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10 best cot mattresses for baby's beds - 2020 and 2021
Buying a mattress for a baby’s cot is a bit overwhelming. Normally with a mattress you just worry about comfort and back support, whereas with a baby you suddenly start wondering if everything needs to be ‘organic’ and ‘natural’.
Broadly speaking you can split cot bed mattresses into three categories
Most advice I’ve read says that a baby’s mattress should be firm, whereas older babies and toddlers should have a softer mattress. I’m not an expert on this area, but that’s what others seem to say.
We’ve picked out 10 of the best cot bed mattresses for babies in 2020 and 2021, based on expert awards, customer reviews and value for money.
Prices are for the 140x70cm version, although smaller sizes are usually cheaper.
Broadly speaking you can split cot bed mattresses into three categories
- Cheap cot bed mattresses made from foam. £20+
- Mid-priced cot bed mattresses made from a combination of springs and foam. £50+
- Expensive cot bed mattresses made from ‘natural’ and ‘chemical free’ materials such as wool, natural latex, coconut husk (coir) and organic cotton. £100+.
Most advice I’ve read says that a baby’s mattress should be firm, whereas older babies and toddlers should have a softer mattress. I’m not an expert on this area, but that’s what others seem to say.
We’ve picked out 10 of the best cot bed mattresses for babies in 2020 and 2021, based on expert awards, customer reviews and value for money.
Prices are for the 140x70cm version, although smaller sizes are usually cheaper.
1. Little Green Sheep Natural Twist - £179
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Natural Twist may sound like something Mark Kermode would refer to in a movie review podcast, but it’s actually a clever and well-regarded mattress made by Little Green Sheep.
So how can a mattress be clever, I hear you ask in a sarcastic tone? Well, it’s firm on one side and soft on the other side, so you use one side until the little darling is a year old and then flip (needless to say, most parents flip long before their children reach the age of one – haha, geddit!). That means you can get five years' use out of it, whereas most cot bed mattresses are only really for the first year or two when babies need a firm mattress. So, whilst it’s not the cheapest, it might actually work out better value than buying two mattresses. |
What's the twist? It's double sided...
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When I checked it scored 4.8/5 on Amazon. It also won bronze at the Mother and Baby Awards in 2014. It also made it onto a GQ magazine guide to ‘Right on baby products’ (whatever that means).
It’s made from ‘breathable cotton, supportive coconut coir, comfy natural latex and hypo-allergenic wool’.
Available in 140x70cm, 120x60cm and a few other unusual sizes. In case you're interested, this is the mattress we chose for our children.
It’s made from ‘breathable cotton, supportive coconut coir, comfy natural latex and hypo-allergenic wool’.
Available in 140x70cm, 120x60cm and a few other unusual sizes. In case you're interested, this is the mattress we chose for our children.
2. Silentnight Safe nights essentials/Luxury Pocket Sprung Cot Mattress - £89/£129
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Silentnight is probably the best-known brand in the UK mattress market, and they offer a range of cot mattresses called 'Safe Nights'.
Back in 2016, the Silentnight Safe Nights Memory Wool Mattress won a bronze award at the Mother and Baby Awards, but they don't seem to make that one any more. Instead, your options in the Silentnight Safe Nights range include Airflow or Essentials at the cheaper end of the range or Luxury Pocket Sprung or Superior Pocket Sprung at the top end of the range. I've picked the Luxury Pocket Sprung mattress as it should offer a good level of support but they are all foam-free and instead use a 'fibrous filling'. They also come with a washable cover and a 3 year guarantee. Overall, the Silentnight brand was scoring a very respectable 4.2/5 on TrustPilot when we checked, whilst their Safe Nights mattresses were scoring 4.6/5 from customers. The Airflow and Essentials models are available in both standard cot sizes (60cm x 120cm and 70cm x 140cm) whilst I could only find the Luxury Pocket Sprung and Superior Pocket Sprung in 70cm x 140cm. |
Silentnight is the UK's biggest mattress brand and they score well with customers
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3. Mother Nurture Classic Spring Mattress - £39
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I’d describe this Mother Nurture classic spring mattress as a mid-range mattress which will do the job for people who aren’t looking for super-dooper organic, natural materials.
For your money it offers:
I’ve included it because it’s very similar to lots of mattresses on the market which cost about £50-100, but it’s a fair bit cheaper. It's available in sizes including 140cm x 70cm and 120cm x 60cm. |
This Mother Nurture mattress has good specs for the pricetag
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4. Relyon Luxury Pocket Sprung Cot Bed Mattress - £119
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The Relyon Luxury Pocket Sprung Mattress was praised at the Mother and Baby Awards 2019. It won a silver prize in the 'sleep' category and a gold prize in the 'safety' category. In 2020, it won bronze in the 'best sleep product' category.
