<p>My MIL sent us a zippered mattress cover. From the label–“Create a healthy home environment for your loved ones. Safeguard your family from common allergic reactions to dust particles and dust mites. Stay-soft fabric protects mattress from spills and stains. Keep your mattress clean and fresh. Sanitary- wipes clean with damp cloth.”</p>
<p>The washing instructions say it should be washed by hand with water and mild soap…</p>
<p>MIL said god only knows what has taken place on those college mattresses! We appreciate her thoughtfulness, but I’m wondering why it has to have such special care and can’t be washed in the machine??? Any ideas??</p>
<p>At the very least it’s provided a diversion so my brain doesn’t obsess about sending my kid off to college for yet another year!!</p>
<p>I actually purchased the zippered allergy mattress cover for my daughter last year when she was renting furniture (and thus getting a used mattress). The college dorms tend to have plastic coated mattresses so the cover really isn’t necessary. You can adequately vacuum and lysol the mattress before putting on your foam pad, mattress pad and sheets. If the dorm mattress was cloth, like my daughter’s rented set, I would DEFINITELY incase the mattress in a good fully zippered allergy guard. It will not only protect your child from dust mites and allergens but will offer some protection from the increasing scourge known as “bedbugs”.</p>
<p>We gave up on those over priced hard to re-use crap. Instead for our son we get cheap allergy free mattress/pillow cover, use regular mattress pad and 2-3 layers of cotton bed sheets. He hasn’t had any asthma episode in last 8-10 years.</p>