This is kind of a long story and sort of old news, but I thought it was worth reporting.
The takeaways from this rather long story, if you don't feel like reading on, are:
1) I (along with many in the scientific community) believe that the evidence shows that conventional mattresses are not safe and they contribute to SIDS.
2) A Guardsman mattress protection plan, like any warranty, is worth about as much as the paper it's written on. I paid around $70 for the original plan, so for my time and trouble I was compensated basically $55 toward a new mattress when I paid $350 for the original. Not a route I would go again. Our latex mattress does come with a limited warranty, but it's not anything we had to pay extra for. And, while they were super nice and responsive when I was scheduling a cleaning, they were suddenly very difficult to get ahold of when it came time to pay out.
3) Our latex mattress, while initially expensive, is comfortable, durable, customizable, and, we believe, safe--the safest option we've been able to find for cosleeping. This makes it a worthwhile investment for our family, who will spend over 1/3 of the rest of our lives there!
Here's how we got to this point.
Way back in 2006, I brought a Simmons Beautyrest mattress to our relationship that Matt and I have always been really happy with. I bought it in 2005, just before I graduated from college. It's a queen-size, which was always plenty of room for the two of us.
However, the bed was unfortunately about the only thing which did not escape our homebirth completely unscathed. Despite not actually giving birth in the bed--well, it suffered a little bit anyway. Enough said.
Luckily, I had purchased a protection plan from Guardsman which guaranteed that if anything ever made it through their mattress cover, they would replace the mattress. I contacted them to let them know that this was the case, and they politely informed me that they would first send a technician out to try to clean the spot; then if he couldn't, they would replace it.
The tech came and was very nice and helpful, but was unable to get the spot out with the first treatment. He informed me he needed to come back a couple of days later to try a stronger treatment which couldn't be combined with the first.
After he left, I noticed a strong ammonia-like chemical smell in the apartment, clearly a result of the spot removers used on the mattress. Coincidentally, while the tech had been here I'd been reading this article. Basically, New Zealand has eradicated SIDS for the past FIFTEEN YEARS (it's an older article) by wrapping their mattresses in polyethylene covers which prevent the interaction of toxic flame retardants (required by the government) and common fungus, which combine in mattresses to release poisonous gases.
They've attempted to share this research with the United States, where 8 babies a night die of SIDS, but despite the fact that it's a cheap, easy solution which can't hurt, the United States has basically said it's not interested. Why? The above article postulates it may be because admitting that government-mandated flame retardants are killing babies would be invoking a HUGE amount of liability, and because SIDS research is big business.
Sad.
Lest you think this is just one of my hippie trips, one of the New Zealand researchers notes that the level of success with their mattress-wrapping campaign amounts to one billion times the amount of evidence needed to establish scientific proof.
Fortunately, these covers are available in the United States. Unfortunately, they don't come in adult sizes, and as we are firm believers in the physical, emotional, and developmental benefits of cosleeping, our baby sleeps with us in our adult-sized bed.
Clearly we had to do something.
I called Guardsman and shared the above with them, saying I was uncomfortable with the idea of sleeping on the mattress now that it had been impregnated with chemicals and preferred not to go through with the second cleaning. They demurred, saying the chemicals were safe and nothing could be done about the warranty until a second cleaning was attempted. The tech subsequently came back and could not remove the stain with a second cleaning. anyway After a number of phone calls to Guardsman, they finally said that since we had bought the bed at a store in Iowa which did not deliver to Virginia, they could either purchase the bed in Iowa and we would have to pay to ship it out here, or they could give us a "courtesy payment" of $125.
When I paid $350 for the original mattress, $125 didn't feel like much of a courtesy. But since we didn't actually want another queen-sized Beautyrest mattress, for both size and chemical concerns, we grudgingly accepted it and started looking for another bed.
Incidentally, we were able to sell the mattresses and frame on Craigslist for another $125 to someone who didn't care about the stain.
