The SNOO Baby Bassinet has quickly gained popularity among new parents, with its innovative features and soothing capabilities. In this in-depth and honest review of the SNOO Bassinet, Alyssa delves into her thorough research and personal experience to help readers determine if this high-tech sleep solution is truly worth it for their family.
I first heard about the SNOO bassinet when I was pregnant with my second child, but I couldn’t fathom spending $1600 on a bassinet we would use for 6 months. But then that second child slept for MAX 2.5 hours at a time until he was over 6 months. When we became pregnant with our third child, I started to wonder if we should splurge on the SNOO. Knowing that we had an already-busy schedule with our 5 year old and 2 year old, I wasn’t sure we would be able to function on broken sleep. I started doing the math to figure out if spending the $1600 on a baby bassinet would be worth it in the end. (Spoiler: I bought one.)
I researched a LOT about the SNOO, including where to rent a SNOO and what the return policy was like if it turned out not to work for us. This post is dedicated to answering all of your questions about the SNOO bassinet, including whether or not the SNOO is worth it!
Read on for my honest review of the SNOO bassinet and decide for yourself if it’s worth it for your family.
SNOO Bassinet Review
I cannot believe my 2 month old slept almost 9 hours overnight without waking.
Let’s back up. Does the SNOO work? YES. The makers of SNOO, Happiest Baby, promise that you’ll get an extra 1 to 2 hours of sleep per night. But how?
The SNOO was designed by Dr. Harvey Karp, author of the well-known book The Happiest Baby on the Block. You might know Dr. Karp’s work by “the 5 S’s,” which are his five essentials for newborn sleep (swaddle, shushing, etc.). The SNOO was designed to respond to a baby’s crying to ensure more restful sleep for both baby and parents. Your little one is swaddled and secured in the bassinet. It has a built-in white noise machine to mimic the womb and three levels of gentle rocking motion.
The rocking motion escalates with the baby’s crying/fussing, in part to help them learn to fall back asleep without intervention on your part. When the SNOO hears the baby’s crying, it rocks your baby and plays white noise at higher or varying levels. Baseline is a very gentle rock with quiet white noise, where levels 3 and 4 are more like what your baby might experience riding in a car with gentle bumps.
One of my concerns was that the SNOO would constantly lull my baby back to sleep, ignoring any hunger cries. But that is definitely not the case. A baby who really needs you will still fuss, and the SNOO will time out and send you a notification that the baby needs your attention. (Also important to know, you CAN use the SNOO as a regular bassinet if you just don’t turn it on/plug it in!)
On the website it says that “most SNOO babies sleep nine hours or more by 2 to 3 months.” I couldn’t believe that would be the case for my child, as neither of my older two ever slept for more than a few hours at a time well into the first year of their lives. And while some moms report that it didn’t help their baby sleep nine hours a night, they instead say that they had a good six to eight hours each night instead. Still not bad if you ask me!
Read here for a full review of the Nanit camera system!
How the SNOO works
The SNOO is designed to respond to a baby’s crying by changing up the white noise level and sound, rocking more, and eventually either going back down to baseline (if the child falls back asleep) or notifying you that the baby needs your attention. The rocking motion is always on for the baby, though you can turn this off using the limiting feature in the app.
The SNOO’s accompanying app shows you a timeline of sleep, including when the baby was fussing and being soothed, as well as when the SNOO was turned off (and baby wasn’t in there, presumably). It also tells you the longest sleep time each 24 hours.
Here’s what the app looks like:
Blue is time spent sleeping in the SNOO and red is time when the SNOO was soothing the baby. You can see we didn’t do all naps in there on this particular day, but look at that “longest sleep” stretch- almost 9 hours! At 2 months old. Wild.
We are TBD on transitioning out of it, as we are still using it every night and for most naps. TBD on that!
For acid reflux babies, Happiest Baby (maker of the SNOO) sells leg risers. They raise the head of the bassinet just 1.5 inches (or 2.5 degrees), but for some babies that’s enough to take away the reflux symptoms.
SNOO and 4 Month Sleep Regression
Ugh, the dreaded 4 month sleep regression. It hits hard out of nowhere! Unfortunately for us, the 4 month regression came and those blessed 7-9 hours of sleep stopped. The baby now wakes up every 3-5 hours, which can be really hard when I have to then be ON all day for my older 2 kids! Even though this is happening, there are a few things I like about using the SNOO during the 4 month sleep regression:
- The SNOO alerts you if the baby is crying after a few minutes. It doesn’t just keep going and going. I like this because that’s my timer to say, “Okay, she really does need me right now.”
