Spending on Sleep

When I Chose to Splurge on Organic 

• What: Organic crib mattress
• Why: Avoid toxic fumes and chemicals
• Where: Amazon

You’ve probably already figured out that I don’t spend more money than I have to, especially on baby items, as they grow quickly and many things aren’t in use for very long. But one area where I spent money to make an upgrade?

On my baby’s crib mattress. I got my first one for free, but when none magically appeared in time for my second child and my first was still using the crib mattress, I went shopping. And I paid extra to get the organic options with fewer chemicals used in processing. My thought process went something like this: unlike clothes, which infants generally wear for only a couple hours at a time before barfing or pooping on it and requiring new ones, they spend multiple hours every day right next to their mattress. In an ideal world, by the age of around six months, your baby will be spending up to twelve hours straight every night right on top of the mattress, inhaling any fumes it might be giving off. I have zero scientific basis for this thought, but instead chose to hedge my bets that maybe, in a case where my baby was spending a very large portion of the first three years of his life, organic had some benefits. Divided over the life of the mattress, the extra money worked out to such a small difference I had no trouble justifying the extra expense up front.

Simmons Kids SlumberTime Naturally 2 Stage Crib Mattress on Amazon

In case you’re worried about my first born, I also spent the extra chunk of change to buy an organic mattress cover and sheets even though I had the free non-organic mattress.