Is My Green Mattress The Best Organic Twin For Kids?
Summary: When it was time to finally upgrade our daughter’s toddler bed to a twin, we wanted to get something safe, comfortable, and built to last for the rest of her childhood. We wanted a mattress that could fit any loft or bunk bed and was firm enough to keep her from bouncing off when she inevitably jumped on it. And absolutely zero endocrine-disrupting chemicals please! After a month of testing the Pure Eco Organic Kids Mattress from My Green Mattress, I can confidently say that we found exactly what we were looking for!
PROS
- The Pure Eco Organic Kids Mattress from My Green Mattress boats organic certifications and a list of all-natural materials, ensuring that it is hypoallergenic and free of any harmful chemicals.
- This mattress is ranked as medium firm which means it absorbs most of my daughter’s wiggles and is comfortable enough for her parents to occasionally nap on, too!
- My Green Mattress’s twin size is made to fit most bunk and trundle beds, with an 8″ depth that gives it the perfect height for the loft bed frame we picked up on Facebook Marketplace.
- The high-quality materials and thoughtful construction built specifically for longevity (like the 100% organic certified latex, cotton, and wool and the hand button tufting used in place of toxic adhesives) make the $599 price point feel like a steal!
CONS
- When the mattress arrived, it had a slight smell from being packed in plastic. I recommend letting it air out for a day or two.
- Some reviewers think the mattress is too firm, and one reviewer complained about the lack of edge support.
There are certain purchases that I’ve developed a bit of a mental block about, and unfortunately, mattresses are in the top five. I bust out Olympic-levels of procrastination on anything that requires a fair amount of research into a somewhat unfamiliar topic, has a higher price point, or a complicated logistical requirement for physical setup — and a mattress ticks every one of those boxes.
But my toddler had somehow become a preschooler, and though she’s on the shorter side just like mom and dad, that convertible crib-to-toddler-bed just wasn’t cutting anymore. We decided that for her 5th birthday, a big girl bed would be the perfect way to launch her into kindergarten and the next stage of her childhood. (I’m fine, everything’s fine!!! 😭) She also requested a “tall, up-high bed to play on” after a family vacation two summers ago introduced her to bunk beds.
“We decided that for her 5th birthday, a big girl bed would be the perfect way to launch her into kindergarten, and the next stage of her childhood.”
As her July birthday loomed and I continued to move “find new mattress” from one week’s to-do list to the next, I started to get truly worried that I wasn’t going to be able to make do on this promise to my kid. We’ve had a tough year — she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in April, and my husband started a new job before that. Transitions can be hard on anybody in the best of times, even when the changes are “good” ones, like starting elementary school (she’s so ready!). But changes like learning to live with a lifelong autoimmune disease are especially challenging. I really wanted to do everything I could to make this next big transition as cozy and comfortable as possible. I started writing “Just do it!” next to my to-do item in red ink, every time I moved it to the next page.
Part of the problem is that I work for The Good Trade, and all of my colleagues’ hard work reviewing mattresses has made me aware of information I can’t un-know. The last time I bought a mattress was in 2013, and I’m pretty sure that VOCs and flame retardants weren’t even on my radar. Now, I’m so much more aware of all of the harmful materials prevalent in conventional mattresses, and on top of that, we’ve got our daughter’s health to consider. Any semblance of my formerly relaxed attitude towards the materials of the items she wears, eats off of, or sleeps on has gone right out the window.
“The last time I bought a mattress was in 2013, and I’m pretty sure that VOCs and flame retardants weren’t even on my radar.”
Finding a nontoxic mattress that wouldn’t expose her to harmful chemicals and endocrine disruptors that might have a particularly bad effect on her health was a non-negotiable. I wanted to be sure that the mattress was made to last for at least the length of her childhood, while also being comfortable enough for my husband or me to lie on while riding out one of her low blood sugar drops in the wee hours of the morning (a process that involves coaxing a hard sleeper into safely swallowing enough juice to bring her glucose back to a safer range and then waiting 10-15 minutes to see if we need to do it again).
When the opportunity to review My Green Mattress came up, I took a look at the site to make sure that the product would fit the bill for our needs: Clean, nontoxic materials in a well-crafted mattress that a kindergartner (and her two sleepy parents) could comfortably and safely sleep on. The certifications alone were impressive: GOTS and GOLS Certified Organic, GreenGuard Gold Certified by UL Labs, and MadeSafe® Certified? Hypoallergenic and fiberglass-free? 365-night sleep trial and 20-year warranty? Within moments of reading about this mattress, I knew it was exactly what we’d been hoping to find.
Our review of My Green Mattress
We ordered the Pure Eco Organic Kids Mattress specifically because the brand lists it as being ideal for bunk beds, and this is what our daughter’s Big Girl Room dreams were made of. (Did we have the bunk bed frame yet? Nope! But we had a floor and a very enthusiastic reviewer ready to go!)
“We ordered the Pure Eco Organic Kids Mattress specifically because the brand lists it as being ideal for bunk beds, and this is what our daughter’s Big Girl Room dreams were made of.”
