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When I was researching the best bassinets on the market for my first child, I heard a lot of commotion around the Snoo bassinet. I’d hear stories of sleep-deprived parents on a quest to find a Snoo as fast as humanly possible to quell a screaming infant—and I was intrigued.
Snoo is a smart sleeper bassinet that was launched in 2016 by Dr. Harvey Karp and his wife Nina Montée Karp. Dr. Karp brought his decades of pediatric and child development experience into the conception of a motorized bassinet aimed to offer sleep-deprived parents a helping hand in getting their infants to rest. In fact, the Happiest Baby website (the brand behind Snoo) claims that Snoo adds one to two hours of sleep each night.
How does Snoo work?
A Snoo is able to monitor when a baby cries, as well as assess their needs and adapt the bassinet’s movements to calm your child and put them to sleep.
Since babies are in constant motion while in the womb, it’s said (and debated) that they crave motion and noise after birth to help soothe and sleep. Dr. Karp details this in his five S’s (his steps for soothing babies and calming colic): swaddling, shushing, swinging, sucking, and holding baby in the side-stomach position.
In addition to the bassinet, Snoo has its own swaddles (called Snoo sacks) that make swaddling super simple for a caretaker. Snoo sacks have “wings” that attach to safety clips within the bassinet. The bassinet can only be powered on once the wings have been clipped in. Snoo also has a corresponding app where you can track your baby’s sleep schedule and fiddle with sound and rocking levels. For data lovers, the Snoo app is incredible. Caretakers can use it to consult sleep windows from any given day and see exactly when your little one was awake or asleep, how long they slept for, if they had any disturbances in the night that woke them, and whether Snoo put them back to sleep.
In the same way that our generation loves tracking steps, there is a sense of satisfaction in waking up in the morning and looking at your child’s sleep behavior documented in the Snoo app.
Unboxing
The delivery and setup was hands down the best of any baby furniture delivery I received. Happiest Baby has thought of everything–even details as small as how to store the packaging after unboxing. There are no screws–only clips that you snap in and tighten by twisting. There are thoughtful measures to ensure that no cords are visible, offering sleek leg siding that hides everything. The directions were impeccable. It was more than easy to put together—it was luxurious. I also loved that our bassinet came with a variety of Snoo sleep sacks in different sizes. It’s nice to know that, when paying a high price tag for a bassinet, all the necessary accouterments are included.
Design
As a design enthusiast, I didn’t want our daughter’s bassinet to impede too heavily on our bedroom decor. Snoo’s Scandinavian look features breathable mesh walls for healthy air flow, which sit atop a dark wood base; a premium motor; and sleek, hairpin legs. The design is FDA-approved (it's the first—and only—medical device to receive approval from the agency for its ability to keep sleeping babies safely on their backs) and looks great in our bedroom. This is worth noting, as the AAP recommends that infants sleep in the same room as their caretakers for the first six months.
Sleep
It’s important to note that my husband and I have been graced with a good sleeper. Within the first few weeks of her life, our daughter was already getting long stretches of sleep for her age.
We shuffle between having her sleep in a bedside bassinet, her Snoo, and the bassinet stroller topper from Uppababy that we use when we travel. I am not able to confidently say that Posie sleeps better in the Snoo than in the others. What I can say is this:
- The Snoo app allows us to have a deeper understanding of our daughter’s sleep behavior and wake windows.
- Snoo sacks are incredible swaddles. Whether or not you invest in the Snoo bassinet, I highly recommend purchasing Sleepeas (The Happiest Baby’s swaddles that are made of organic cotton and breathable mesh, are machine washable, and have transitional armholes–which come in handy as you teach your little one how to sleep without their arms swaddled).
- Snoo successfully rocks our daughter back to sleep when she wakes up in the middle of the night (Although—if she’s hungry—nursing is the only thing that soothes her.)
- The Sky mobile attachment is delightful and relaxing for our daughter to look up at. It always makes her coo and wiggle around with glee.
- We haven’t succeeded in lying her down in the Snoo while she’s still awake and having the bassinet rock her to sleep. In fact, sometimes the increase in motion and sound actually scare her and create more fussing.