- SNOO’s app has been giving me helpful tips. The reminder to keep both arms swaddled, since the baby isn’t rolling yet, was helpful. We have been keeping one arm swaddled down and the other out, and I think it might be waking her up more.
Since we’re still in the middle of this sleep regression, I’ll come back and update on what we did and how we fixed it! Fingers crossed.
Where to Buy a SNOO
The SNOO is expensive. There’s no doubt about that. But there are options to make it less expensive.
- Buying: If you wait to buy one until your third (and most likely final) child, you don’t have the benefit of using it for multiple children. But it’s definitely easier to justify the cost when you know you’ll use it for more than one child.
- Buying second hand: The market for SNOO is alive and well. A second hand SNOO in my area (just outside of Boston) goes for $700-$900 depending on condition and extras, like swaddles and sheets.
- Buying pre-loved: Happiest Baby recently started selling refurbished or certified pre-owned SNOOs on their site. The cost is basically what you would spend buying one second hand on Facebook Marketplace or similar, but it comes with a warranty.
- Renting: There is an option to rent a SNOO from the Happiest Baby site. But once you factor in the delivery/shipping back costs, the cleaning fee, and the monthly fee, you are better off to buy one and sell it secondhand when you’re done.
Return policy
Another big consideration for us was the return policy, just in case it didn’t work at all for us in the beginning. Happiest Baby allows for a 30-day trial of the SNOO. This means that if you return it within 30 days, you’ll get a full refund back.
Ground shipping for a return is free, but you need to be sure to keep the packaging in case you need to send it back. Without original packaging you will have to purchase a replacement box and inserts for $28.80 + shipping and handling (around $50 total).
If you purchased a Pre-Loved SNOO and need to return it, you have the same 30 day trial window. There is also a $199 restocking fee plus tax if you return it during the trial.
Is the SNOO worth it?
For me, 100%. Even though the baby started waking more when she turned 3 months old, she still was sleeping 4-6 hours for her first stretch. (I think it was a growth spurt that caused the more frequent wakings.)
One thing that makes the SNOO worth it is that the product was recently (in March 2023) given FDA De Novo approval. This is the first time the FDA has approved a product designed to keep babies safely sleeping while on their back, which decreases the chance of SIDS. If there’s one things parents care about more than anything else, it’s safety.
Some FAQs about the SNOO
Is it better to rent or buy? What does a SNOO rental cost?
I priced out buying (with reselling in mind) vs. renting. The cost to rent a bassinet was a bit higher than buying and reselling. So with that information in mind, I decided it was better for our family to buy one brand new and then sell afterwards. To figure this out, I looked at the cost of renting plus the shipping fees and cleaning fees. Then on the buying side I looked at the price of a bassinet if I bought it on sale (which happens a couple of times a year), less the price of selling it on the resale market. All that said, it definitely depends on what you think is better for you!
Where can I rent the SNOO?
You can rent a SNOO from Happiest Baby. They offer monthly rentals, and if you rent for 6 months you get a discount on the monthly rate.
Can SNOO be used as a regular bassinet?
Sure! It’s a mesh-sided bassinet that would work just fine as a regular bassinet if you didn’t want to use the motion.
Can you travel with the SNOO?
We do! So far we have only taken it on car trips, but we traveled twice in the first 3 months of our daughter’s life, and we brought it with us both times. It is a very bulky item to have in the car, but it comes apart easily. We found it easy to travel with, albeit a large item to take with us. You do need to have wifi at your destination if you plan on using your phone to control the bassinet and to see the insights. But it will work without wifi, as long as you have the SNOO plugged into a wall outlet.
Can SNOO be used without swaddle?
The swaddle must be clipped in for the motion to start.
Can SNOO work without wifi?
Short answer: Yes. Longer answer… Yes, it can. But you can’t use your phone as a controller, and you won’t get the insights from the app if you aren’t connected to wifi. You just need to plug the SNOO into a wall outlet for it to work, but if you care about controlling it from your phone then you will need to be connected to wifi.
Is there an alternative to the SNOO?
If you want an affordable alternative to the SNOO, check out this bassinet. It’s not nearly as sophisticated but is a nice size bassinet with some similar features. Though I’m not sure I would use the motion, since there’s no way to ensure the baby stays on their back.
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