The bed arrived within a few days of shipping, and I’m not sure who was more excited — my daughter or our dogs. Because one of them tends to *ahem* welcome new and unfamiliar items in our home by peeing on them, I knew I had to get the box up to her room quickly.
I have been rehabbing a case of tennis elbow in my dominant arm for nearly six months, so I was a little nervous about how I was going to manage this by myself. But it was a cinch! I don’t know if it was my daughter’s squeals or the eager circling of our special pup, but I found myself hefting and pushing the thing up the steps in just a few minutes without too much trouble. We have two landings, and I did take breaks. But still! I felt like the Grinch when his heart grows and he finds the strength inside of ten grinches, plus two.
Upstairs, we opened the box and assessed what we were dealing with. The mattress was compressed into a tight plastic roll that was extremely heavy and difficult to grip — even more so than the shipping box. We cleared some space on the floor and unceremoniously knocked the box over until we could coax the mattress out.
Unrolled, the mattress started to decompress almost instantly, even while still in the plastic. Seeing it next to my daughter’s toddler mattress (we’d recently re-homed the original convertible crib frame so yes, it was on the floor!) made it clear how much of an upgrade this was really going to be. It looked enormous!
As soon as we cut the plastic, the mattress inflated to its full dimensions. There was a bit of a smell, but since the mattress had been traveling packed in plastic in the back of a delivery truck in July, I wasn’t too worried about that — some things can’t be helped. It aired out quickly as it cooled.
My daughter let me take one photo before launching herself on the mattress. “Oh,” she said, clearly disappointed. “It’s not very bouncy.” I reacted with an enthusiasm that confused her. “That’s perfect!” I said, “This is for sleeping, not for bouncing!” She stared at me. It was one of those clear moments in parenthood when our objectives were not in alignment.
Then I reminded her that we needed to go buy her new bedding, and she forgot all about the lack of bounciness. We left the mattress to air out and finish decompressing while we shopped.
One thing I really love about the Pure Eco Organic Kids Mattress is the care and thoughtfulness that went into its construction. Mattresses are made by packing layers of materials that are usually stuck together with some sort of adhesive (a prime opportunity for shady chemicals!). But the Pure Eco is held together by hand button tufting, a technique usually only found in luxury mattresses. The buttons are tied to cords securing the layers that make up the mattress together, contributing to the longevity of the product and eliminating the need for toxic adhesives. I love this!
“The Pure Eco is held together by hand button tufting, a technique usually only found in luxury mattresses.”
The first thing I noticed when we did reading time that night was how luxurious the mattress felt. It had just enough plushness on top to give that delicious, sinking-into-a-cloud feeling without being a bean bag that destroys your back. Because here’s the thing about sleeping on a cloud: It’s not very good for your spine! Our bodies need enough support from our sleeping surfaces to keep us in alignment, and luckily the Pure Eco mattress provides that support beneath the cushy hand-tufted 100% organic GOTS-certified wool and cotton top. (Another cool thing about the wool? It acts as a non-chemical alternative flame retardant!)
I’d describe the feeling of this mattress as on par with memory foam, only it’s not made of the synthetic, chemical stuff. Instead, this mattress features a pocketed coil spring system custom-made in the brand’s Illinois factory. The six-inch innerspring is composed of up to 704 pocketed coils that provide added lumbar and edge support designed for overall comfort for kids and adults up to 400 lbs. The 1 1/4″ layer of GOTS-certified organic and OEKO-TEX certified dunlop latex gives that sink-your-toes-in feeling while being eco-friendly and PFAS-free.
“I’d describe the feeling of this matttress as on par with memory foam, only it’s not made of the synthetic, chemical stuff.”
After about an hour of too-excited-to-sleep zoomies, our daughter crashed into one of her deepest sleeps on her first night. She’s reported nothing but love for her bed every night since!
A mattress like that doesn’t belong on the floor, so after ten days or so of scouring Facebook Marketplace, I found a used lofted bed that fit the bill. In a whirlwind Sunday afternoon, our preschooler’s space transformed into her Big Kid Room, just in time for kindergarten.
Our final verdict
One of the reasons I find it so difficult to purchase items like a mattress is because I know I’m buying something I’ll be using for many years to come. Mattresses are investments, and they are expensive and essential — the pressure to get it just right can be immobilizing! So I’m so happy to report that we couldn’t be happier with our Eco Pure Organic Kids Mattress from My Green Mattress.
“$599 for a well-made, organic, nontoxic mattress that feels incredible to sleep on is an investment that I absolutely recommend.”
Not only do the certifications and materials help us rest assured that our child is sleeping safely, but the mattress itself is just plain comfortable. $599 for a well-made, organic, nontoxic mattress that feels incredible to sleep on is an investment that I absolutely recommend.
We love it so much, we’re even eyeing our own upgrade from the brand for the primary room, so we can sleep just as soundly as our kid for the next decade.
Stephanie H. Fallon is a Contributing Editor at The Good Trade. She is a writer originally from Houston, Texas. She has an MFA from the Jackson Center of Creative Writing at Hollins University. She lives with her family in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where she writes about motherhood, artmaking, and work culture. You can find her on Instagram or learn more on her website.