If you've set up a next-to-me crib beside your bed, or you're about to, the small mattress inside it is the first one your baby will sleep on, and it's fair to want to know exactly what goes into it. The Woolroom Kids Crib Mattress is the wool brand's answer for that spot, sold direct by Woolroom: a 38 x 89cm (about 15 x 35 inch) crib mattress with a coir fibre core, British wool and alpaca padding on both sides, and an organic cotton cover woven in the UK. It's the smallest of Woolroom's children's mattresses and the only one cut for a bedside crib, made for parents who'd like natural fibres under a newborn in place of foam and polyester. Expect it firm and flat: a thin give of wool under the sheet, then coir that barely moves under a baby's weight.
Size is what sets it apart from its siblings. The Kids Deluxe Nursery and Kids Luxury Nursery are cot and cot bed mattresses for the nursery that comes next, while this one covers the months before it. Woolroom calls it "suitable from birth" and pitches it for "the recommended first six months of room-sharing". Buy it if your bedside crib measures 38 by 89cm inside and you want natural fibres in it. Skip it if your crib is any other size, or if you'd sooner put the money straight into a cot mattress your child will use for years.
I'd buy it for that crib. A baby gets a proper new mattress in my book: firm and flat, filling the space edge to edge, and this one is built to that brief from fibres I'm happy to have next to a newborn's skin. Settle two things before you order: the fit, which is down to you, and Woolroom's terms, which leave very little room to change your mind.
Will it fit your next-to-me crib?
Only if the inside of your crib is 38 by 89cm. Woolroom says the mattress is designed to fit most next-to-me cribs, and most still leaves yours to check. Take a tape measure to the base inside the frame, side to side and end to end, or measure the mattress your crib came with, because that is the size the crib was designed around. Avoid any mattress that leaves a gap, however small, at a side or an end.
Depth is the other number. Look up the mattress size your crib's maker gives in its instructions, depth included, and ask Woolroom how deep this mattress is before you order, so you can set one against the other. It takes one email, and given the returns position further down, it's an email I'd send every time.
My rule for a baby's bed is new, firm, flat and a snug fit. How to put your baby down to sleep and how warmly to dress them are questions for the NHS and the Lullaby Trust, and their safer-sleep guidance is where to read about both.
A coir core with wool and alpaca either side
Coir is the coarse fibre from coconut husks, and it gives this mattress its firmness. Packed into a core it's resilient and stiff, so a baby lying on it presses in hardly at all and the surface stays level from end to end. Woolroom describes the build as "firm, supportive", and with coir at the centre that is the feel I'd expect. The British wool and alpaca padding on each side of the core takes the hard edge off the coir, enough that the top feels soft under your hand without letting a baby sink.
Woolroom lists no springs in it, so the coir does all the supporting. The whole mattress is encased in a cotton cover woven in the UK and sold as organic, and Woolroom says the wool is traceable to British farms. The maker also says it uses no flame-retardant chemicals. Every UK mattress has to pass the fire rules somehow, and wool is a tidy way of doing it, but on its own it's no reason to pick this mattress.
Wool and alpaca at the surface keep it dry
To my mind natural fibres sleep cooler and drier than synthetic ones, and wool is the best of them. It soaks up the damp a warm little body gives off and lets it go into the room, so the surface under the sheet doesn't turn clammy the way a polyester filling can. Woolroom goes further, saying its wool keeps a baby comfortable through hot summers and cold winters alike. The dry surface under the sheet is the reason I'd choose it.
A mattress for months, so plan the next one
By Woolroom's own wording this is a first-six-months mattress, after which your baby moves on to a cot. That makes it a short-term buy by design, and I'd still spend on it if natural fibres are why you're here, because a newborn spends a large part of every day lying on it. If wool matters less to you than the budget, keep the mattress your crib came with, as long as it's new and fits.
Woolroom's two nursery mattresses are the step on, so the fibres you chose for the crib can follow your child into the cot. Woolroom often has money off its kids' range, so check the price on both before you decide.
Get the order right, because the kids' range has no trial
Woolroom's adult mattresses come with a sleep trial, as long as you buy a Woolroom wool protector with the bed. Its kids' mattresses come without one. You can send this one back if you change your mind only while it's unused and still sealed, and Woolroom charges a three-figure fee to take it back, which on a mattress this small makes a return hardly worth the trouble. Do the measuring and send the depth email first, then count it as yours once it's out of the wrapping.
What to buy instead
If your crib isn't 38 by 89cm inside, buy the replacement mattress your crib's maker sells for that model, because a mattress made for the crib is the surest fit you'll get.
If you'd rather skip the crib mattress and spend on the cot stage, stay with Woolroom. The Woolroom Kids Deluxe Nursery Mattress is the closest thing to this one in a cot size, a coir core under latex and wool with no springs and the same build on both faces. The Woolroom Kids Luxury Nursery Mattress is the one I'd pick if you want pocket springs under your child, with a firmer face for a baby and a softer one to turn up for the toddler years. Parents who'd sooner have pocket springs and a cover that comes off for the wash should look at Mattress Online, where the Relyon Luxury Pocket Sprung Cot Mattress is firm, from a maker I rate, and its cover is removable and washable.
