Though I don’t like to admit it, I worry way more than I should….about everything. So my latest stressor has been the new mattresses I purchased for my twins. We got the mattresses, opened them up, and smelled the awful stench emitted from the mattresses. I let them air out all day, but when I put them in the kids’ rooms, the smell of chemicals was still undeniably there. I couldn’t let my kids sleep on those mattresses all night, so I moved them to the basement to air out some more.

After hours of research, I found out much more about off-gassing from the synthetic materials used to make the mattress. Off-gassing is the release of chemicals, which obviously should not be breathed in by my children…or anyone! There are even people who think there is a link between SIDS and off-gassing mattresses. Not matter what, I know I don’t want my kids breathing these nasty chemicals into their little bodies.

So what to do now? Well, I unfortunately don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on organic mattresses, so I looked into covering them. Now, there are companies who sell mattress covers for cribs and larger mattresses, though I’m not sure how reputable the second company is. Therefore, I decided to go an easier, more economical route and cover the beds with polyethylene that I bought at Home Depot. The polyethylene should be food grade and at least 6 mil to stop the harmful chemicals from reaching the lungs of your children.

Wrapping a mattress is actually quite easy. Think of a present. The width of the roll of polyethylene unfolds large enough to almost completely wrap the width of a full mattress-I had to cut a thin strip to fully close it. Therefore, all you really need to do is unroll the plastic wrap a little longer than the length of the mattress.

The most important thing about wrapping is that you lay the mattress face-down in the middle of the sheet of polyethylene. Close it up around the width, then seal the ends like a present, so all the taping and seams are on the bottom of the mattress.

Lastly, create some air holes on the bottom to allow the mattress to breathe a bit. I know this seems counterproductive, but the mattress needs to breathe. At least the fumes that come out are less, and they are not going directly into the kids’ nostrils as they lay on the mattress.

So, now that I have the mattresses wrapped with an organic cotton mattress pad (not waterproof) on top (makes it more comfy and muffles some of the noise of the plastic wrap), I have moved on to worrying about what’s in the pillows and sheets. This is an easier fix-100% organic cotton pillows and sheets.  I don’t know about you, but I felt incredibly deceived and very upset as I researched this topic further. All I want to do is keep my family safe, and I find out I might be hurting them with a mattress! I hope you find this useful, and please feel free to add your two cents on this issue.