Why Use Bamboo Mattress Protectors
For Babies and Toddlers
When we were designing the Kabode range and deciding what the core products ought to be, we considered comfort and practicality as well as design. We’re pretty proud of our bright and bold quilt designs, but we’re also quietly pleased with our essentials range, including our wool duvets and pillows and our bamboo mattress protectors.
What is a mattress protector?
A mattress protector is essential for a young child’s bed. You’ve probably spent a considerable amount of money choosing the perfect mattress, so you need to protect it from spilt drinks, urine and general wear and tear to ensure it stays fresh and as good as new for as long as possible. A mattress protector is a thin layer that sits between the mattress and sheet in order to create a barrier from moisture to protect the mattress. Unlike a mattress topper, a protector isn’t designed to add extra cushioning and comfort to the bed, but a bad mattress protector can certainly detract from the comfort of the mattress! Many mattress protectors are made with layers of plastic, making the bed feel hot and sticky. Nobody likes to hear crispy plastic sheets as they roll over! Whilst plastic is waterproof, it is not breathable, so is not a great option for a comfortable night’s sleep.
Kabode mattress protectors are made from bamboo. We chose bamboo as it’s really a wonder fibre with many benefits for both the child and the environment - it’s also great at doing its job protecting a mattress!
What exactly is bamboo?
Bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world. It is a renewable resource due to its hardiness and vigour. As you will know if you’ve ever had bamboo in your garden, it grows upwards and outwards with great speed, growing wide webs of roots and pushing up new shoots across great swathes of land. Across Asia Bamboo grows in dense, tall forests up to 30 metres tall (though technically bamboo is a grass, not a tree). The Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that there are 35 million hectares of bamboo forest around the world.
Those far-reaching webs of roots do great things for the soil, binding it together and helping to trap rainwater and store moisture in otherwise dry, lifeless soil. As it is so hardy, it requires far fewer pesticides or fertilisers and less watering, meaning that the ecosystem around the plants stays healthy and toxin-free. Bamboo enhances and gives life to its environment, growing ferociously where other plants would not, and supporting animals such as pandas, elephants and gorillas. Many endangered species rely on bamboo as a part of their habitat for food and shelter. Bamboo also stores up to 1.7 times more carbon than other trees, making it a great low-carbon alternative to other everyday materials.
Bamboo that is used for making textile fibres is grown in vast forests. When it is cut down it is sliced off cleanly, causing minimum damage to the plant stem, which allows new shoots to grow and the plants to naturally replenish. The long stalks are cut down into chips, which are soaked before being made into a soft pulp. This pulp is dried and flattened into thin, paper-like sheets which are then ground and spun into long fibres, ready to be woven into sheets.
Why bamboo bedding is better for you
As a bedding textile, bamboo is a great choice, offering many benefits over traditional cotton. Not only is the growing process better for the environment, but the final product is a fantastic fabric that can be cut, dyed and sewn into just about anything.
Bamboo fibre is four times more absorbent than cotton, which makes it a super fabric for a mattress protector. It will absorb day to day moisture that come from sleepy breathing, sweating and body oils and prevent these from building up in the mattress itself. This helps to reduce allergens, as dust mites love the moist environment of mattresses, so keeping this moisture trapped in a washable sheet keeps the dust mites at bay. When it needs to be freshened up, just put your bamboo mattress protector in the washing machine with your usual detergent and then put it back on the bed once dry.
Bamboo fibre is very breathable, which along with its moisture-wicking properties creates a cool and comfortable sleep environment. It has a similar hand feel to cotton, though is often considered even softer, so you can be sure your child will have no sweaty, crinkly sheets under them with our bamboo mattress protectors!
Kabode mattress protectors have a terry cloth top layer, made from bamboo, which gives a soft and extremely absorbent towel like layer to go between the mattress and the sheet under the child. We also designed them with a stretchy bamboo jersey skirt to fit around the mattress, to ensure a safe snug fit that won’t slide about no matter how wriggly the little sleeper is! They come in a pack of two, so that you can have one on the bed and one in the wash and are available in both cot and cot bed sizes.
So now you know, bamboo is not just for pandas, you can see why we chose it for our products too!