Good Mattress for Kids?

Any mattress you buy is likely going to last her until she goes off to college. They're made to last 20+ years. If they are covered well they won't get any stains on them and they'll be in full warranty.

The trick is that you have to put a plastic mattress cover on it and then add enough padding with mattress pad covers to keep it from being too hot from the plastic.

I think I'd go to a regular mattress store and buy what felt nice. Not too hard and not too soft. Any mattress will last her if it's not a cheap made to break down brand.

We recently spent what seemed like a huge amount of time mattress shopping.

What I found with IKEA was that the mattress prices were good, but they don't fit on regular beds, and you need to buy their bed frame, which doesn't include the slats that the mattress rests on, and oh, it just seemed very complicated. Now, I may have some of that info wrong. But from what I understood, you just can't bring an IKEA mattress home and put it on your old bed frame. And we weren't prepared to buy an entirely new frame, headboard, slats, supports, legs, etc. And the slats serve as the box spring, so you have to buy extra slats in order to get good support.

We went to several stores. Stores always say if you can find this mattress in a lower price, we'll match it. But it seemed to me that there was something really tricky going on. One store sells a "super deluxe premium back saver" by a particular company, and the other store has the exact same thing, but it's called a "super deluxe premium save your back" and they tell you that they're not the same. So the lower-price thing doesn't apply, even though they're made by the same manufacturer and the design is the same. The salesperson will tell you "oh, the 'back saver' has 450 coils and the 'save your back' has 452 coils, so obviously you can see why ours is a better value and oh, costs $1,000 more. And then they go on and on about layers and coils and wrapped and foam and steel and unwrapped. My head almost fell off a few times.

But at Mattress Firm, we found more education. They helped ask us questions. Who was this for? How much do they weigh? Are they done growing? Is this mattress just to take the kid through high school, then they'll move into a dorm, or do you expect this mattress to stay with this person for years and years? If it's for a person who will be sleeping with someone or something (a partner, or a dog, for example), how big are each of them? Is it important for one person not to be disturbed by the other person (my dh outweighs me by 100 pounds and before we got the new mattress, when he'd turn over I felt like I was in a storm at sea). Does the person have health issues or sleep issues?

We hadn't considered all these things (some, not all). It was good to think about this stuff, especially since we were not going to buy the most plain cheap mattress out there. This was intended to be a long-term purchase.

Other things to consider are: the pillow tops can be really thick and need extra deep sheets. The more premium mattresses also can be extremely thick and require deep sheets, so be sure to ask about the mattress depth, unless you plan to buy all new bedding. Individually wrapped coils provide more stability, as opposed to coils that are linked together (that's those commercials that show someone balancing a glass of wine on the bed while someone else jumps on the bed and the wine doesn't spill. It's because the coils aren't connected). We purchased a very high quality mattress protector that is guaranteed for 10 years to not allow dust mites, sweat, pet fur, spilled liquids, dust, etc through. It was over $100 but it means that mattress will be clean. We rejected all the thermo-coils and the fancy layers of cooling products, and pretty blue gel foams, and moisture absorbing beads and and all that. It was amazing how several stores tried to sell us on the lovely colors inside the mattress. Is there anything less important than the INSIDE color of a mattress?

I think that Serta, Sealy, Denver Mattress, etc, are all pretty interchangeable. What matters is construction types, how it fits the person who's going to sleep on it, and return guarantee. The mattresses that we purchased came with a 100 night no-questions-asked return policy. Our daughter has fibromyalgia as one of her many diagnoses and the Mattress Firm person actually knew about pain issues and told us that our choice would not have been good for dd. He helped guide us to a better mattress for chronic pain that is not from a back injury (and it was less expensive than the one we had chosen, so I know he wasn't trying to con us).

We eventually chose the individually wrapped coils, no pillow top, with a 10 year guarantee against sagging, with a 100 night complete come-back-and-get-it and-get-our-money-back return policy.

my dh and i have gone sleep number and will never go back! but we wouldn't have spent that much on the boys' mattresses, not that we could have afforded it back when they were here.
we always did sealy posturpedics prior to the sleep numbers, and that's probably what we'll go back to for the guest bed, which is in serious need of replacement. dang boys took all the good mattresses with 'em when they moved out.
khairete
S.

I have Simmons and I have one Sealy. I prefer the Simmons by far.

When we bought for our youngest, the guy talked me out of the Simmons and said to go for the cheaper Sealy as I would be replacing it in ten years anyways - and by then, could get a nicer mattress for when they were a teen.

Well, my other kids are still using their Simmons and it's been longer than 10 years. There is no need to replace them. So now I have this Sealy which is really bottom of the line, too firm and won't be comfortable when they are a teen. I can't sleep on it now.

So think about whether you want to invest in a more comfortable one vs something to replace in ten years. I hate mattress shopping so I'd rather spend a bit more and get something they'll have till they leave.

Good luck :)

We uograded our daughter's Queen mattress a few years ago. We got it from Mattress Firm which is a national store.

Hers has a pillow top and is very nice. We paid about $800. I don't recall the name brand of this mattress but it's super nice.

My guest room has a Sealy Posturpedic and our guests have always said that bed sleeps well.

Hubby and I have a Sleep Number that we love. It's pretty pricey but it's great.

I'm a firm believer in getting a good quality mattress and I don't go cheap with that type of purchase. A good sleep is important to me!!

Mattress Firm was easy to work with. Daughter just told them her sleep habits, what type of firmness she likes and then she tried out all kinds of mattresses in the store.

I would certainly go to a mattress store. We have an IKEA but I've never purchased anything there. I walked through the store once and never returned.

Buy the best you can afford now and you won't have to spend more money to replace it too soon!

Do you have an Original Mattress Factory there?
Great quality!

IKEA is the way to go for me! :)

We use an icon futon full open as our childs bed. It works well, it's firm, it's low to the ground and has a very small footprint. It's the also inexpensive and built well.

My 5 year old daughter has a regular twin mattress and box springs from IKEA. I think it feels nice...firm (but not too firm) but comfortable. It turns out that she, however, thinks it is too firm and hates it. She wants her brother's old springy broken down mattress. So we are just going to switch the two. I guess she wants something really soft. The price on the IKEA mattress was excellent and it feels quality to me. When my mom comes to visit she sleeps on it and she loves it...says it is so comfortable.

We have an IKEA mattress and frame for my son. He loves it although it is softer than I would have chosen. He has has it 4 years now and it seems to be holding up fine.

We have two IKEA mattresses for two of our kids and they serve their purpose very well. Our kids are on the small side so perhaps that helps. They do carry traditional box spring and mattress sets which don't require their platform frames to support. For the price we are satisfied with the purchases. Good luck.