Choosing the first mattress a baby will sleep on brings out the careful shopper in everyone, and if you've found your way to Woolroom, natural fillings are probably near the top of your list. The Kids Luxury Nursery Mattress is Woolroom's own pocket-sprung cot mattress, made in Manchester and sold direct, and it's built as two mattresses in one: a firmer face for a baby, and a softer face to turn up once they're a toddler. Of Woolroom's two nursery mattresses, this is the sprung one. The Kids Deluxe Nursery beside it has the same sizes and the same 10cm depth, and swaps the springs for a coir and latex core, built the same on both faces with no separate baby side. Push your fingertips into the baby face of the Luxury and it hardly gives: coir and wool over springs, dry to the touch and firm, which is exactly how a cot mattress should feel.
It suits a parent who wants pocket springs and natural fibres in one cot mattress, and who likes the idea of a softer side waiting for the toddler years. Avoid it if you want a sleep trial, or a cover you can unzip and put in the washing machine. Skip it too if a firm pocket-sprung cot mattress is all you're after, because then most of what you pay extra for here is wool you've no use for.
I'd recommend it, with one thing said plainly. Woolroom tells you what goes into each face and keeps the spring count and the depth of each layer to itself, so if you want those numbers, ask before you order. The terms deserve the same attention. There is no sleep trial on Woolroom's kids' mattresses, and a change-of-mind return within 14 days carries a hundred-pound fee, and Woolroom only takes it back if it's still sealed and unused. Measure the cot, choose the size with care, and treat the order as final once the wrapping comes off.
The firm coir face is the baby's side
The baby face has coir fibre over a layer of British Swaledale wool, with the springs beneath. Coir comes from coconut husks, and as a filling it is wiry and resilient. It keeps the surface flat and firm, while the wool beneath it softens the hard edge of the springs. A baby's weight barely presses into it. Woolroom's own split is clear: the firmer side for babies up to 18 months, the softer side for toddlers up to the age of five, and the maker describes the mattress as suitable from newborn.
Keep the firm face up for as long as Woolroom says, and turn the mattress over only once your child is a toddler. New, firm, flat, and filling the cot with no gap: that is what I want from any cot mattress, and it is where my advice stops. For anything wider about how a baby sleeps, go to the NHS and the Lullaby Trust.
Turn it over and the toddler side is soft wool and alpaca
The other face is a different bed. It leaves out the coir and puts a comfort layer of British wool and British alpaca over the same Swaledale wool support, so when your two-year-old climbs in, they sink a little into something springy and soft before the pocket springs push back. That's the half of the mattress you're buying in advance, and I like the idea a lot. A single-sided cot mattress gives you one surface for the whole of its life, and this one changes with the child.
On an adult bed I prefer a mattress you can turn because it spreads the wear. Here the turn happens once, when your baby becomes a toddler, so the care in between is simple. Swing it round end to end every couple of months, which is what Woolroom's warranty asks for, and air it now and then.
Why pocket springs under a cot mattress are worth having
Pocket springs every time is my view, and it doesn't stop at adult beds. Every coil is sewn into a separate little bag of fabric, so a knee or an elbow presses down only the springs beneath it, and the middle stays level instead of sinking into the dip an open coil unit gets. I would never put open coil under a child, and I don't cut corners on what goes under a growing back.
At 10cm there's no room for a deep spring unit, and a cot doesn't need one. What the springs give this mattress is a sprung core under both faces, which the springless Deluxe goes without.
Natural fillings, and the claims to ask about
Natural fillings are my preference in any bed, because wool breathes, sleeps cooler than polyester and lasts, and that's the strongest reason for you to choose this over a polyester cot mattress. Inside, Woolroom puts coir, Swaledale wool and alpaca around the springs, under a cotton cover woven in Lancashire, and the wool and alpaca come from British farms. The maker says the wool keeps a baby cool in summer and warm in winter. One grandparent who bought it for a grandson who runs hot wrote that "it seems to regulate with his temperature" and that he is "comfy cosy on his natural wool mattress now". A parent called it "a really comfy mattress" and loved "that there are no synthetic materials used".
Two words on the label are worth a question. The cover is sold as organic cotton, and a word like that only counts with me once I've seen the certificate, so ask Woolroom for it if that's part of why you're buying. "Hypoallergenic" is in the same boat. Woolroom points to an Allergy UK seal across its range, so if allergies run in the family, ask for the paperwork that covers this mattress. The wool also handles fire safety, which is how the mattress passes BS7177 without chemical treatments. All UK mattresses meet the fire standard by one route or another, so the wool route is a pleasant bonus and no reason on its own to buy.
Sizes, sheets and keeping it clean
It comes in the two standard UK sizes, cot (60 x 120cm) and cot bed (70 x 140cm), and Woolroom makes Boori and other bespoke sizes to order. Take a tape measure to the inside of the cot first, because the mattress has to fill it with no gap at the sides or the ends. At 10cm deep, any standard cot fitted sheet goes on without a struggle.
The cover is spot clean only: a gentle detergent on the mark, no bleach, nothing harsh. With a baby in the house, that's the one practical point where a polyester cot mattress with a zip-off washable cover is easier to live with. Woolroom's warranty leaves out soiling and stains, so put a breathable, washable protector on it from the first night. I'm not usually a fan of protectors, because they cover up the fillings you paid for, but on a cot I make the exception.
Read the sag clause, as I would tell you to on any mattress. Woolroom treats settlement past 2.5cm as a fault, along with manufacturing problems, and counts anything shallower as the fillings bedding in. The guarantee belongs to the original buyer and needs proof of purchase, so keep the order email somewhere you can find it.
What to buy instead
If you'd rather go without springs, the Woolroom Kids Deluxe Nursery Mattress costs less and keeps the natural fillings, with a core of coir and latex under wool and alpaca, in the same two sizes. It is the same on both faces, so you lose the softer toddler side as well as the springs. Those two things are what the extra money on the Luxury buys, and I'd pay it. When your child moves on from the cot bed, the Woolroom Junior Mattress carries the same natural fillings into a deeper single mattress on 1,000 pocket springs.
Maybe you only want firm pocket springs in a cot bed and can take or leave the wool. Then go to Mattress Online for the Relyon Luxury Pocket Sprung Cot Bed Mattress, which costs less, uses soft fibre fillings, and has a cover you can take off and put through the wash. If you want natural fillings with a softer side saved for your toddler, the Woolroom is still the one I'd buy.
