My First Memory Foam Crib Mattress Review

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• Specs
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Our Rating: (9.6 / Out Of 10)

Memory foam mattresses are, without a doubt, comfortable to sleep on. So why not let your baby sleep on one as well, especially if that means that they are as comfortable as you are? Here’s the thing. Up until recently, memory foam wasn’t safe for a baby to sleep on because they would sink in too much, posing a suffocation risk and an increased risk for SIDS.

Recently, the Kittrich Corporation created a memory foam mattress that is firm, yet comfortable enough, for a baby to safely sleep on. This mattress is the “My First” Memory Foam Crib Mattress. I tested this mattress out with my two-year old and I would like to tell you all about it.

Video Review

Don’t want to read the full review? Watch our video review instead.

The “My First” Promise

The creator of the “My First” brand, Kittrich, has strived for high safety standards. They created their mattress without phthalates or lead while meeting and/or exceeding federal flammability and CPSC standards. They have also made sure that their mattress fits properly inside of most cribs.

They made sure that their mattress passed the two-finger test,a test in which I perform myself, and they also keep their mattress within the legal U.S. size. As you get deeper into the article, you’ll find out whether or not they keep their promise.

Presenting The “My First” Memory Foam Crib Mattress

The “My First Memory” Foam crib mattress is a CertiPUR-US Certified mattress made from flexible polyurethane foam. This foam meets CertiPUR-US standards for emission and durability, content, and are regularly tested by accredited laboratories. Although it isn’t “organic, it is much safer than some of the other mattresses on the market. It’s anti-microbial, mite-proof, and hypoallergenic which is great for those who may be sensitive to certain materials.

Since memory foam mattresses to have a tendency to be a little too soft for babies, the Kittrich Corporation made sure that this one was firm while providing all of the comfort of memory foam. They did this by using extra firm high-density foam that supports infants while remaining comfortable. If it seems too firm, don’t fret, it’ll soften up a little.

My favorite thing about this mattress, honestly, is the removable velour cover. It’s machine washable, waterproof, and prevents mold and bacterial growth. We’ve all experienced the midnight accident or the sippy cup that didn’t close all the way. With this waterproof cover, the liquid will remain on the top for a short amount of time, Even if it does leak through, the design of the cover will ensure that it remains inside of the cover and not on the mattress. I personally tested this and you made a video for you to view.

Thoughts About The Packaging

The mattress has been vacuum sealed in a plastic package and shipped in a medium sized box.The outside of the box says that there is a mattress inside but it does not specify which brand. Once you open the box, you are then greeted by a picture of a cute, smiling baby. The insert, which I have mentioned before that I love, has a few quick facts about the mattress.

The picture gives us some insight about the mattress such as that it is hypoallergenic, waterproof, washable, phthalate & lead free, mite-proof, and the fact that it has square corners. See, i’m not the only one who prefers the square corners!

Check out our post about How To Clean A Crib Mattress

Features & Benefits

In this section, i’ll take each feature & benefit of the mattress and talk about them individually. Remember, I tested each one of them and am giving your my first-hand experience.

What Sets It Apart?

Although it is not in the organic category, it still has some healthy benefits such as being phthalate and lead free. I see this a lot in organic crib mattresses, which also cost much, much more than this one.

As I stated earlier, they believe safety to be the most important thing when it comes to your child and their sleeping environment. They have created this mattress with the child in mind, not the profits. You can find a lot of benefits with this mattress including being hypoallergenic and antimicrobial while remaining affordable.

Construction & Composition

The My First Memory Foam mattress has two layers:

The cover is pretty awesome. It is made from a soft plush velour material that my son loved. He would rub his hand over the material and giggle because he liked the way it felt. It’s also waterproof which is another great feature. I had to take it off, thanks to a nap time accident, and wash it. It did not shrink and it went back on as easy as it came off. Check out the waterproof video that I did. It shows how well the water stays on top of the cover.

The high density memory foam is made from CertiPUR-US certified polyurethane foam and is supportive enough for infants while remaining comfortable. The foam also meets and exceeds all CPSC standards and federal flammability standards.

Comfort

My son loves the feel of my memory foam bed, so it was no surprise to me that he slept wonderfully on this mattress. Although it isn’t as soft as my bed, it was still soft enough for him to be comfortable. In my honest opinion, I think that it may be too firm for a baby, but better for a toddler.

The plush velour cover helps with the comfort a little I think. Since my son loved it so much, he slept on it without a sheet and he was falling asleep much quicker than usual. It was also very quiet compared to some other mattresses I have tested. Some mattresses made noise while my son was rolling around on it, but this one didn’t. I’ll tell you this, if my mattress made noise while I was trying to sleep, I wouldn’t sleep very well on it.

I definitely have to say that the mattress seemed very comfortable to my son. He slept a lot better and was sleeping through the night, only one or two other mattresses have been able to do this for him.