A useful feature is that you can wash the sleeping surface at 60 degrees and it uses pocket springs, which are the posh type for those who are taking notes. It's made by a mattress company you've probably heard of and it's made in the UK. It's got something called an 'Actipro treatment' which is an anti allergy thing, but sounds like something you'd apply to an astroturf at the local leisure centre. It comes with a two year guarantee. Available in 140x70cm and 120x60cm. As far as I can tell, this one used to be a Slumberland mattress but it's now labelled as Relyon (they are part of the same company). |
Relyon's cot mattress has won gold and silver awards
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5. Mother Nurture Essential Eco fibre Cot Bed Mattress - £30
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There’s not a great deal to say about the Mother Nurture Essential Eco Fibre Cot Bed Mattress, apart from the fact that it’s a rectangle made entirely of a 'recyclable polyester fibre core' which is a manmade alternative to foam.
There are no springs, no organically sourced coconut fibres or wool from Himalayan goats. It won’t guarantee your child a place at Cambridge or impress your NCT friends. It really is just a simple mattress with a cover on top. So why have we included it in our guide to 10 of the best cot bed mattresses?
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A highly rated cot mattress for £30
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- Secondly, it gets very good reviews with an average of 4.6/5 on Amazon.
- Thirdly, even if this isn’t your main mattress it might be useful as a second mattress at the in-laws house (rather than trying to take a mattress in the car every time, which isn’t much fun).
It claims to be suitable from birth to four years. Generally, babies need firmer mattresses whilst toddlers can have softer mattresses.
This one is available in 140cm x 70cm and 120cm x 60cm.
6. Clevamama ClevaFoam Support Mattress Cot - £130
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I must admit I’d not heard of Flat Head Syndrome before I found this mattress but according to the blurb, some mattresses increase the risk of Plagiocephaly (by the way, if you’re a new parent, you’ll soon get used to worrying about things you'd never heard of).
It is, essentially, a foam mattress but it claims to have been specially developed with academics from Trinity College in Dublin to ‘protect the round shape of your baby's soft head’. I’ve included it because it gets glowing customer reviews (4.9/5 from more than 100 customers when I checked). Available in 140cm x 70cm and 120cm x 60cm |
This mattress claims to reduce the risk of 'Flat Head Syndrome'
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7. John Lewis & Partners Spring Cotbed Mattress - £90
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The John Lewis & Partners Spring Cotbed Mattress uses manmade polyester fibre as well as springs for support. The springs aren't the posh 'pocket springs' that you get in most adult mattresses, but it still gets very good reviews and comes from a trusted brand.
At the time of writing, more than 50 customers were giving an average score of 4.8/5 (as of January 2021). It has a removable and washable outer cover and comes with a 3 year guarantee. It is available in 140x70cm or 120x60cm. John Lewis & Partners sell a couple of other cheaper cotbed mattresses which also get great reviews including the John Lewis & Partners Premium Foam Cot Mattress. It was only £50-£65 when we checked and comes in 120x60cm or 140x70cm. |
John Lewis sell a few different cot mattresses which get very positive reviews
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8. Naturalmat Quilted Coco Mat Cot Mattress - £145
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The Naturalmat Quilted Coco Mat Cot Mattress is made in Devon and has won a couple of awards from Mother and Baby (Silver, 2017) and Made For Mums (Bronze, 2017 and Silver, 2018). There’s a quilted version and a non-quilted version, but it’s the quilted one which has won the prizes (‘quilted’ refers to the outer material with the criss-cross pattern on top).
In case you are interested, it is mostly made from a coconut by-product (coir) and it doesn’t contain any springs. The cover is removable. There aren’t a lot of reviews compared to some, but those that I’ve found are positive. You can get it in 60cm x 120cm, 70cm x 140cm and some other unusual sizes which is useful if you've bought a beautiful cot and then realised it isn't a standard size. Natural Mat also won a silver award in the Loved by Parents award in 2013 for their ‘Latex Mat’. If you're feeling flushed, the posh option is Naturalmat's Quilted Spring Mattress which won silver at the Mother & Baby awards in the 'safety' category. It comes in three sizes and it costs £250 in the standard cot size. |
The brown stuff is coconut husk ('coir')
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9. BabyStyle Dream Sprung Cot Bed Mattress - £70
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BabyStyle isn't as famous a name in the mattress market as Silentnight or Slumberland but it's one of the cheapest sprung cot mattresses we've found. I've not found many reviews of this one, but it got the thumbs up from expert testers back in 2017.
If you want to get technical, it uses the cheap option of open coil springs rather than posher pocket springs. The BabyStyle Dream also comes with the all important removable mattress cover. It only seems to be available in the large cot bed size, which is 140cm x 70cm. |
BabyStyle is one of the cheaper sprung mattresses
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10. Obaby Sprung Cot Bed Mattress - £69
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Here's another low priced mattress which gets solid customer reviews and is made from a combination of springs and foam.
It is similar in design to the Mother Nurture classic spring mattress (£39) and the John Lewis & Partners Pocket Spring Cotbed Mattress (£90) as it uses open coil springs. There is an upgraded version of the Obaby mattress which uses pocket springs). By this point, I imagine you have drifted off to sleep at this dull discussion of springs. Anyway, the point is that when you are talking about adult mattresses, pocket springs are better than linked springs. It's available in 140cm x 70cm or 120cm x 60cm. |
Another cheap spring and foam mattress which gets good reviews
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