Our Little Green Sheep Natural Junior Mattress review tests out this all-natural kid's mattress to see if it's the best mattress for a growing child.
Quick review
The Little Green Sheep Natural Junior Mattress is a mattress made from only natural materials. Specifically, that means a cotton cover with a wool, latex, and coconut coir fill. As a Mum, the mattress's key selling points for me are its eco-friendly sustainable design and its all-natural construction which promises to provide your little one with a chemical and fire-retardant-free sleep surface.
Having recently tested the synthetic foam REM-Fit Remy Kids Eco Mattress and the hybrid memory foam and spring Simba Hybrid Kids Mattress, my 3-year-old daughter and I were intrigued to test out this natural mattress to see if it would become her new 'big girl' bed.
As such, my daughter has slept, sat, rolled, and (tried to) bounce on the Little Green Sheep Natural Junior Mattress for the past few weeks so we can share our real-life experience.
Of course, I too have given this mattress a good try, but the most important opinion here is that of a sassy toddler. And while it's clear this is a good quality mattress that delivers on all of its selling points – and my daughter slept through the night on it, hurrah! – our toddler's official verdict was 'too hard' and 'doesn't bounce'. And all things considered, I have to agree.
Despite only being a single mattress I also found the Natural Junior Mattress heavy, and due to its lack of any handles, difficult to rotate.
What I do love about it, though, is knowing there are no harmful nasties inside it, and of course, you could add a natural wool topper to it for some extra cushioning (we've tested the Woolroom Deluxe Wool Mattress Topper which comes in a single size and thoroughly recommend it). However, at full price this mattress is £345 which is a lot of money to spend if you then have to invest in a mattress topper too.
Ultimately, if you're prepared to invest in a natural mattress, then this really is a top-quality mattress. But if you're looking for more squish and bedtime bounce, then like us, you might find the Simba Hybrid Kids Mattress is the better fit for you.
Little Green Sheep Natural Junior Mattress review
Overall we consider nine factors when we test kid's mattresses. We then use these to score each mattress out of 5. I scored The Little Green Sheep Natural Junior Mattress 4 out of 5. Read on to find out why.
Specifications
Type: Natural
Materials: coconut fibre, natural latex, wool, cotton
Sizes: Single
Comfort level: Medium / firm
Height: 12cm
Side handles: No
Manufacturer sleep trial: No
1. Comfort
The Little Green Sheep Natural Junior Mattress is made up of four layers; a cotton cover, natural latex, coconut coir and wool. Our mattress has a depth of 12cm (not quite the 13cm as advertised - I've checked) which is the slimmest children's mattress that I have tested. For reference the Simba Hybrid Kids Mattress measures 16cm deep and the REM-FIt kids mattress I tested 15cm.
The Natural Junior Mattress is described as a medium-firm mattress by the brand and is suitable for ages 4 to 13 years. Admittedly our 3-year-old is, therefore, a little too young for it, but having tested a lot of mattresses in my time, when she said it was 'too hard', I had to agree. This mattress is a lot more firm than medium-firm, probably due to its lack of foam or springs which, in my daughter's words, also means 'no bounce'.
Our daughter is a side, front, back, and everything-in-between sleeper. Although she also said the mattress was 'nice' and 'comfortable' when she was laid on her back, she followed up by saying that it was 'too hard' when switching to her side. She also tried to demonstrate a bounce, which ended in a disappointing flop.
I must say that I found the mattress too hard for me to sleep on as well. I'm obviously a lot heavier than my toddler (and also heavily pregnant!), so I sink into any mattress more than usual at the moment. However, as a side sleeper, I found there was no cradling of my body in this position at all. Therefore, I doubt it was my daughter's lighter weight that led to her verdict.
2. Responsiveness
The responsiveness of a mattress influences how easy it is to roll over and change position in the night, and because this mattress is so firm, it's very easy to push off and roll over. In fact, a little too easy. In practice, both my daughter and I would have appreciated a little more sink-in comfort to take off the edge of those dense layers of coconut coir, latex, and wool.
3. Temperature regulation
All the materials in this Little Green Sheep Mattress have some element of breathability, but it is the wool layer that is the brand's 'magic ingredient'. Wool is both naturally hypoallergenic and naturally temperature regulating, so it's the perfect mattress filling to keep growing bodies at a comfortable temperature.
At no point in the night did my 3-year-old wake hot or cold. This was even with the Little Green Sheep mattress protector which is made from polyurethane membrane (a thin, breathable and waterproof membrane) sandwiched between layers of 100% organic cotton protecting the bed.
4. Edge support
The edge support of a mattress is its ability to resist pressure and maintain stability of its perimeter. To test this, our 3-year-old sat on the edge of the bed to see how easy it was to stand up from it, and also pressed her hand down on the sides of the mattress to get a closer measure of the support.
It sank down to 7cm when sitting on the edge of the bed and when applying pressure by hand on the edge too. Whilst sleeping on it there was no fear of rolling out of bed and it wasn't too much of a struggle to get out of bed either - although it did look / feel like our child was launching from the bed frame rather than the mattress.
5. Ease of care
The Little Green Sheep Natural Junior Mattress needs to be rotated rather than flipped to ensure even wear and tear. The brand recommends that you turn it regularly, from top to toe, however, unfortunately, there are no handles to help with the lifting.
