HELP! BABY HATES CRIB MATTRESS

[hlo]

We purchased a Colgate Classica when our son was about a week old and to this date (he's now six months old), he hasn't slept for longer than 30 minutes at a time in his crib. He'll sleep with us in our bed on a quilt-covered piece of tempur-pedic foam (that NASA inspired foam), but not in his hard crib mattress. In other places, he can sleep for up to four hours at a time.

I'm quite sure that my husband and I have created this problem by allowing him to sleep in softer environments...but having said that, here's my question -- are there any safe, softer mattresses than the Colgate Classica? At what age is a softer mattress safe? Has anyone else encountered a similar problem with the Classica or another infant mattress? I'd like him to sleep in a safe environment (and we're nearing the end of our co-sleeping days), but I need for him to sleep! We've tried the mini co-sleeper -- he likes this more than the crib, but doesn't love it.

Thanks:)

[Grace_underfire]

Well I hope I don't run into the same problem. I am getting a Classica I as soon as I can get it (they are supposed to arrive to the store in a few more days!)

I would suggest trying to use a waterproff matress pad as that might provide a tiny bit of cushioning for the baby without compromising in safety. If not the matress I first got is softer that is for sure... it is the coil Sealy matress at babies r us. It sells for $59.99 but I found that it slouches in the middle in my crib so I did not feel comfortable with it and decided to go with the classica. I guess what I will try to do is have the baby sleep in the crib for naps from the begginning even if he will sleep in the bassinett with us for the first few months.

[hlo]

Yep, I'd advise against having a baby sleep exclusively outside of the crib...particularly on something more comfortable! We swore it wouldn't be six months before we tried the crib, and yet six months seemed to fly by! Good luck:)

[amp]

I have heard of others having the same problem with this mattress being too hard, regardless of whether they slept in other softer places first. Hopefully you can get some feedback from some of them. As far as other mattresses that are safe, there are lots of them. In fact, in their book, I believe the Fields' recommend others, including coil mattresses with about 150 coils. Our BRU has probably 1-15 mattresses, more than half of which I think are probably suitable and safe. We chose the Sealy Baby Soft Ultra from BRU. DH was concerned about some of the mattresses being *too hard* and I wanted one that was firm enough to be safe. We seriously looked at about 5 of them and finally picked this one. There really are other options if you do choose to buy another mattress.

HTH!

[jal]

We ran into the same problem. We purchased an egg-crate foam mattress pad from Wal-mart and cut it to the same size as the mattress. We were using the 'ultimate' crib sheets (which are not all that ultimate, but that's another issue) and just placed the foam between the mattress and crib sheet.

[Rachels]

We had the same problem. The Colgate mattress is a brick. It's awful. Abigail has never slept well on hers, and as an infant, she just plain couldn't sleep. Try a Serta crib mattress or a Kolcraft one. They're much more comfortable but still perfectly safe.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[opus]

We purchased the Colgate Classica as well. Sure it's safe, but so would be placing the baby on a concrete floor and that would likely be more comfortable.

I ended up purchasing the Tender Vibes, vibrating mattress. It was shipped and had a horrible smell. I exchanged it for another and it came with that same old smell (despite the plastic covering). When I called the on-line retailer (Baby Center, if memory serves), they said it was not a very popular mattress so it could have been in their warehouse a long time. I asked if they could find one that had been manufactured more recently, as the tags on both of mine had shown the mattress to be over a year old. They were unwilling to do a search for a newer one. I could not find anyone locally who sold the mattress. I aired and aired and aired it out, but in the end, it still had a musty odor. I loved the vibrating feature but I couldn't see putting my baby's delicate nose right up against it each night.

In the end, we've brought the baby to bed with us. We all started sleeping through the night and couldn't be more pleased with the simplicity of the situation.