How to choose the best mattress for kids
A good night’s sleep is so important for kids. Children’s overall health, wellness, performance, and development is based on the quality of his or her sleeping patterns. Quite frankly, that’s why kids sleep so much. A good and durable mattress can be a part of your kid’s life for many years and a good night sleep often gets overlooked in terms of your child’s day-to-day functionality.
As per the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), sleeping has a direct correlation to a child’s mental and physical development. The NSF says that by the age of two, children will have spent more time asleep than awake and throughout childhood, will spend more than 40% of their time sleeping. With that said, it’s clear that it’s very important to ensure your child is getting the most out of its sleeping time and that starts with where they’re sleeping - the mattress.
In a day, children can get anywhere between eight to sixteen hours a day sleeping, which obviously varies depending on their age. From learning, memory, behaviour, mental health, and physical well-being, sleep plays an enormous part in the development of children.
A well-made, durable, comfortable, and quality mattress should therefore be integral to your child’s life.
Here are some very important things to consider when choosing a mattress for your kids.
Comfort/Support
Like adults, children need to have the proper support and alignment while sleeping. A mattress that sinks too much might be problematic because it won’t provide enough support and stability for your child’s constantly-growing body. With mattresses that sag, extra pressure can be put on your child’s lower body and shift the lower back (lumbar) out of alignment. While firmness is a matter of preference that changes per kid and parent, the support is very important. Comfort depends on whether your child is a fan of softer or harder mattresses. Plus, beds that come in racecars or princess beds are also important things to consider. If your kid enjoys going to bed, all the better for you. As with adults, be sure to let your kid tag along when testing out mattresses to show them the difference between soft and firm mattresses.
Room
While it can be very tempting to choose a mattress that is shorter to save money, a mattress that gives your child room to grow (literally) is very important. Since children grow so quickly, you’re better off spending a bit more money to ensure you can have something that will last for a few years. Invest in a high-quality bed so you’re not heading back to the mattress store every two or three years to buy a new bed. Your kid definitely doesn’t want his or her feet dangling off the bed after a few months use and neither do you. Besides, you don’t want to make their dangling feet too appetizing for the monster under the bed, do you?
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Durability
This might not come as a surprise but kids tend to break things a lot. Especially when it comes to bouncing on beds. Probably why the phrase, “quit jumping on the bed!” is so popular around family households. While mattresses can usually take a pretty good beating, high-quality mattresses are good options to last longer. The type of innerspring, coils, and lifespan of memory foam mattresses are all things to consider when choosing the best mattress for your kids.
Quality
Mattresses are essentially put together from several layers of foam, latex, wool, fabrics, and coils. With each bit of material, you’ll want to make sure they’re of the highest quality. Each type of mattress also depends on your kid’s sleeping habits. If he/she sleeps on his/her stomach, you might want to consider a foam mattress. Kids who sweat a lot and sleep hot might be better suited for coil mattresses and children with allergies might need a high-quality, hypoallergenic mattress.
Safety
When choosing a mattress for your kid, you’ll also want to make sure it meets the standards and safety to ensure non-toxicity is met. Some mattresses are put together with a lot of chemicals that could be harmful to your child’s quickly growing mind and body. Considering the amount of time your child will be spending on the mattress, make sure all of the materials are certified to be used by children. You can also opt for all-natural and eco-friendly beds that provide top-notch quality fibers and materials to make sure your kid is getting the best, most comfortable, and completely harmless sleeps.
Size
Unless you want your little tike sleeping in a California king mattress, there really are only three sizes to choose from for kids: twin, twin XL, and full size. Considering the best investment is a mattress that will be good for your kid for a few years, choosing the right size is a big move. Twin mattresses are the most standard purchases and are pretty economical. They tend to be best suited for smaller children and they fit in tight spaces and rooms. They offer little room to grow but are quite easy on the wallet, especially if you have a few rugrats running around.
Twin XL are less common but great options. Twin XLs are a bit longer than regular twin beds and are a better investment for the long term because they can accommodate a child’s growth.
If you have the space, full mattresses are your best option for kids. They offer the best long-term value of all three and plenty of room to grow. They don’t tend to fit in small rooms and are the most expensive of the three sizes.
If your kids still sleep together in the same bed, you’ll want to go for at least a full size bed and might even want to consider a double.
Different types
Like with adults, kids beds come in memory foam, innerspring, latex, and hybrid varieties. Each type of mattress depends on which type of sleeping habits your kids have and should all be tested to determine which one is the best choice for your kids.
Memory foam mattresses offer great support and pressure relief and innerspring mattresses are great choices for kids who sweat a lot and heat up when they sleep. Hybrid mattresses fuse a little bit of the best of all worlds and while they tend to be more expensive, are usually one of the best options. Latex mattresses are a great combination of comfort and durability and tend to come with a very fair price range.
Conclusion
In the end, you never want to cheap out when it comes to beds for your children. It’s a place where they can shut off their mind and body after busy days of learning and running around and you’ll want to give them the option of having a comfortable and supportive place to doze off. Not to mention a good spot to jump up and down while you’re cooking supper. Make sure to do plenty of research and test out a good amount of mattresses before you make your final choice.