Despite only being a single bed size, this is still a heavy mattress as well, so I struggled when hefting it around on the bed by myself.
Unlike some synthetic mattresses, the cotton cover of the Natural Junior Mattress is non-removable and sponge-clean only. If you do need to clean it, the brand recommends that you gently clean the surface with a damp sponge and mild detergent and then allow the mattress to air dry away from sunlight.
With this in mind, Little Green Sheep recommends using a waterproof mattress protector over the mattress. A mattress protector will keep your mattress in the best possible condition, protecting it from any accidents. And after all, it's always a lot easier to wash a mattress protector than it is to figure out how to clean a mattress!
The brand sent me the Little Green Sheep Organic Single Mattress Protector for this purpose, and it fits the Natural Junior Mattress like a dream, you just need to hook the elasticated straps over each of the mattress corners. I did find the protector needed some flattening out every now and then, but if you change the bedsheets at least once per week then this can be done then.
6. Sleep trial
If you're spending this much on a mattress, then it's always good to know that there's a sleep trial available so you can return it if it doesn't suit your child.
However, unfortunately, there is no sleep trial with the Little Green Sheep Natural Junior Mattress.
In comparison, the Simba and REM-Fit kids mattresses I tested came with generous 200-night and 100-night sleep trials.
You can return the Little Green Sheep Natural Junior Mattress for free, but it must be returned in its original plastic covering which limits how much testing you can do before you commit. (And it's worth noting custom mattresses can not be returned at all).
7. Delivery
The Little Green Sheep Natural Junior Mattress is not your typical mattress-in-a-box; it was not rolled, but it was plastic-wrapped inside a cardboard box. While delivery was free (as it is for all orders over £50) I wasn't offered the option of delivery to a room of my choice or for any of the packaging to be removed and taken away.
Little Green Sheep isn't the only brand to deliver in this way. Emma, for example, only delivers its mattresses to your doorstep.
However, Emma's mattresses are delivered rolled and boxed, and I can speak from experience in saying that there's a big difference between carrying a compact rolled mattress upstairs and carrying a flat mattress that measures 90x190x13cm up a flight of stairs and across a gallery landing.
Not only was this mattress very heavy for its size, but I was also concerned that the box would catch our freshly decorated walls.
Given the size, weight, and packaging method of the Natural Junior Mattress, it would have been helpful to have a white-glove delivery service available, such as that on offer from Simba, which means that for an extra £50 a specialist team will install your new mattress for immediate use and remove all packaging.
Since we sorted the manoeuvring and unpacking of the mattress ourselves, I recycled the cardboard box at home but had to dispose of the plastic wrapping in our normal bin. This was a little disappointing as with the brand so invested in using natural materials I was surprised that there was any plastic used in the mattress's packaging, especially since this extra packaging wasn't made from recycled plastic and could not be recycled.
8. Third party reviews
I dug into third-party reviews of the Little Green Sheep Natural Junior Mattress to see if other owners' insights aligned with mine.
On the Little Green Sheep website, one user says that they bought the mattress 'for my daughter's first big bed and she says it's comfy. My little boy likes it too, so he'll be getting one soon.' Another reviewer shares that they 'bought a Little Green Sheep mattress for my firstborn, used it for my 2nd child, and almost 5 years later, it's still retained its quality... Love this brand and what it stands for'.
And whilst there are only two reviews on the John Lewis website for this natural mattress, they both award 5-out-of-5 stars. One comments, '...As always, well made, comfortable, and little one sleeping well!"
The main cons that other owners note are the same as my findings, namely that the mattress isn't very squishy and that it's firmer than expected.
9. Value for money
The Little Green Sheep Natural Junior Mattress retails for £345 at full price, which is on a par with the two other dedicated kids' mattresses I've tested so far, the REM-FIT Remy Kids Mattress and Simba Hybrid Kids Mattress which both retail for £349.
Having tested all three now, I still feel that anything over £200 is expensive for a children's mattress, especially when you can buy a single adult mattress – that will usually be far deeper and have more advanced construction – for the same price.
However, I'm more willing to forgive the price of the Little Green Sheep mattress because of its use of natural materials which always tend to be more expensive than synthetic foams and manmade materials.
Plus, if you keep your eyes peeled for mattress deals you may not need to pay full price. I've rarely seen discounts at The Little Green Sheep, but the brand does usually offer some Black Friday deals at the end of November. So if you can time your purchase right, you could be able to snap up a saving.
How I tested
Sleep position: side (me), side, front and back (daughter)
Tension preference: medium-firm (me), medium (daughter)
Sleep problems: shoulders, lower back and 9 months pregnant (me), kicking off the duvet (daughter)
Height & weight: 5ft 8 & 80kg (me), 2ft 9 & 22kg (daughter)
Average sleep time: 8 hours (me), 11 hours (daughter)
During my testing of the Little Green Sheep Natural Junior Mattress I assessed the nine factors that the Ideal Home team deems vital to any kid's mattress purchase.
With the help of my 3-year-old daughter, I assessed this natural mattress for comfort, responsiveness, temperature regulation, and edge support through at-home testing. This means that the mattress was slept on by my child (and me or my husband every so often after a restless night with our toddler) for a minimum of two weeks before writing my review.
I also took into consideration any sleep trials available, the delivery process, the mattress's value for money, and, where possible, any third-party customer reviews before writing my own review and giving this mattress a star rating.
