I wasn't sure if I should feel like a bad parent or a bit of a grinch
when I read this New York Times piece on the plight of parents trying to green
every bit of their baby's world.
Keeping this mom up at night wasn't SIDS or milk production. She
wants to known what's lurking inside her son's "organic" mattress.
Breaking
down the confusing world of just what qualifies as a "safe" mattress,
the article explains the root of parents' fears: fire retardants used
to protect families from fires in bed have been found to show up in
breastmilk, and some (discontinued) foams lead to nervous and
reproductive systems in animals in 2004 study. Today, the materials
used to make mattresses are largely proprietary, and the term "organic"
can refer simply to the use of some organic cotton in the batting.
What's more, the memory foam that's purported to give you a great
night's sleep is a petroleum product.
Scary stuff. Definitely enough to make you question your parenting
prowess if the main criteria used for picking your kid's mattress was
"will a diaper blow-out be easy to clean at 2 a.m.?" Because that, next
to cost, topped my list when it came to picking my daughter's crib
mattress.
To be fair, "phthalate" wasn't a buzzword in early 2005 when I
registered for my baby shower. But even since it has been bandied
about, I haven't rushed to her room to chuck her mattress and pile the
bed with organic cotton blankets. And, frankly, after reading this, I'm
no more inclined to do so.
The Times piece - like so much of what is coming out these days
about toxins - makes for worthy, interesting (and in-depth) reading. But it provides no real answers. It doesn't say mattresses are
good, but there's little to point to anything wrong with it either. So
I'll focus my fears where I know they're founded for now - and when it
comes time to buy a "big girl" mattress, I'll read up once again to see
if newer news can shed light on my questions.
Image: New York Times
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