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Huh. Interesting..! I never heard of wrapping up mattresses to prevent SIDS..

I bought an organic soy foam mattress to avoid that altogether. I had read the articles and it really does make sense. There are lots of products that "off gas" and it makes sense it could be a cause of SIDS.

I look at it the same way as a lot of safety things - crib bumpers also are linked to SIDS and rear facing until 2 years is undeniably safer, but people still use bumpers and forward face their 1 year olds.

I'm sure it can't hurt... but I feel like it's a load of BS. I remember reading the Little House on the Prairie books when I was a young teen and Laura's little boy dies of what it most likely SIDS. I'm pretty sure they didn't have issues with off-gassing and chemicals back then.

I thought this theory was proven to be baseless. But at the moment I can't find a great link....

Oh wait here it is;
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/128/5/e1341.full

under the heading
There Is no Evidence Linking Various Toxicants to SIDS

So, by law, all mattresses sold in the US have to be flame retardant and the claims are that the chemicals used to make a mattress flame retardant cause SIDS (I think its antimony?)...so even if you buy an organic mattress, youre still exposed to the chemical. The only way to get a mattress that does not have flame retardant chemicals is to get your doctor to basically write a prescription for one (or at least, when I was researching mattress wrapping, thats how I interpreted things).

Antimony had been found in babies who had passed from SIDS, but its also been found in fetuses (who haven't yet been exposed to the mattresses) and is naturally occuring..so I guess its one of those "what came first, the chicken or the egg" situations.

I was slightly neurotic about researching mattresses and then when someone sent me the website about mattress wrapping, I nearly had a nervous breakdown. So I researched as much as I could, asked as many people who might have an opinion (my pediatrician, my brother in law, who is a neurologist, my sister in law, who is a L&D nurse) and they all said-if it makes you feel better to wrap your mattress, do it, but there is no proof that doing so will prevent SIDS. They said the same thing about the angelcare monitor (apparently, a baby who truly has SIDS cannot be revived)

I have mixed feelings about this "study". On one hand, all of the things that are recommended to help prevent SIDS (good air circulation, baby sleeping on their back) make sense if you believe antimony causes SIDS (since its very heavy and stays low to the mattress)...But I cannot believe that, if something as simple as a flame retardant chemical causes SIDS, it would still have not been addressed by the Consumer Products Safety Commission (I mean, its not like there is a flame retardant chemical lobby..I doubt mattress manufacturers would have any problem omitting antimony from the manufacturing process!)

I have been reading up a lot on this and found that for the amount of money spent, it's probably worth it if it decreases the risk of SIDS or my LO from inhaling toxic fumes, even a little. May be the worrier in me but some of the science behind it sounded plausible so I researched the different crib mattress wraps. BabeSafe is on option but I couldn't get the Paypal option to work and it seemed just a little 'off' to me so I turned to Amazon. There I found a compareable brand that serves the same purpose. Granted, it sounds like a glorified piece of thicker plastic you put over the mattress but it's supposed to be thick enough to stop fumes from escaping standard flame-retardant crib mattresses. Again, it may be a load of BS but this first-time mama was concerned so I figured I'd go for it - I've spent $35 in a lot more foolish ways I suppose!! In case anyone was interested I included the Amazon link below for the mattress cover I bought.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Ever-Crib-Mattress-Size/dp/B002MBVH98/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340726136&sr=8-1&keywords=crib+mattress+wrap