Following these guidelines will reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome , or SIDS, as will choosing a bassinet with sturdy construction and secure attachments, says Laura Purdy, M.D., a family medicine physician.
Any product your baby sleeps in should comply with the most recent Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) safety guidance. In general, bassinets should have sides that prevent entrapment; be stable enough to avoid tipping; be able to hold an infant weighing up to the stated limit; have a mattress that prevents suffocation; and have sides tall enough to prevent falls out of the bassinet. You can also utilize the CPSC website to check for recalls on specific brands or products.
But to really be worth your while (and your investment, since most of these retail at $300 or more), a smart bassinet needs to be easy to use and offer enough tech-based features to help you guide your newborn into dreamland faster. We tested a few popular options at home with our own infants and researched several other brands to find which smart bassinets stand out among the competition. Then we talked to experts about how to use them safely and shop wisely for a smart bassinet for your baby.
“Smart bassinets are sleep spaces that use technology to help soothe a baby,” says Amanda Stovall, M.D., a pediatrician with Springfield Clinic in Illinois. “Some respond to your baby’s movement, while others are controlled by a remote or an app on your phone [to provide] movement and white noise [that] simulate some of the best soothing techniques for infants.”
That’s why we like smart bassinets: These tech-based products combine the closeness and convenience of a bedside bassinet with the motion of an infant swing, as well as the sounds of a white noise machine, eliminating the need for multiple purchases.
Most newborn babies want their sleep environment to mimic the womb as much as possible, sleeping better when they have a snug, small space to be tucked into, a gentle rocking motion beneath them, and rhythmic white noise humming in the background. Traditional bassinets offer a cozy, safe place to sleep, but if you want motion and white noise, you’ll have to invest in additional baby gear, too.
We appreciate that it’s one of the most accessible bassinets for new parents, especially those who are recovering from a C-section or have postpartum complications. You can keep your baby next to your bed or swivel it over into your bed for easy nighttime access for feedings and diaper changes. The side can be lowered, too, eliminating the need to bend over. As for the BassiNest’s smart features, while it's not app-compatible, it offers plenty of device-based controls to help soothe your baby back to sleep, like vibration, white noise, and lighting.
Dr. Purdy calls the BassiNest an “ideal sleeping option,” noting that it can keep your newborn close during the night with its adjustable height and rotation, but it also helps you follow safe sleep guidelines by having your baby in their own space. Plus, she adds, the top of the bassinet is removable, which makes it effortless to transport between rooms during the day when your baby is napping.
A truly good bassinet makes it easy for parents to reach over in the middle of the night and tend to their baby while still prioritizing a safe sleep environment. With a unique swivel design, the HALO BassiNest Swivel Baby Bassinet is one of the best and safest ways to do this.
But Take Note: It doesn’t have any rocking or gliding motion options, so it’s better for parents who like the idea of co-sleeping but have concerns about safe sleep guidelines .
Why We Like It: You can keep your baby safe and close with this ultra-adjustable bassinet. Not only does it detach for portability, but it offers soothing vibration and white noise.
The downside is that rocking is pretty much the only “smart” thing the Tiny Love does. It doesn’t provide music, lighting, or other soothing features, although it does come with a removable toy arch and mobile. Still, in a market that mostly makes parents choose between portability and smart features, the Tiny Love walks the line between the two, offering parents a way to gently soothe their baby during travel.
We like that the Tiny Love is lightweight, foldable, and comes with a carrying case for easy transport. At just 16 pounds, it’s not too difficult to carry through airports or pack into the back of a car. We also like that it has an adjustable sun canopy and removable bug net, so if you’re taking it along on a beach vacation, your baby will be protected from the elements.
Finding a smart bassinet that can be taken on the go is harder than you might think: Most of the smart bassinets on the market aren’t really designed for travel, but the Maxi-Cosi Tiny Love 2-in-1 Take Along Deluxe Bassinet is a highly portable option that includes a rocking feature to lull your baby to sleep wherever you take them.
But Take Note: It has limited smart features, so it’s not for babies that need a lot of help falling asleep.
Why We Like It: It’s lightweight and folds easily into a carrying case. It also offers a gentle rocking motion for traveling babies who need soothing.
