• Your infant could spend up to 70 percent of his time in his crib.babies crib image by jedphoto from Fotolia.com
  
  

Number of Coils in the Mattress

• The best baby mattress isn't necessarily the one with the largest number of coils. The best mattress is the one that contains the greatest amount of steel, and the coils are only a part of that. Depending on the coil gauge, 150 coils should make for a fine mattress.
  
  

The Gauge of Steel in the Coils

• The gauge of the steel in the mattress coils refers to its thickness. As the number of coils rise, often the gauge of the coils decreases, so there's no appreciable increase in steel. Steel gauge in mattress coils can range from 12.5 at its thickest to 19 at its thinnest. Mattresses with 150 coils usually have coils gauged from 13.5 to 15.5, and anything within this range is fine.
  
  

Bottom Line

• You want enough steel to provide a firm mattress for your infant, and mattress coils are only one factor in the steel of a crib mattress. Check also for border rods which encircle the edges of the mattress and provide firmness when your baby is standing in his crib. Make sure your baby's mattress has 9.0 gauge steel border rods all the way around his mattress.