Baby Bedding
Buy and sell baby bedding in Panama.
Most cribs sold in Panama follow the standard American size, so a fitted sheet from one crib will usually stretch over the next, while a European crib, a playard or a bassinet each needs its own. Baby bedding covers those sheets, the waterproof mattress protectors that sit under them and the themed crib sets with a quilt, bumper and skirt, new and pre-owned. Plain sheets wear out in the wash; the decorative pieces often come back looking barely used. Before the print, ask which mattress a sheet was made for.
Fitted crib sheets, protectors and the themed crib set:
the fitted sheet is the piece a baby actually sleeps on, and the one you want several of, because leaks and spit-up arrive at night. Cotton percale feels crisp and cool, jersey knit stretches over the corners more easily in the small hours, and muslin is the lightest of the lot. Under it goes a waterproof mattress protector, fitted like a sheet or laid flat as a pad; the quieter ones have a thin polyurethane backing, the cheaper vinyl ones crinkle with every turn. Themed crib sets add a quilt, a padded bumper that ties round the bars and a skirt that hides the storage under the crib. Plenty of parents keep the quilt and bumper out of the crib while the baby is small, since paediatric sleep advice calls for a bare, firm mattress, and use the quilt as a play mat on the floor instead. Swaddles and receiving blankets have their own shelf in swaddles and blankets.
Matching a sheet to the mattress, not the crib:
a fitted sheet only has to suit one thing, and sizes do not cross over. The standard American crib mattress, which most cribs here take, uses the most common sheet. European cribs use their own metric sizes, and a playard, a mini crib and a bassinet each take a smaller sheet again; one that is too big bunches up under the baby. Thicker mattresses need a deeper pocket, so look for elastic that runs all the way round rather than only at the corners. If you are still choosing a crib mattress, settle that first and buy sheets after. Most toddler beds take the same mattress as the crib, so good crib sheets carry on into the toddler years.
What a themed crib set keeps of its value:
a plain fitted sheet costs little enough new that used ones move best as a bundle. The money is in the themed set: quilt, bumper, sheet and skirt run from around $60 in a mainstream baby shop to past $250 for a boutique set in fine cotton, and one that comes back washed, complete and unstained fetches around $25 to $70. The quilt and bumper carry most of that, because they rarely spent a night in use, while the fitted sheet went through the wash every week and is the piece a buyer often replaces.
Milk stains, tired elastic and a protector that has started to peel:
hold a used sheet up to daylight. Milk and formula leave yellow patches that set during storage and seldom wash out, and a scatter of small grey dots means it was folded away damp. Stretch the elastic: if it does not snap back, the sheet will pull off a corner. On a waterproof protector, look at the back rather than the front. The coating cracks and flakes after hot dryers and bleach, and once it does the protector stops protecting anything. Squeeze a bumper for lumpy filling and check the ties, which tear first. Ask about pets and smoke in the house, because both stay in padding long after a wash.
Crib sheets and sets sold as a bundle:
wash everything, then photograph it twice: laid flat so the print shows, and on a mattress so the fit shows. Say which mattress each piece was made for, the fabric, how many pieces the set has, and whether the quilt and bumper were ever used or only dressed the room. A themed set is worth more complete, because the buyer is usually matching a nursery already painted to that theme. Fold each sheet with a note of the mattress it came off, crib, playard or bassinet, so a parent collecting in Villa Lucre does not get home to a sheet that will not reach the fourth corner.