Crib & Toddler Mattresses
Buy and sell crib and toddler mattresses in Guatemala.
Most crib mattresses in Guatemalan homes are a slab of polyurethane foam in a sealed cover: quilted fabric on top, a wipe-clean PVC face underneath and a sewn seam running round the edge. Next to them come thicker two-sided mattresses with a firm face for the first months and a softer one for later, a few spring-core models, and the thin pads that lie in the base of a folding playard. New and pre-owned both turn up, the used ones often leaving the house with the crib they were bought for. A mattress that always lived under a waterproof protector is the one worth asking about.
Vinyl-backed foam, the crib mattress most families start with:
a block of foam with a quilted top, a PVC underside and a cover that does not come off. It is light, cheap and easy to wipe down, and its weak point is the plastic: once the PVC cracks at a corner or a seam opens, whatever is spilled reaches the foam and stays there. Two-sided mattresses add a firmer infant face and a softer, more padded toddler face, so you turn it over when the child moves on instead of buying again. Spring-core crib mattresses are rarer and heavier and keep a straighter edge, but a coil that works loose cannot be put right. Imported foam mattresses often arrive vacuum-packed and rolled, and need time out of the plastic before they reach full thickness.
A crib mattress has to suit the crib and the bed after it:
it should fill the frame, sit flat on the base and leave the top rail standing well above it on the lowest setting, so a thicker replacement is not always an upgrade in a shallow crib. Most toddler beds are built around the standard crib mattress, which is why a good one gets a second stint once the crib is put away. The pad that comes with a folding playard is a different thing: thinner, smaller and cut for that frame, it does not replace a crib mattress or sit on top of one. A fitted sheet and a waterproof protector from baby bedding are what keep any of them in resale condition.
Basic vinyl-backed foam against a two-sided mattress:
a plain vinyl-backed foam crib mattress about four inches thick costs around Q400 to Q600 new, and a thicker two-sided or imported foam one runs to two or three times that. That low floor shapes the used market. A basic mattress on its own fetches little, because a new one is within easy reach, and most change hands as part of a crib. A two-sided or thicker mattress that spent its life under a protector, with the PVC intact and no rings on the top, is the one that keeps a real share of what it cost.
Pressing, smelling and turning over a used crib mattress:
push the middle and then each edge with the flat of your hand. Good foam pushes straight back; tired foam stays dented, feels softer where the baby slept, or lets the edge fold under your palm. Turn it over and look at the PVC face in daylight, because that is where cracks, peeling and old stains hide. Foam that shows yellow through a tear has only oxidised, but foam that crumbles at a split seam is finished. Pale rings on the quilted top are old leaks, and a sour smell that returns after a day in the air means liquid got into the core. On a spring mattress, kneel on it, listen for creaks and feel for a coil through the cover. Ask how many children slept on it and whether a protector was always on.
Listing a crib mattress, underside included:
copy the length, width and thickness from the label rather than measuring the cover, and say whether it is foam or springs and one-sided or two-sided. Photograph both faces, every corner of the PVC and the label itself. Give its age, how many children used it, whether it always had a protector, and whether it goes with a crib or on its own. A family coming from Huehuetenango or Retalhuleu will ask for the underside photo before they set off, so put it first. Unlike the crib, the mattress needs no tools and no car: a foam one rides home upright in a tuk-tuk, wrapped in a bag against the road dust.