My unbiased opinion of the SNOO by Happiest Baby
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When I first found out I was pregnant, I immediately starting Googling the coolest baby “gadgets” out there. It’s no surprise that the SNOO Smart Sleeper by Happiest Baby was at the top of the list. With it’s hefty price tag of $1,495.00 I imagined it had to be partly made of gold. But for only being useful up to the first six months of a baby’s life, is the SNOO really worth the investment? Admittedly, I invested in the Halo Bassinest Premier series and used that for the first 4 weeks of our little girls life. Sleep deprived, and in desperation one night, my husband ordered the SNOO hoping it would give me a few extra hours of sleep each night. I was hesitant due to mixed reviews I read online but after using the SNOO for 2 months, my little girl sleeps 7-9 hours straight every night. Here’s my unbiased review of the SNOO and my honest thoughts about what makes it great, and what’s not so great about it.
SLEEP - The biggest pro to the SNOO is definitely the amount of sleep I am now getting at night. I will definitely be the first to admit, my little girl is a good sleeper to begin with. Prior to using the Snoo, she would sleep for about 3 hours at a time at night (not bad for a 4-week old). However, there were instances when she was waking up and it wasn’t time to eat. I was a big skeptic when we first got the SNOO and actually did my own little test of letting our little girl sleep one night in the Halo Bassinest and one night in the SNOO. The results were pretty clear, our little girl slept better in the SNOO (allowing me to sleep better too). Needless to say, after 4 nights of switching bassinets, the SNOO won it’s position as the bassinet in our bedroom.
CREATING GOOD SLEEP HABITS - The best advice given to us at the hospital was to watch the Taking Cara Babies newborn class. I will be the first to admit I was also skeptical about that class as well. It has been life changing for my husband and I as first time parents. One of the most important things we can help our babies do during their first few weeks of life is learn to put themselves to sleep. The SNOO definitely helps with this. While sometimes, there is nothing like mom or dad rocking little baby to sleep, many times the SNOO would do just as good as a job allowing mom and dad to stay in bed. Many times when my little girl wakes up in the middle of the night all she needs is a gentle rocking back to sleep and the SNOO is great at doing just that.
TRACKING BABY’S SLEEP PATTERNS - I love to look back and see how our little girl has slept. The SNOO’s app allows you to view your baby’s sleep habits. It gives you a visual representation of when it kicked on and what level it went to (all of which are customizable in the app itself).
CUSTOMIZATION - Through the SNOO app, you are able to customize the settings. You can set what levels you want the SNOO to switch to as well as use the wean function (which stops the SNOO from rocking on the basic setting). I actually have always had the SNOO on wean because of a fear that my baby wouldn't sleep elsewhere if it didn’t rock. I also don’t allow the SNOO to turn on past level 2 (because in my opinion, if it has to go up that high, I probably need to intervene).
EMF LEVELS - My biggest concern with the SNOO after doing research online was the EMF levels it emits. I’ll admit, I went down a huge rabbit hole and learned a lot about EMF levels (I am by no means an expert, and this is just my unbiased opinion based off of my research online). Happiest Baby comes out an actually says that the SNOO emits EMF levels and that there is a metal shield in place to block it. I actually reached out to them with my concerns and here is their response to me:
Thank you for contacting Happiest Baby. We want to let you know that infant safety is of the utmost importance to us. We’ve done extensive testing and SNOO meets or exceeds all Consumer Product Safety Commission, Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association, FCC, UL safety standards for bassinets and consumer electronics.
When designing SNOO, we took extra precautions to keep babies safe. We have made sure the WiFi in the hardware is far away from the baby and what is emitted is very very low, comparable to background levels around us. We also designed a metal shield inside of SNOO that blocks any extra emissions (WiFi SAR). Tests show negligible Wi-Fi SAR exposure, plus there is also a Wi-Fi off-button, underneath SNOO, for parents who want to completely turn off Wi-Fi!
As you probably know, all electrical devices emit some level of EMF and every home has measurable EMF from wiring, appliances, etc. The science in this area is definitively difficult to interpret and many aspects unclear. Even just measuring EMF depends on many factors, such as the frequency and axis measured, the position of the instrument, quality of the instrument, and surrounding electrical equipment. Therefore, we cannot comment on specific numbers. What you do see, though, is that EMF level drops dramatically as you move away from the source….even just a foot makes a big difference. In SNOO, there is more EMF at the foot of the bed, closest to the motor, and it drops substantially as you move further away and it was specifically designed that way. The only part of the baby in that vicinity are the toes and feet and no studies indicate risk to the feet from any amount of EMF. However, If you want to take extra advanced steps, you may want to look into more hi-tech blocking materials that might be placed under the mattress - at the foot of the bed - to help provide a barrier in addition to our metal shield.
There are tons of forums online that talk about the dangerous EMF levels the SNOO emits. While I’ve come to accept that the SNOO does emit EMF levels, I’ve also learned of many other “smart” products on the market for babies emit EMFs too. My conclusion after doing research is that a lot of the claims about EMF levels are not made by professionals online and that EMFs are emitted throughout our home through a variety of different gadgets we have. It’s important for every parent to make their own decisions but for me, if I wasn’t going to use the SNOO because of EMFs it also meant I shouldn’t be using my phone or watching TV etc. around my little girl.
Dependencies - Another big concern of mine was that my little girl would become dependent on the SNOO and not sleep anywhere else. As mentioned before, we only have the SNOO on wean mode and only use the SNOO for sleeping at night. During the day, our little girl naps in her crib (and it works out great). I can’t report on what it will be like once we move her to the crib at night but based on her naps during the day, I don’t think it will be an issue.
Cost - This is probably the biggest thing to consider when buying the SNOO. It’s expensive… really expensive if you’re only using it for six months. Happiest Baby allows you to now rent the SNOO at a more affordable price. We were about to capitalize on the SNOO during their Black Friday sale (it was still expensive, but 20% off was not bad). We weighed out the cost of the SNOO against our exhaustion during the day and for us, the investment was worth it (and after having the SNOO for a few months, I can definitely say that the investment was worth it).
Accessories - We purchased additional sheets and swaddles for the SNOO (in case our little girl has a leaky diaper in the middle of the night). The SNOO does come with one sheet and three sleep sacks (one small, medium and large).
I was the biggest skeptic of the SNOO. It was comforting to know that they have a risk-free 30-day return period in case our little girl didn’t like the SNOO. After using it for some months (and enjoying some much needed sleep) I’d say it’s been a savior in helping our little girl to develop good sleeping habits.