Ok, I'm conflicted. I went back and forth to begin with and finally decided I was not going to get a second hand mattress off of Craigslist just because I was tempted by the low prices. Then after putting our crib together I mentioned on FB that next up was getting a mattress. Well, a former coworker piped up that we could HAVE her son's old mattress. I know this lady can be pretty maticulous with her things but her son is in first grade so the mattress is also rather old. I hate to turn down something FREE and don't want to sound unappreciative but just don't know about getting a mattress that is not only used but is around seven years old too. It's an Evenflo Baby Regal if that helps at all.
TIA
Re: Second Hand Crib Mattress
ewww
My mom wanted to give me my old crib mattress. It's about 30 years old now at least. I obviously told her "no thanks". Why does she still have my old mattress??
Then a friend of mine said I could have her "gently used" crib mattress. I passed on that one as well. I'm not down with my baby sleeping on a any used mattress. Think of all the pee, poop, and puke on those things. Yuck.
I do this all the time!
On the mattress topic: I had a couple people offer me mattresses and the newest would have still been three years old. I don't normally have a problem with second hand products (I have scoured garage sales in our area for some really great deals lately) but a mattress, crib, and car seat are three things that I said we would for sure be getting new just because there is no way to know how well the owners had taken care of them the first time.
I also had MIL tell me that we had to get the mattress at WalMart that was $35 on sale. I have no problem with sales but I want to have a quality mattress for LO and these were far from it. My mom told me the day after that she was going to get it for us... we ended up getting one from WM but not the one that MIL suggested.
This is exactly me and those are the 3 things I had to buy brand new. A used mattress? Yuck, esp. since they are so cheap and you use them for a few years. We just bought DS#2's at BRU for $100 (we used a 20% off coupon). Strollers, clothing, books - most of it we have bought 2nd hand. I always get annoyed when I see old carseats at thrift stores. I sooo badly want to ask the shop owner to just get rid of it b/c some naive person will come in and buy it.
Go Phils!!
Thanks for reinforcing my own thoughts!! Nearly everything we've bought already aside from the crib and car seat are off Craigslist or garage sales but yeah I think the mattress needs to be on that list too! Some people end up not using their crib very much and if I had a good friend with a recent baby I might do it but this one is definitely TOO old!! I'll go ahead and order the $75 one I was looking at on Amazon
Thanks!!!
New-ish 2nd hand mattresses (especially those from a "friend") are actually a good idea. If it's not an organic mattress, the age of the mattress has allowed for any of the flame retardant chemical fumes to fully escape. The organic mattresses don't have this problem at all.
Furthermore, MOST mattresses have a plastic or at least a water-repellant outer layer that repels liquids, so any pee, poo or vomit that once was on the mattress is no longer an issue as long as you clean it.