Locating the Best Fabric for Your Nursery Bedding

Baby bedding for girls: flowers and butterflies. Boy baby bedding: the wild, wild west. But wait! You need to choose your baby bedding carefully, because it’s more than just a decoration.

As adults, we are already aware of any sensitivities we might have, but with a new baby you can’t be sure if he/she will have any allergies. Everyone wants a cute nursery, but it’s important to pick the right bedding material first. If it’s good, the infant bedding will have a list of fill materials and fill power - higher fill means fluffier and longer-lasting. It will also tell you the thread cound and the cover fabric. The most important things to keep in mind are that the bedding should be lightweight, it should be warm, and it should be breathable. All the information you need should be available online, so take the time to research different baby bedding options.

No one wants their baby to suffer from allergies, so choose fabrics that reduce the risk, like cotton or wool (that also includes alpaca or llama wool). Although some synthetic fabrics are breathable, most are not. Of equal concern is the emission of fumes that can occur as the fabrics age. If you want to purchase a crib set like the Max 4pc baby bedding set, that contains some amount of a synthetic fabric (polyester), but mostly cotton - then you need to think about how much you want the bedding vs. how much this small amount of polyester could cause a problem.

Some people may disagree with me, but I think wool blankets are softer and more comfortable than any other blanket. Choose unbleached or organic cotton flannel as the backing for a wool blanket. It’s pretty easy to decide what sized blanket you will need. If you’re swaddling, choose a small one. If you want a daycare blankie or something to keep in the car, then choose a larger size.

Down is a great choice for a filler material - it is both lightweight and breathable. Babies and messes go together like jam and peanut butter, so be sure to get one that can be washed in the machine. Not all down comforters are equally clean - and a higher cleanliness rating means less chance of allergies. The oxygen and turbidity tests are used to measure the cleanliness of down filler. The government standard for the oxygen test is 10, but high-quality bedding usually has a lower number. Turbidity is measured in the opposite direction - that is, a higher number is better. The top of the turbidity scale is somewhere around 550.