Are you concerned about the safety of the SNOO Smart Sleeper Bassinet?

As a doula and Sleep Consultant I love the SNOO and here are my top 3 reasons why:

First, The SNOO Smart Sleeper was granted FDA De Novo as a safe sleep medical device to keep babies on their backs. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants are placed on their backs to sleep. The design of the SNOO and the SNOO sleep sacks keep baby safely on their backs. Babies can sleep safely the SNOO from birth until 6 months or until baby can repeatedly roll from back to stomach.

Second, The Snoo moves through 5 levels of gentle soothing, which as a doula, I believe encourages parents to listen to what their baby is telling them before responding too quickly. Babies are loud sleepers! New parents might not know that babies will briefly fuss, cry out once or even just grunt while sleeping. The SNOO provides a brief moment for parents to listen. Is that grunting going to turn into fussing and lead to crying or does your baby just need to pass gas?

For your baby's first month, The Happiest Baby app will recommend that you use the motion limiter which limits the motion to level 2. The SNOO will continue to increase the sound of the white noise to level 4. After baby's first month, will send you a notification asking if you’d like to take off the motion limiter and allow the response feature to increase through all 5 soothing levels. 

The SNOO starts at a baseline level that runs throughout the night and responds to baby fussing by moving through 5 levels of soothing. Each level increases the volume of the white noise and motion.The SNOO shuts off after just 3 minutes if it has moved through all 5 soothing levels and the baby has not settled. (Which, I find is just enough time to sneak in a potty break in the middle of the night!) When the SNOO shuts off you get a handy notification to your cell phone letting you know that your baby needs attention. The SNOO will not start again until you attend to your baby.

Finally, Happiest Baby recently released a new app for the SNOO which now allows you to track your SNOO log, nursing, bottles, solids, pumping, and diapers. I love the SNOO log because it shows you what happened while the baby was in the SNOO. When you zoom in on the curve you can see what levels the SNOO was on and for how long, the length of the season time, and any settings you have chosen.

The app also allows you to set preferences such as the volume for white noise, the motion start level, and responsiveness. You can also choose to turn on the motion limiter for littles or weaning mode for older babies who will be transitioning to a crib.

Your doula loves the SNOO, it is a safe sleep option for parents to get a little extra rest. The SNOO is not going to jostle your baby too much and a hungry baby isn't going to be settled by the SNOO's soothing. 

Come back soon for a future post about transitioning out of the SNOO.