Padding for Crib Mattress

My kids were always way too comfortable in my bed, so when I really thought about what was different, I decided that the biggest difference was how hard the crib mattress was.

There exist sheepskins designed to fit crib mattresses, but when I was looking for one, I decided instead to just buy a fairly large sheepskin, which was cheaper and fluffier and will have another life when we no longer have a crib around.

I just put it under the fitted sheet. If you need/use a rubber sheet, I'd put it under that too.

I think memory foam should work just as well, and still be quite safe. Just make absolutely sure there is no room to get stuck along the side of the cot.

Sheepskin pad/rug, etc. We LOVE it. We bought it at IKEA and put it under the matress pad (it's the perfect size for a crib and cheap). It keeps the baby warm AND cool, as necssary. Do some research, if you want, but many other cultures use this for thier babies...and actually put their babies directly on it.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/83235110

We also use a FLAT pillow for our kids, but it's VERY flat and we put most of their toros and head on it...but we have found that even without the pillow, the sheepskkin si SUPER comfy.

We put a pillow in our son's crib. We got a cheaper one (so it would squish down pretty flat) and stretched the waterproof mattress pad over it. Now his head is elevated, but if he spits up or has a diaper leak the pillow is protected - plus he can't get smothered by it!

Durn good question.

And one of these days someone is going to invent padded baby pj's so we can get the non-suffocating mattress (aka hard like rock, ugh), and comfortable = sleeps longer.

I don't have an answer for you...just some thoughts...

1) At a year old many kids have pillows...they can move their head around quite well at this age :) so the suffocation isn't nearly as much of a concern.

2) If you shove your face into foam, you can't breathe, but if you shove your face into feathers you can. So I would stay away from eggcrate or memory foam...but you might pick up a 20 buck down comforter from Ikea, and use it under the matress cover.

I'm going to keep up on this one...SUCH a good question.

We found that the crib mattress was super hard too and our children NEVER slept on them, I got a baby sheep fur and put it under the sheet. It works wonderful. The bed always feels soft and warm, yet has the airflow to control the temperature so your child never really sweats, is soft but your child does not sink into it to the point where she might suffocate.
I used them with all my children.
You can get them at magic cabin, they are not cheap but so worth it!
oh, and they are washable in the washing machine.

-c

Check your mattress to find out if it's double sided. The expensive one I bought was hard on one side and soft on the other so you could switch it depending on the child's age and liking.

My son was the same way. He didn't start sleeping thru the night until he was 15 months and that was after I started padding his mattress. Your daughter is past the danger zone of SIDS, so you have more options. We used a folded up egg crate placed between the mattress and the sheet. Then later, we used our old padded mattress cover from our bed and folded it up and again placed it between the mattress and the sheet. He still sleeps on that and he's 3 now. If you put the sheet over the padding you choose and your daughter sleeps on the sheet, you should be fine. You could even try putting the porta crib mattress on top of her regular crib mattress. I would just suggest that whatever you use, make sure the sheet covers the padding and the mattress, so nothing will slip or potentially cause probs.