So with our nominal cash in hand, the hunt was on for a safe mattress. Chemical-free mattresses are available in the United States, but by law they must either contain a natural flame retardant like wool, or you have to have a prescription to buy them. After much research on the various options, their cost, safety, durability, and comfort, the route we chose to go was a natural latex mattress which contains a wool layer, thereby bypassing the need for a prescription. There are a number of discount latex mattresses out there, but we chose to go with a Savvy Rest because all of their ingredients--rubber, cotton, wool--are certified organic. We don't believe that organic certification is the be-all, end-all in any way, but it's a starting point, at least. We also read a number of reviews and managed to track down a Savvy Rest dealer--a chiropractor about ten minutes from us who had a full-size bed set up in his office. We got to come over and roll around on it with Eden, as well as try out the layers (soft, medium, and firm) in all different orders-- the order in which the layers are stacked affects how soft or firm the mattress feels. It's also split down the middle, in case your sleeping partner prefers a different firmness than you.
We were sold, and the chiropractor (Dr Bruce Short of Herndon) even threw in a SavvyRest shredded rubber pillow for us. I sleep on this now and it is THE MOST AWESOME PILLOW I'VE EVER FELT. We hadn't thought about pillows posing basically the same problems and hazards as a mattress, but once we thought about it, it seemed obvious. Matt chose an organic wool Holy Lamb pillow, which he has also been incredibly happy with.
We've now had the bed for about a month (after a few weeks of camping out on a futon and an air mattress while we waited for it to be delivered) and we're thrilled with every aspect of it. It was relatively easy to assemble (it ships as six separate latex sheets plus the organic cotton cover, which zips over it). We also opted for a wool "puddle pad" which helps protect the bed in the event of leaky sleepers (such as diaper-free babies). We are loving the extra room (plenty for two adults, an increasingly wiggly baby, and\ two cats) and find the bed and pillows exceptionally comfortable. While the price tag (around $2500) was originally a little tough to swallow, we found that any king mattress was going to be pricey, and the peace of mind and durability this one offered was well worth it. From what I understand, other customizable sleeping options (such as a Sleep Number Bed) are comparably expensive, without the benefit of chemical-free organic ingredients. Plus, we anticipate sleeping on it for pretty much the rest of our lives, as extreme as that sounds, and therefore the cost-per-use makes it actually a great bargain.
The takeaways from this rather long story, if you don't feel like reading on, are:
1) I (along with many in the scientific community) believe that the evidence shows that conventional mattresses are not safe and they contribute to SIDS.
2) A Guardsman mattress protection plan, like any warranty, is worth about as much as the paper it's written on. I paid around $70 for the original plan, so for my time and trouble I was compensated basically $55 toward a new mattress when I paid $350 for the original. Not a route I would go again. Our latex mattress does come with a limited warranty, but it's not anything we had to pay extra for. And, while they were super nice and responsive when I was scheduling a cleaning, they were suddenly very difficult to get ahold of when it came time to pay out.
3) Our latex mattress, while initially expensive, is comfortable, durable, customizable, and, we believe, safe--the safest option we've been able to find for cosleeping. This makes it a worthwhile investment for our family, who will spend over 1/3 of the rest of our lives there!
Here's how we got to this point.
Way back in 2006, I brought a Simmons Beautyrest mattress to our relationship that Matt and I have always been really happy with. I bought it in 2005, just before I graduated from college. It's a queen-size, which was always plenty of room for the two of us.
However, the bed was unfortunately about the only thing which did not escape our homebirth completely unscathed. Despite not actually giving birth in the bed--well, it suffered a little bit anyway. Enough said.
Luckily, I had purchased a protection plan from Guardsman which guaranteed that if anything ever made it through their mattress cover, they would replace the mattress. I contacted them to let them know that this was the case, and they politely informed me that they would first send a technician out to try to clean the spot; then if he couldn't, they would replace it.
The tech came and was very nice and helpful, but was unable to get the spot out with the first treatment. He informed me he needed to come back a couple of days later to try a stronger treatment which couldn't be combined with the first.
After he left, I noticed a strong ammonia-like chemical smell in the apartment, clearly a result of the spot removers used on the mattress. Coincidentally, while the tech had been here I'd been reading this article. Basically, New Zealand has eradicated SIDS for the past FIFTEEN YEARS (it's an older article) by wrapping their mattresses in polyethylene covers which prevent the interaction of toxic flame retardants (required by the government) and common fungus, which combine in mattresses to release poisonous gases.