Like many other smart bassinets, the EVI also includes multiple options for soothing light and music. Plus, it’s one of the more tech-compatible bassinets around, connecting not only to an app but also pairing with Amazon Alexa or Google Home for maximum convenience.
Dr. Stovall notes that the flat, gliding motion of the EVI Smart Bassinet is a preferable choice to products like swings and rockers, since they maintain a safe sleep environment for your baby and allow them to remain flat on their backs. She also calls out the high sides of this bassinet, which are a great safety feature, as well as the storage underneath for keeping supplies you need close by without cluttering your baby’s sleep space with diapers and wipes.
Although the TruBliss EVI Smart Bassinet isn’t quite as portable as some other bassinets, this stationary option still boasts a gentle gliding motion and several other useful features, making it a good choice for parents wanting to keep their baby’s sleeping area the same during the newborn months.
But Take Note: It doesn’t roll or fold up, limiting its portability, and if your baby doesn’t like gliding, there are no other motion options.
Why We Like It: The gentle gliding of the TruBliss EVI keeps your baby sleeping safely flat on their back, while built-in storage and Amazon Alexa or Google Home capabilities add to its overall function.
The app was pretty glitchy during our testing period, though the brand assures us that the crib's firmware and app have been since updated. While we appreciate that it transforms from a bassinet to a crib, the $2,000 price tag is steep. Ultimately, it depends on what you’re hoping to get out of a smart bassinet.
One feature we really do appreciate, though, is the built-in camera. It allowed us to get an overhead view of our baby through the app, which is usually not possible with a standard video baby monitor . Still, you’ll need to open up the app every time you want to check on your baby, though a picture-in-picture feature lets you do so while you're doing other things with your phone.
Like the SNOO, the Cradlewise senses when your baby is stirring and uses a bouncing motion and gentle music to soothe your baby back to sleep. In testing, we both liked and disliked the bouncing. Sometimes it helped our baby get back to sleep during longer sleep periods, but other times it started bouncing just as we were laying our baby down, rousing them out of lighter sleep. We were also disappointed with the audio feature, which had poor sound quality (especially when we tried to use it through the app). Ultimately, we ended up turning off many of the smart features, rendering the Cradlewise a more traditional bassinet.
One of the few downsides of bassinets is that they’re designed for newborns, so babies outgrow them quickly. However, the Cradlewise Smart Crib has an inner mattress that can be raised to make it a bassinet and then lowered into a crib height when your baby is bigger. This makes it a good choice for parents who don’t want to choose between a bassinet and a crib.
But Take Note: You need to rely on an app for monitoring your baby, and the price is really steep.
Why We Like It: Two mattress heights allow the Cradlewise to be used as a bassinet or crib, eliminating the need for multiple products.
The bassinet also has a vibration option, and we especially like its night-light features: Not only does it include a motion-activated floor light to help guide you through night wakings, there’s a soft amber light within the bassinet itself that allows you to check on your baby in the dark. It doesn’t rock or glide like other options, but we do appreciate that it comes with a bassinet mattress.
Like the SNOO, this bassinet uses smart sensors to pick up on your baby’s movement and allows you to choose between three soothing modes with music and sounds to help them back to sleep. You can adjust these options on the control panel on the bassinet or through the compatible app, which is simple and easy to navigate.
We know that many families can’t afford the cost of a luxury smart bassinet like the SNOO (even at a pre-owned discount), so we love the functionality of the budget-friendly Fisher-Price Luminate Bassinet. We researched it carefully, comparing it to other smart bassinets by Fisher-Price, and the Luminate stands out to us with its motion-detecting sensors, gentle night-light options, and app-based controls.
But Take Note: It doesn’t rock or glide—it only vibrates—and doesn’t have quite as many adjustable settings as some other more expensive models.
Why We Like It: You can get luxury features, like motion detection sensing and app compatibility, without spending more than $300.
But here’s one more good thing about the SNOO that solidifies its place as our best overall pick: It’s available for purchase through Happiest Baby as a certified pre-owned product , saving parents $500 off the original list price, and it can also be rented for $159 per month , which is a nice option for families who only plan to use the SNOO for the newborn months with one infant.
