A Review - with video! - of the Newton Crib Mattress- Non-Toxic, Breathable, Innovative Magic!

A Review - with video! - of the Newton Crib Mattress- Non-Toxic, Breathable, Innovative Magic!

Don't worry, Baby L is just testing the Newton out in that pic!  We put sheets and jammies on before bed, I swear.  But don't you love the tiny toes and newborn shade of pink??  😜

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Y’all.  I am SO excited about the product I get to review today!  The quality is amazing, the design so crazy-cool innovative, AND it fell into my lap right at the moment in time when I needed it!  How is that for serendipitous???  This review was basically FATED, y’all. 

How is that for a teaser??  :P 

The Search for a Non-Toxic Crib Mattress!

As I was preparing for the arrival of Baby Boredom Devastator, I tried to choose a lot of the items on my registry extra carefully to avoid exposing baby to toxins.  Our poor, polluted, plastic-stuffed, overworked world is so toxic right now that it isn’t easy, but as a Mama-to-be with a yen for research and a good dose of hormone-fueled OCD I was determined to at least LESSEN the amount of toxins my sweet baby girl would eat / breath / absorb.


There were some ways to improve our indoor air quality that were quick and obvious… such as by choosing low- or no-VOC paint for baby’s nursery to avoid all the off-gassing from traditional paint.  Or, by choosing not to paint at all, which was the boring option we went with… not actually due to health considerations though, but rather to the fact that we’re in a rental so we haven’t decorated a traditional nursery yet.  Another easy switch to reduce the pollution in indoor air is to pick hardwood furniture, since pressed-wood / particle-board furniture off-gases lots of nasty stuff, including the carcinogen formaldehyde.  A lot of solid wood furniture is quite pricy, but there are more reasonable selections out there if you look for it.  Our lovely beechwood crib was a thoughtful gift from my grandmother, chosen from a great Ikea line of solid wood furniture.  I further eliminated another source of indoor pollution when I discovered an all-cotton-flannel water-resistant pad to go under Baby L’s sheets, avoiding the toxic vinyl found in most traditional water-proof products. 

So far so good, right?  Bonus points for this oh-so-careful, environmentally-friendly Mama-to-be.

>But then we get to the crib mattress.  Mattresses are notorious for off-gassing toxins… not only because of the glues, foams, and gels they often contain, but also because of the flame retardants required in the products by law.  I researched all-cotton crib mattresses (that use wool as the naturally flame retardant material to avoid chemical treatments), but they are prohibitively expensive for me at the moment.  Natural latex ones had some strange reviews online about the mattresses molding and “melting,” so I also wasn’t interested in risking that… and there was a third category of mattresses that called themselves “organic” but still contained foam and flame retardants.  It was a huge, confusing, expensive mattress mess!  I basically resigned myself to buying one from Ikea, which at least is reported to use the least-toxic flame retardant option in their mattresses.

Then, magic happened. 

The Magic of the Newton Crib Mattress

Shortly before my baby's due date, I was contacted by Newton, a company so new that I hadn't even encountered them in the course of my research, and asked to review their amazing crib mattress!!  Here’s a photo of sleep-deprived me a few short weeks later, newborn in hand, giddy over receiving our baby’s fabulous new crib mattress… 

Please note that it is a testament to JUST how excited I was that I let my photo be taken in that zombie state, and in my pajamas no less. 😆  I would also like to note, doesn't my baby look like just like a DOLL there??  She hardly even looks real... okay, sorry, back on to the topic at hand... the excitement of our fabulous, amazing new crib mattress.

“Amazing?”  You might be thinking.  “Fabulous?  Those are pretty strong adjectives for a crib mattress… and this woman has pretty stringent requirements for what kind of a mattress might deserve those kind of descriptors… does this Newton thingy really deserve them?”

Oh it does!  I feel confident that the Newton mattress is an excellent, safe option for even MY oh-so-obsessively pure nursery.  And here’s why!

Non-Toxic, Breathable, Flame-Retardant Free!

