Crib & Toddler Mattresses

Foam crib mattresses, protector pads and the toddler side:

most crib mattresses made in Costa Rica are plain foam, slim, covered in printed or vinyl-coated fabric and meant to be flipped, cut by national foam makers in the standard local size or to whatever a crib needs. Imported ones lean thicker, with a firm face for the first year and a softer face for the toddler years, and some have springs inside. The thin pad that comes with an encierro, the folding playpen, is its own thing: it is sized for that frame and rarely fits anything else. A convertible crib keeps its mattress when it becomes a toddler bed, and many low toddler frames are built around a crib mattress, so one good mattress can see a child well past the crib years.

Crib mattress sizes, local and American:

two common sizes circulate in Costa Rica. The local standard that colchonerías have cut for decades is a little narrower and shorter than the American size most imported cribs are built around, a difference small enough to miss in a photo and big enough to matter in the crib. Measure the inside of the frame, length and width, and choose a mattress that fills it: pushed into one corner, it should leave no more than a couple of fingers of gap along the far side and end. Height matters too, because a thick imported mattress in a crib designed for slim local foam lifts the baby closer to the top of the rail. For firmness, press the centre with your palm: the infant side should push back at once, feel close to hard and leave no hollow.

Local foam and imported crib mattresses in colones:

the price gap is mostly about where the mattress was made. A new local foam mattress for a full crib costs about ₡35,000 to ₡40,000 while an imported dual-sided one in the American size often costs twice the local price. That low local price caps what a used foam mattress can ask: a buyer weighing a stranger’s mattress against a sealed new one for not much more will usually take the new one. The used mattresses that hold their value are the ones that were barely slept on, such as an imported mattress bought for a crib that turned out to come with its own, still in its plastic.

Sagging foam, cracked covers and stains on a used crib mattress:

all three show up in a minute. Lay it on the floor and run a broom handle across the middle: a dip where the baby slept means the foam has given up, and flipping it only hides the dip for a while. Squeeze the edges, which should be as firm as the centre. Unzip the cover if it has one and look at the foam. An even, straw-yellow tone is ordinary ageing; brown rings and a sour smell mean liquid got through. On vinyl-coated covers, fold a corner back and look for cracks, because once the coating splits the foam soaks up every accident. Check the underside for black specks where it sat on a solid board with no air, and on a spring mattress feel the border for coils and listen for a creak.

A crib mattress listed with its centimetres and its cover:

exact measurements are what sell it, so give the length, width and thickness in centimetres, and say whether it is local foam or imported, single or dual-sided, and which crib or encierro it came out of. Photograph both faces in daylight, the edges, and the label if it still has one. Say plainly whether it always lived under a waterproof protector and whether the house has pets or smokers, since those answers close more deals than the price. Someone driving in from Orotina with the inside measurements of a carpenter-built crib saved on their phone will measure the mattress at your door, so have a tape measure ready and the mattress already out of the wardrobe.