Although we think the SNOO really streamlines the whole “putting baby down to sleep” process, we do have to address the cost of the SNOO and its relative value; in testing, we found the SNOO to improve infant sleep about 70 percent of the time, which is a little disappointing considering its $1,700 price tag. However, you do get several extras: a mattress, water-resistant mattress cover, fitted sheet, three SNOO-compatible sleep sacks (in different sizes), and access to the brand’s sleep consultants. The bassinet is a bit on the small side, though: Our editor’s baby was already beginning to creep toward the upper limits of the space at two months old.
As someone who had postpartum complications, our editor appreciated that the SNOO relieved her of some of the more physical duties of caring for a newborn, noting that the bassinet maximized her and her baby’s sleep, giving her body the extra time it needed to heal.
One editor, who used the SNOO after giving birth to her second son, found it easy to assemble and simple to use when operating it through the device itself or the app. Everything from the gentle rocking motion to the white noise to the built-in swaddle feature function seamlessly; in fact, the SNOO is so smart, it senses when your baby is moving around or fussing, and gradually responds with motion and sound to soothe them back to sleep. The included swaddle clips into the bassinet and keeps the baby flat on their back, which is a great perk for parents’ peace of mind.
Not only did the SNOO Smart Sleeper impress us in our testing by increasing the number of newborn sleep hours (really!), Dr. Purdy recommends it as well, calling out the benefits of its motion sensors, white noise generator, and adjustable height and incline options. Since the SNOO is both editor- and expert-approved, it was an obvious choice for our best overall pick.
With competitive price and timely delivery, Tacviw sincerely hope to be your supplier and partner.
But Take Note: It’s expensive, and it’s not a magic bullet for infant sleep—your baby will still need you, so you’ll have to weigh the benefits of its convenience against its cost.
Why We Like It: The built-in swaddle and smart app controls make it easier for postpartum parents to help both themselves and their babies get more sleep in the first few months.
Our Testing and Review Process
To choose the best smart bassinets, we tested some products in our editors’ homes and researched others online, utilizing expert input to make choices between bassinets with different features.
To test the Happiest Baby SNOO Smart Sleeper and the Cradlewise Smart Crib, we unboxed and set up the bassinets, downloaded their associated apps, and linked them to our products. Then we experimented with personalization, navigating the apps and product interfaces to see how easy it was to adjust features like volume, motion, and light.
Of course, we also tested each bassinet with our babies! Our goal here was to see how well the bassinet responded on its own to infant movement, how quickly and easily we could adjust the controls from the app, and whether the bassinets actually helped our babies get to sleep faster and stay asleep longer.
We tested these bassinets for four to six weeks, not only considering their overall value based on how well they performed, but their durability as well, noting how easy they were to clean and how they held up to frequent use in terms of stability and appearance.
We asked two pediatricians to give us their input on choosing the right smart bassinet:
- Laura Purdy, M.D., a family medicine physician and medical executive
- Amanda Stovall, M.D., an Illinois-based pediatrician at Springfield Clinic.
We also got input from two parents, both mothers to two sons: Phedra Arthur and Julia Warren.
Factors to Consider When Buying a Smart Bassinet
Ease of Use
When you’re a sleep-deprived parent, you don’t have three hours to spend on product assembly, and when your newborn is screaming at 3 a.m., you definitely don’t have time to fuss with app controls trying to get the right combination of rocking and white noise going.
Any smart bassinet you choose should come together relatively quickly out of the box, and it should be easy to operate the bassinet at the most inconvenient time (i.e. in bed in the dark, next to a baby just starting to drop off to sleep).
Recommended Age and Weight
Unlike some other infant items, like pack and plays and high chairs, a bassinet isn’t usually designed to grow with your baby. They typically have age and weight limits on the lower end, since they are designed to serve as a bedside crib in the early months of your baby’s life.
“Once your baby can sit up or move around independently, use of the bassinet should cease immediately,” says Dr. Purdy. “They can eventually pull themselves up and you don’t want your baby falling out of the bassinet.”
Dr. Stovall says most babies will outgrow their bassinets around 4 or 5 months of age, though your baby may begin rolling and pulling up sooner or later than that. Still, it’s worth looking at the recommended age and weight for any bassinet you’re considering; one with significantly lower age and weight limits is going to last even less than four or five months.