Support

One of the specific features of this mattress is the supportiveness while being memory foam. Usually with memory foam, you’ll sink in and the mattress will conform to your body. The “My First” mattress doesn’t make your child sink in. It was created with the optimal level of firmness for your baby to safely sleep on.

I placed a 16 pound bowling ball on it and as you can see from the picture, there is minimal sinkage. I also took a picture of my son sleeping & standing on it and if you take a look, you can see that he isn’t sinking at all, and he’s roughly 30 pounds. When you place your infant on a mattress, you don’t want them to sink in because this is a high SIDS risk if they ever roll over face down and can’t roll back.

I can say with high certainty that the support of this mattress, thanks to the high density foam, is ideal for an infant, even a toddler. It may seem too firm for your baby, but they will adjust to it and it may soften up a little, but not too much. It did soften up after a few days of my son sleeping on it, but there was still minimal sinkage.

The Two Finger Test

This is something that is mentioned specifically by the Kittrich Company, the people responsible for the “My First” brand. They perform the two-finger test on their mattresses and advise parents to do the same.

Your baby’s mattress needs to fit snugly inside of the crib with no more than two fingers of space between the rails and the mattress. If the mattress isn’t big enough for the crib, it could pose an entrapment risk, which could ultimately lead to suffocation. Even if it’s just a little more than two fingers, you still shouldn’t use it.

There is a term the CDC uses called ASSB, which stands for Accidental Suffocation and Strangulation in Bed. In 2014, 25% of SUDS (Sudden Unexpected Infant Death) was caused by ASSB. This was due to wedging or entrapment from a child getting wedged between their crib and crib rails.

So, to keep your baby safe, please make sure that there is no more than two fingers between that mattress and the crib rails. If you take a look at the picture, it shows that the “My First” mattress fits comfortably in the crib with no more than two fingers.

Edge Support

My experience with memory foam edge support hasn’t been very good for adult mattresses, so I was hoping that it would be different for crib mattresses. One other crib mattress that I had tested had pretty good edge support, so would this one have good edge support as well? Let’s see.

I took that same 16 pound bowling ball from my support tests and balanced it on the edge of the mattress. To my surprise, there was exceptional edge support. There was a small amount of slack, but it was nothing that was going to affect the way the child would sleep. I kept the ball there for a few moments to make sure that the edge wouldn’t give away, and it didn’t.

The reason I do these edge support tests is because if your mattress has more than two fingers of space, as I was stating earlier, and there is a lack in edge support, that risk for ASSB will only get higher.

Good edge support is also ideal for when your toddler is transitioning to a toddler bed. They are very likely to get close to the edge of the bed while they are getting used to not having those crib rails to stop them. If there is no edge support, they’ll end up falling off the bed easier than if there is good support because the edge will give away to the pressure.

Corners

Why talk about corners? They have nothing to do with the way our child sleeps, right? Well, kind of. It does, however, have an effect on the way the mattress fits into the crib. If a mattress has rounded corners, it may make the crib fit more loose than with square corners. The square corners help the mattress fit snugly in the corners and the it’s less likely to move around.

This mattress has square corners and it fit very comfortably in the crib and made it more sturdy than other mattresses I have tested with the rounded corners. I am a fan of the square corners unless they are sharp. If I had to choose between sharp edged square corners and rounded corners, it would be the rounded corners, but in this case, the corners are soft squared and that’s what I like.

Check out the picture below. You can see that the square corners fit very tight in the crib.

Water Resistance Test

Seams

As with all of my mattresses, big and small, I like to look over every inch of them to ensure that there are tight seams. I do this in crib mattresses especially, because if your child is anything like mine, once they see a loose seam, they’ll most likely play with it. My child loves to pull on thread and wrap himself on it if I don’t catch him on time.

As I was inspecting the “My First” memory foam mattress, I didn’t notice any loose seams, mostly because there really isn’t anywhere for them to be. The cover is like a big sheet that zippers on the bottom with little grippy bumps so that the mattress doesn’t move around. I checked all around the zipper and all of the grippy bumps and didn’t see any loose seams, pulls, rips, tears, nothing. Even all of the grips were intact and stable.

Ease Of Transport

The “My First” memory foam mattress isn’t the lightest of the ones I have tested, but it also isn’t the heaviest. Weighing in at around 11 pounds, it does come out of the crib quite easily. I had tested one a while back that was around 20 pounds and it was ridiculous trying to change the sheets and move it around.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to do a sheet change in the middle of the night thanks to a tummy bug. When you’re tired, everything seems more difficult than it really is. So when you are trying to lift a 20 pound mattress out of the crib to wipe off toddler vomit, it’s not the easiest thing in the world. This is why I can appreciate how lightweight it is even though it isn’t the lightest I’ve tested.

How Does It Feel?