They've attempted to share this research with the United States, where 8 babies a night die of SIDS, but despite the fact that it's a cheap, easy solution which can't hurt, the United States has basically said it's not interested. Why? The above article postulates it may be because admitting that government-mandated flame retardants are killing babies would be invoking a HUGE amount of liability, and because SIDS research is big business.
Sad.
Lest you think this is just one of my hippie trips, one of the New Zealand researchers notes that the level of success with their mattress-wrapping campaign amounts to one billion times the amount of evidence needed to establish scientific proof.
Fortunately, these covers are available in the United States. Unfortunately, they don't come in adult sizes, and as we are firm believers in the physical, emotional, and developmental benefits of cosleeping, our baby sleeps with us in our adult-sized bed.
Clearly we had to do something.
I called Guardsman and shared the above with them, saying I was uncomfortable with the idea of sleeping on the mattress now that it had been impregnated with chemicals and preferred not to go through with the second cleaning. They demurred, saying the chemicals were safe and nothing could be done about the warranty until a second cleaning was attempted. The tech subsequently came back and could not remove the stain with a second cleaning. anyway After a number of phone calls to Guardsman, they finally said that since we had bought the bed at a store in Iowa which did not deliver to Virginia, they could either purchase the bed in Iowa and we would have to pay to ship it out here, or they could give us a "courtesy payment" of $125.
When I paid $350 for the original mattress, $125 didn't feel like much of a courtesy. But since we didn't actually want another queen-sized Beautyrest mattress, for both size and chemical concerns, we grudgingly accepted it and started looking for another bed.
Incidentally, we were able to sell the mattresses and frame on Craigslist for another $125 to someone who didn't care about the stain.
So with our nominal cash in hand, the hunt was on for a safe mattress. Chemical-free mattresses are available in the United States, but by law they must either contain a natural flame retardant like wool, or you have to have a prescription to buy them. After much research on the various options, their cost, safety, durability, and comfort, the route we chose to go was a natural latex mattress which contains a wool layer, thereby bypassing the need for a prescription. There are a number of discount latex mattresses out there, but we chose to go with a Savvy Rest because all of their ingredients--rubber, cotton, wool--are certified organic. We don't believe that organic certification is the be-all, end-all in any way, but it's a starting point, at least. We also read a number of reviews and managed to track down a Savvy Rest dealer--a chiropractor about ten minutes from us who had a full-size bed set up in his office. We got to come over and roll around on it with Eden, as well as try out the layers (soft, medium, and firm) in all different orders-- the order in which the layers are stacked affects how soft or firm the mattress feels. It's also split down the middle, in case your sleeping partner prefers a different firmness than you.
We were sold, and the chiropractor (Dr Bruce Short of Herndon) even threw in a SavvyRest shredded rubber pillow for us. I sleep on this now and it is THE MOST AWESOME PILLOW I'VE EVER FELT. We hadn't thought about pillows posing basically the same problems and hazards as a mattress, but once we thought about it, it seemed obvious. Matt chose an organic wool Holy Lamb pillow, which he has also been incredibly happy with.
We've now had the bed for about a month (after a few weeks of camping out on a futon and an air mattress while we waited for it to be delivered) and we're thrilled with every aspect of it. It was relatively easy to assemble (it ships as six separate latex sheets plus the organic cotton cover, which zips over it). We also opted for a wool "puddle pad" which helps protect the bed in the event of leaky sleepers (such as diaper-free babies). We are loving the extra room (plenty for two adults, an increasingly wiggly baby, and\ two cats) and find the bed and pillows exceptionally comfortable. While the price tag (around $2500) was originally a little tough to swallow, we found that any king mattress was going to be pricey, and the peace of mind and durability this one offered was well worth it. From what I understand, other customizable sleeping options (such as a Sleep Number Bed) are comparably expensive, without the benefit of chemical-free organic ingredients. Plus, we anticipate sleeping on it for pretty much the rest of our lives, as extreme as that sounds, and therefore the cost-per-use makes it actually a great bargain.
1 comment:
Thanks for posting this review - it was informative and helpful - we're about to go try a Savvy Rest out and can't wait to see if it's for us!
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