Question about Bassinet Mattress Options (X-Post to r/pregnant and r/woodworking)

[dcarrington]

Howdy y'all,

I'm a dad to be, baby coming in May, and I am preparing to build a bassinet to have our little one in our room for the first few months before she goes to a crib. Don't worry - I am very prepared with the safety standards from ATSM and have been woodworking for going on 7 years, including time in professional woodshops.

My main question is about the bassinet mattress itself. There is no standard size, although there does seem to be a standard range. I'm going to adjust my building plans based on the particular mattress we buy, but the biggest issue I see is that so many of mattresses, including many recommended ones, are 2" thick. That confuses me because Consumer Safety Reports and lots of other sites say that there shouldn't be a bassinet mattress thicker than 1.5".

Am I overthinking this? This is our first little one, and probably going to be our only one, and I am just paralyzed by what seems to be a lack of options based on the recommendations of thickness for a mattress.

If you had built a bassinet or had one built for you, what mattress did you use? Is a 2" thick one actually okay and I just need to relax and know our baby will probably be fine?

Thanks in advance for reading through this worried dad to be's post.

 

[brothermanbill]

@dcarrington Firmness is more important than thickness. The mattress or padding in a bassinet tends to be less firm than a crib mattress (which is often dual firmness for a toddler bed), which is why I assume they say only so thick so it doesn’t become something a baby really sinks into.

 

[dcarrington]

@brothermanbill That makes sense. I've read that the firmness is important, too. I'll look more for that in the reviews.