We were given a cot bed from a friend but bought probably the most expensive mattress (as you do first time round) from mothercare but as we haven't used it much due to no.1 in & out of his cotbed we decided to put him in a full sized single bed instead so mattress & cotbed didn't last longer than 3yrs so has been stored in another bedroom since. The mattress has a zip off cover so has been clean apart from a couple of accidents/sick it's been fine. It has hd a bed sheet over it since storing it in the bedroom but have moved house since but again been stored in a bedroom so not damp at all/not been stored in a garage or loft so not been damp. Will obviously give it a clean/Hoover it etc but do health visitors/midwives scare you re cot death so that's why they recommend a new mattress on each new child? It's hard financially if they expect that and also how do you get rid of/sell a 2nd hand mattress if they scare people etc?