Mattress and Pillow SSC: Top Product Picks

The last thing anyone wants is to lie awake worrying that he or she is sleeping on chemicals that enter our bodies and might harm the health of our children. Nonetheless, many conventional mattresses contain flame-retardant chemicals known as PBDEs, which have accumulated at alarmingly high levels in American blood and breast milk and may harm the development of fetuses and breast-feeding infants. But there are alternative ways to satisfy fire-retardancy regulations, which require that a mattress resist not only cigarette burns but also an open flame. Check out the options below, which are free of chemical fabric finishes and also meet the strictest new standards. (And to sleep safely no matter what you sleep on, make sure that your home has working fire alarms.)

Product Picks: Heart of Vermont makes organic cotton and untreated wool futons (crib $270, twin $430, queen $740, all 6" thick). A quick, affordable way to put some distance between yourself and chemicals in your conventional mattress: HV's organic flannel mattress pads (crib $57, twin $89, queen $125) and organic cotton barrier cloth protectors (crib $97, twin $157, queen $231; www.heartofvermont.com, 800-639-4123). North Star Beds' mattresses, handmade by Amish families, come in organic cotton, organic wool and natural latex, a replenishable rain-forest resource tapped from rubber trees in the Indian state of Kerala. "So lovely! Firm but gentle," says Wendy Gordon, who has bought two for her sons (Atlas twin $999, queen $1,399; www.northstarbed.com, 866-540-6444). Lifekind offers three models that come with a chemical-free cotton-silica flame barrier: a non-synthetic rubber mattress (crib $395, twin $1,095, queen $1,695); a combination rubber/organic cotton innerspring (twin $1,350; queen $1,875); and an organic cotton inner spring with organic cotton-wool quilting (crib $339, twin $795, queen $1,295; www.lifekind.com, 800-284-4983). For more affordable options, Ikea makes PBDE-free foam mattresses with alternative chemicals that have not raised vigilant European safety concerns, for as low as $150 (www.ikea.com).