Motion and Sound Options
Some bassinets come with night-light options, but nearly all of them offer some kind of motion and sound features. You don’t have to get fancy: Sometimes, a simple gliding motion, like that of the TruBliss EVI, is all that’s needed to soothe a baby back to sleep. However, some infants like other types of motion, too, like bouncing or rocking. The Cradlewise is a bouncing option, while we recommend the SNOO Smart Sleeper for side-to-side rocking. And if all you want is a little vibration, the Fisher-Price Luminate Bassinet is a solid pick.
As for sounds, white noise is a pretty fail-safe choice for most babies who are accustomed to the noise of their mother’s womb. But if you think you might want music or other sound options, make sure you know what’s offered with your bassinet of choice.
Smart Features
If you know you’ll want to operate your smart bassinet remotely, like from another room, then make sure the one you buy is app-compatible—some smart bassinets are only operational from an interface on the device itself.
Also, consider just how smart you want your smart bassinet to be. Do you want it to sense your baby’s movements, and attempt to soothe your baby back to sleep before they wake up, like the SNOO Smart Sleeper? Or do you only want one with motion features you turn on yourself? Some bassinets take an extra step, while others rely more on you to manage the controls as needed.
Design
We’re sure you would rather have a smart bassinet that puts your baby to sleep quickly than one that fits in beautifully with your home decor, but also ... why should you have to choose? Many modern bassinets combine function with form, allowing you to set your smart bassinet in any room knowing it will blend right in.
Another point to consider in bassinet design is where you’ll regularly use it. If you need it to move from room to room, a bassinet with wheels versus a stationary one would be easier, and if you need one that can fold up easily for travel, your choices are more limited, though the Maxi-Cosi Tiny Love 2-in-1 Take Along Deluxe Bassinet is travel-friendly.
Value
Value can be a fairly subjective category. A bassinet that just happens to work super well for some babies might not work for others, and the features you prefer may not be of importance to other families. But generally, it’s useful to consider how price, length of use, and durability overlap with one another.
For example, a bassinet that costs $1,000 but can really only accommodate a baby for the first month or two may have less overall value than one that costs the same but can be safely used for four or five months. And while it’s tempting to go with a budget-friendly choice, if the bassinet you buy is falling apart after a few months and can’t be passed down to another child, you may wish you had invested a little more for the sake of reusing it again in the future.
Your Questions, Answered
Are smart bassinets worth it?
They are for some families and aren’t for others. Breastfeeding parents who want to keep their baby close during the night often choose to buy a bassinet, knowing it’s easier to handle late-night wakings and feedings when you aren’t having to place a baby back in a crib.
A smart bassinet can make that whole process a little bit easier, helping your baby sleep through some of the usual newborn stirrings, or shortening the length of time it takes for you to lull them back to sleep after a feed. It may also be useful during the day, especially if you have older siblings at home (and a limited number of hands!).
“Smart bassinets can be really helpful for those caring for multiple children that may need help through the night and at nap times,” says Dr. Stovall, adding that young infants, especially those less than 2 months old, need round-the-clock care that can be hard to accommodate depending on your family situation.
What are the downsides of a smart bassinet?
As much as we think many parents will appreciate the convenience of a smart bassinet, we recognize that they aren’t for everyone. Dr. Stovall notes that they are a pricey purchase, and since they’re only used for the first few months of a baby’s life, the investment isn’t worth it for some families unless they know they can reuse them with future siblings or have room to spare in their budget.
It’s also important to make sure you’re still tuned into your baby rather than relying on the bassinet to pick up on your baby’s cues, says Dr. Stovall. Keep in mind an infant’s eventual need to learn some self-soothing techniques: “When a baby is soothed back to sleep by a smart bassinet, they may have a difficult time transitioning to a traditional crib, where they will have to do some self-soothing to drift back off to sleep,” she says.
Who We Are
Sarah Bradley is a freelance health and parenting writer from Connecticut, where she lives with her husband and three sons. As a homeschooling mom who works part-time, she understands the value of shopping for parenting products that are not only safe and affordable but make family life easier. Smart bassinets weren’t a thing when her kids were babies, but if they had been, she totally would have bought one.
For more information, please visit electric baby bedside cribs.
Comments
All Comments (0)