As I was saying earlier, I love the way the plush velour cover feels. My son has a crib sheet that feels just like the cover of this mattress and he always sleeps well when I put it on. I have to compare the feeling of it to puppy fur or a really soft stuffed animal. It is very soft to touch and my son loves it.

The bottom of the cover has a different feel since it has those grippy bumps that I was talking about. It feels like the bottom of children’s slippers that have the grips.

Bounce

The bounciness of a mattress can play a huge part on how your child sleeps. If a mattress is super bouncy, it may wake them up as they are rolling around in their sleep. Personally, I don’t care for bouncy mattresses, such as the ones with innersprings. Since this is a memory foam mattress, there shouldn’t be much bounce. So was there?

The “My First” memory foam mattress has very little bounce. This means that the mattress is firm enough for a baby to sleep on. If it doesn’t bounce at all, it’s probably way too firm for your baby and if it bounces too much, it may be too soft. In this case, the mattress is on the border of being too firm and being just right.

Heat Regulation Features

The “My First” memory foam mattress doesn’t really have any temperature regulating features, which isn’t a big deal I suppose. To some, it may be. I would be more favorable of one that did, but since this one has other features to make up for it, it’s alright.

Heat Retention

Even though there are no temperature regulating features to test, I still wanted to do a heat retention test to see whether or not the mattress would hold heat. My son didn’t seem to sweat or overheat on this mattress, so I expected the mattress to not hold heat.

I took my trusty heating sock and my temperature reader to the mattress and got a quite surprising result. It took around 7-8 seconds to cool down from 130 degrees. This ties with another memory foam mattress that I had previously tested. So far, this mattress and the other one have the quickest cooling down times as opposed to the 20-25 second average.

Odor

One of the other memory foam mattresses I tested had a really strong chemical odor as soon as I cut open the plastic. This mattress is completely different. I opened the plastic, allowed the mattress to expand, and sniffed. To my surprise, there was no odor.

Since this mattress is CertiPUR-US certified, I expected it to not have an odor. Amazingly, my expectations were met.

Feedback From Other Consumers (Parents & Caregivers)

Here are some comments about the Milliard that other users had.

Construction & Composition

• Holds up after washing
• No flawed zippers
• Good quality overall

Support

• Supports babies well
• Equal support for infants and toddlers
• Comfort For Baby
• Babies slept well
• They seemed comfortable

Comfort For Toddler

• Toddlers are sleeping better
• Less tossing and turning
• Falling asleep quicker

Water Resistance

• Waterproof claim holds true
• Accidents were easy to clean

Ease Of Movement

• Easily portable
• Easy to take out of cribs

Breathability

• No complaints of overheating
• Toddlers sleep without sweating

Is The “My First” Memory Foam Crib Mattress The Right Fit For Your Baby/Toddler?

Even though I have given you practically all of the information you need for this mattress, you may still be asking yourself if this is the right mattress for your child. Let me sum it up for you and help make your decision easier.

Are You Looking For Something Safe?

This mattress may not be organic, but it does have a lot of non-toxic properties that go along with it. It’s CertiPUR-US certified, which means that the foam is non-toxic, it meets all flammability standards, and it passed my tests. Not to mention, it’s hypoallergenic, antimicrobial, and mite-proof.

The Waterproof Factor

If it’s waterproof, I approve and so should you. If you buy a mattress that isn’t waterproof and something happens where the liquid gets into the mattress, it turns into a breeding ground for mold and bacteria. It’s then pretty much ruined and you’ll have to buy a new one. Since this one is waterproof and washable, it’ll last many years.

Optimal Comfort

Memory foam is comfortable for adults, so why not give babies the same comfort? This is ideal for those who may be trying to break the co-sleeping habit. If your child’s mattress is as comfortable as yours, they’ll probably sleep much better and it’ll make the transition easier.

Budgeting?

If you are on a budget and can’t afford an organic mattress but don’t want to settle for harmful traditional mattresses, this one is the ideal choice. It’s not so cheap that it won’t last more than a year or two and it isn’t so expensive that it’ll break your bank. Honestly, this is a good price range to be in for a good quality mattress.

Conclusion

The “My First” memory foam crib mattress is an ideal choice for someone who is looking for a comfortable, yet affordable, mattress. The fact that it is CertiPUR-US certified memory foam and waterproof is more than enough for me to want to have it for my child. I also love the fact that it’s washable. My son is notorious for taking his diaper off during nap time and being washable just makes cleanup so much easier. I recommend this mattress to anyone who wants something that is as comfortable as their own bed, for their child, at a low cost.

The “My First” Specs

Material	Organic	Degassing Period	Firmness Level for Baby
CertiPUR-US Certified Memory Foam & Plush Velour	No	None	9

Firmness Level for Toddler	Weight	Warranty	Cost
8	11.9 pounds	10 year limited	$