I rarely get the opportunity to answer Organic Mom questions for family members, but my daughter’s cousin is soon-to-be born so I have had the pleasure lately. It’s tough to try to list what is most important to least important if you know that someone is only going to heed a few suggestions at best. But I have been trying.
I tend to hit the buy-an-organic-crib-mattress-that-isn’t-wrapped-in-vinyl message pretty hard whenever someone asks what to do when setting up a nursery. And I mention that cribs should be hardwood, not particleboard, so it won’t have high levels of toxic formaldehyde. When I was setting up my daughter’s sleeping space, we absolutely bought a good mattress (from daxstores.com) and borrowed a crib from my Complete Organic Pregnancy co-author/friend Deirdre. The crib had belonged to her niece and I don’t think it was entirely hardwood but it had been around for a considerable period of time, and so I felt it was amply offgassed. We were very committed (before the baby was even born) to having a family bed so I knew she wouldn’t be spending as much time in the crib as most babies. As it turned out she never spent any time in it, but that’s a whole other post. The crib moved on nine months later when Deirdre’s first daughter was born, and we still have the mattress. Her stuffed animals sleep on it, on the floor next to her twin.
If I were to buy a crib, I would absolutely spend the cash to get something from Q Collection Junior, which is not only gorgeous but very safe. The company says they’re the world’s first indoor air quality certified cribs. They’re GreenGuard certified, made entirely in the USA, of FSC-certifiedhardwood (locally-sourced solid ash), with a mattress support of 100% recycled formaldehyde-free plywood, and coated with low VOC, water-based finish. We mention the grown up furniture in The Complete Organic Pregnancy. Since then, the co-founder/CEO, Jesse Johnson, has had a baby and, naturally, spawned a baby line.
Jesse emailed me a very interesting link the other day to a report from the California-based non-profit, Environment California, recently published about unhealthy formaldehyde levels in many cribs.
It’s a crucial read ...
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