The Newton crib mattress consists of…  wait for it.. 90% AIR!  I’ll give you a second to scratch your head and wonder how that works for a minute, and no, it’s not a blow-up air mattress which is probably what you’re picturing.  The mattress is quite solid and supportive, exactly what you want in a crib mattress to reduce the risk of SIDS.  How is it 90% air, then??  Well, take a peek… this is the mattress regularly, as it appears right after you take it out of the box.

But when you take the cover OFF of the mattress, the "core" basically looks like some a ginormous block of Raman noodles.  

How innovative and cool is that?  The mattress “noodles” are made of a food-grade polymer, and make up only 10% of the mattress’s volume… the rest is literally AIR.

Already this mattress would be appealing to me simply because it consists of so few “parts.”  No foams or glues to off-gas whatsoever!  However, because I am a wary, OCD cynic even when I am NOT fueled by pregnancy hormones, I initially wondered if that mysterious “food-grade polymer” was something equally toxic that might off-gas in its own right… but the answer is definitely no, because…. drumroll please!

The Newton mattress is Greenguard Gold Certified, which means that it has been independently tested to verify very low off-gassing of any kind.  (This is my absolute favorite thing about the mattress, so I figured it deserved to be in bold. 😜 ) As the Newton website states, Greenguard Gold standards “are among the most rigorous in the world to test for the lowest measurements of chemical emissions such as VOCs, and certifies that Newton products help to promote a healthier indoor air quality.”  Ah, music to this toxin'-hatin’ Mama’s ears!

I absolutely LOVE IT when companies are confident enough in the purity of their products to do independent 3rd party testing and obtain certifications like this!  Way to go Newton!

But wait… you might be wondering about those flame retardants I dread so much.  How does the Newton stand regarding flame retardants?  

This mattress contains NO toxic chemical flame retardants at all.  The Wovenaire material contains natural phosphates, that meet the legal requirements for flame resistance in a safe way.  Honestly, that statement might seem a little vague and would probably still make me nervous, if it weren’t for that Greenguard Gold certification we just discussed.  Whatever those natural phosphates are exactly, they aren’t off-gassing into my sweet baby’s innocent little lungs.

Other cool stuff about the Newton mattress includes the fact that I can completely submerse it to clean it, if / when I have a need to do so… and let’s face it, babies are messy!  If fluids aren’t coming out of one end, they’re coming out of the other, rofl.  If / when the Tiny Occupant of my crib has a sufficiently Messy Incident, I can simply stick the mattress cover in the wash, and the mattress core in the tub.  A treatment of vinegar to disinfect, a little soap, and a good rinse will eliminate any concerns about mold or bacteria lurking under Baby Boredom Devastator’s sheets.  That’s not something you can say about most crib mattresses! 

Also, as another feather in Newton's cap, the whole 90% air thing also means that the mattress is uniquely breathable, lessening the risk factor for overheating and thus lessoning the risk factors for SIDS as well.  Just how breathable does that translate to in real life, you might be wondering??  Good thing I took a video to demonstrate, with streamers artistically (ha!) affixed to the core of the mattress, and a fan strategically placed behind it.





Cool, huh?  I don't think you can feel a breeze through any other mattress on the entire planet!

Lastly in the "cool stuff" category, the Wovenaire mattress is also fully recyclable.  Eco-friendly moms, rejoice!

To conclude... the Newton mattress rocks!

What’s not to love about this mattress??  If you or someone you love is in the market for baby products, but ESPECIALLY for non-toxic baby products, you're going to want to check it out!  They even offer a 100 Night Trial return policy, literally giving you (or rather your baby) the chance to "sleep on it" before making a final decision.  (apparently puns and motherhood go hand in hand, oops!)

Big thanks to Newton for the opportunity to experience and review this crib mattress!!  I have the peace of mind of knowing my baby sleeps safer because of it. 😍

Review of the non-toxic, breathable magic of @newtonbabyrest Crib Mattress- plus adorable baby toes! https://t.co/gpAyLDaYJK #ad #newtonbaby pic.twitter.com/shcD24wSAw

— Sarah Eliza (@REALsaraheliza) October 21, 2017

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