- Because of the above, we opted to pin the movement to the first level of rocking, so that Snoo wouldn’t rock harder with more crying. We find that consistent rocking in the bassinet soothes her better. It’s great that Snoo offers the flexibility of specific options for the unique needs of different infants.
- When she’s asleep before we put her down, clipping the Snoo sack’s wings into the safety clips sometimes wakes our daughter, and I wish there was a less disruptive way to clip her in.
Safety
I wanted to hear what other seasoned and new parents had to say about Snoo, so I asked around.
Natalie Shalk, Airbnb communications lead, mother of two, and curator behind the California travel inspo account @TheRedwoodCoast, credits Snoo as the best baby bassinet on the market. “I was always nervous about the idea of my baby rolling over in the night. So to me, the Snoo was worth its weight in gold, just for the mere fact that it securely swaddles your baby on their back to keep them in a safe sleep position,” she said of her experience. “It was just the peace of mind I needed as a new, tired mom.” Natalie also highlighted the versatility of Snoo: “We used the Snoo for both of our babies, though they used it a little differently. Our first didn’t like the swaying, so we only used it for the white noise and the swaddle security; while our second liked the swaying, so we used all of the features.”
Stretching sleep
Lucy Rose Taylor, California-based family lawyer, had a positive experience with Snoo. After receiving Snoo as a hand-me-down, Lucy’s daughter Sunny slept in the bassinet starting from her first week of life. “We were lucky with Sunny’s sleep from an early age. Admittedly, it's tough to say if Snoo was effective or if she was just a good sleeper,” Lucy explained. “My intuition is that she slept well, but once in her Snoo, the soothing features helped her connect sleep cycles more seamlessly for those longer stretches. Ultimately, my parenting stance is do what works for you and change your strategy when it stops working. For us, the Snoo worked, and when it stopped working, we sold it to the next family (who were in desperate need of a change themselves!)”
Flat head? Need to wean off Snoo?
There were two common concerns I came across with Snoo. The first was the fear of getting your baby hooked on the gentle rocking throughout the night—the argument being that your baby would have difficulty transitioning to sleeping without any rocking. The second was the possibility of flat head syndrome. Since the baby is strapped tightly into the bassinet with restricted mobility, many worry that this can lead to flattening on a soft baby skull.
I found Happiest Baby’s FAQ to be informative on both of these concerns. Snoo developed a weaning feature to help babies prepare to transition to a crib. The research explains that babies are developmentally ready to give up rocking by five or six months of age. But there are also features within Snoo to help with this transition.
Happiest Baby also details how common flat head is (one in four babies who sleep on their back develop it) and how it is due to babies now sleeping on their backs—ever since the 90’s, when the AAP recommended all babies shift from sleeping on their tummy to sleeping on their back. The FAQ offers tips on how to reduce the risk of flat head, including switching up baby’s positioning so they aren’t regularly lying on the same spot on their head, and offering babies more tummy time to strengthen their neck muscles.
How to decide if Snoo is right for you?
I appreciate that the brand is exploring ways to make a costly item accessible to more people and the fact that Snoo is not point blank $1,700—a price that is extremely steep, and an amount I would never spend on a bassinet. Happiest Baby offers a rental program for $159 per month. They also rolled out a refurbished Snoo program, where you can purchase a secondhand Snoo for a discounted rate (there are some companies that even subsidize the rental costs of Snoo for employees.)
When it comes to life with a newborn, parents can always benefit from an extra set of hands. These can be applied in a variety of categories—be it cooking support, help cleaning the house, laundry duty, or rocking your sweet little babe to sleep. Snoo is just about as close as you can get to an extra set of hands to help rock your newborn to sleep.
If you’re a caregiver looking for added sleep support for a newborn, someone who loves digging into the analytics around your child’s sleep, and someone who appreciates the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your infant is snoozing in an ultra-safe sleep position, I would absolutely recommend investing in a Snoo. Although I personally wasn’t a Snoo loyalist with my daughter, I loved knowing that we had a golden ticket-esque option waiting for us if and when our baby was struggling with sleep.
