresses for babies.

We have a foam mattress for the bassinet to use for the first few months and then we have a coil mattress for the actual crib (I think a crib is the same thing as a cot?), BUT the main reason we bought the coil mattress was because our crib converts to a toddler bed, so we wanted something more durable that would last longer. Our crib didn't come with one, so we had to buy one separately.

If it came with one I would use that one, especially if it's an odd size that would be hard to find and could end up costing a lot more money.

 

[Sooz]

We bought a sprung one but it has a foam covering as well. I found it on Amazon for £38 inc P&P and was super impressed with the quality.

 

[kandbumpx]

We've bought a cot/bed for ours but we had to buy the mattress separate there was a few to choose from, the woman told us all the different ones we could have had.. foam was the basic one, she told us that its ok for newborn but they dont last very long (up to a year old i think she said).

so we stuck to getting this mattress https://www.mothercare.com/luxury-p...ec-coolmax-mattresses-Other-pages/b/206463031
as we were told it lasts alot longer than others and good for then the baby is older

x

 

[ellie27]

Long term - particularly for a cot or cotbed - spring will last longer.

For the moses basket, babies are only in them a few months so the foam mattress which normally come with the baskets are fine. We got ours from john lewis and Anna was in the basket for the first 3/4 months.

I know a couple friends who bought foam mattresses for cots and after about 10 months then bought sprung mattresses as they were losing shape etc.....so in the end spending more money!!

I would say that you will replace the mattress if you start with a foam one, so if you do have the cash go for spring in the first place.

If you are in mamas and papas or mothercare push your hands down on the mattresses and decide which one you would rather sleep on......

 

[lilly77]

After much research we found this - its not custom made but you can choose which filling/shape etc to have - not over the top expensive either... only thing is its 2 cm over the length of our current mattress, so i'll call them tmrw to see if it will still fit in our cot

https://babymattressesonline.co.uk/...s-to-fit-saplings-spacesaver-cot-product.html

Brilliant site for mattresses though! Thanks for everyone's advice x

 

[kittycat18]

I got a foam mattress with the cot and I was a little confused about this as-well. It just seems that you won't get as long out of a foam mattress and that a spring one would be a better investment in the long term... But seeing as I got my mattress free with the cot because I bought soo much other nursery stuff in the one transaction, I'm not complaining