type of cot mattress and cot death

[heatherandmalc]

WE are about to adopt a 4 month old baby and have a cot, size 1170mm by 540mm. I have been told so many differtories about what type of mattress to buy, cot death etc. Is it true that the type of mattress with holes in it (air - rated) is the best? I presume that you cannot cover it in a waterproof covering / fitted waterproof sheet as this would defeat the purpose of it preventing suffocation? Can you cover it in a normal sheet then? Or what about just a normal foam mattress, are they really not safe for young babies?

thanks so much for any advice .

Heather Turner

All I am aware of is that the mattress should be firm, in good condition (preferably new) and fits the cot well. There is more info on the Lullaby Trust website here.

Personally, we got a mattress from the Little Green Sheep organic company - it's been great. We also got some of their mattress protectors which have also worked well.

HTH

We bought ours from Little Green Sheep as well - it was expensive but really £180 over the course of 2-3 years isn't that much bearing in mind the amount of time they (hopefully!) spending sleeping on it. Try to by something that is ONLY produced from natural materials because anything manmade will have chemicals added to make it fire retardant whereas natural materials resist fire enough to make them pass safety standards without the use of chemicals.

We got one from John Lewis as they had an offer at the time. Agree with greta that it's worth the extra cost to get a good one. We got a (breathable) protector sheet and fitted sheets to go with it. It was just over £100 I think.