cot mattresses - why not second-hand?

[loomer]

Just wondering why you are advised to always buy a new mattress for a second-hand cot. My cousin has offerred me hers, and says she kept the mattress because it's a really good one.

Obviously I know the household it is coming from, and both the children who have used it - so is there some other more sinister reason that I should not use her old mattress?

it's ok to use a socond hand mattress - provided it wasn't kept in a damp, rat-infested cellar for example.

The whole thing was to do with SIDS, but then when someone looked at the findings they were flawed - yet more statistics misinterpreted! My son sleeps on my neices old mattress - that too was very good quality. Certainly wasn't going to pass that one up!

Go for it - you (presumably?) know your cousin and her likely storage conditions

Think it depends on what kind of mattress it is. The cheap foam ones tend to get a little dip in the middle where the baby's head goes (as they get heavier). If you then put a smaller baby on it and it is sick, the sick collects in a little puddle and the baby can inhale it and then drown. A tiny baby would not be able to turn itself away, especially if the mattress is dipped.

I think there was an issue with bacteria from a leaking nappy or a baby being sick and if the mattress did not have an adequate protective plastic sheet fitted, the bacteria would then sit in the body of the mattress and could affect other babies. That was a theory anyway.