SNOO Smart Sleeper: Best Smart Crib Review

What is a Smart Crib? The SNOO Smart Sleeper!

If you have had a newborn you well know that the lack of sleep is real. It is probably the greatest challenge my wife and I faced with our first daughter. The first few months felt like one perpetual never-ending cycle of feeding, rocking, crying, bathing, and changing.

You might have already noticed something missing…SLEEPING! I can’t remember any other time in my life that compares to the exhaustion we both felt during the first few months of our daughter’s life. Our situation may have been extreme and slightly atypical but I know we are not alone in having experienced the true tiredness that comes along with a newborn. The loss of quality sleep has to be one of the biggest challenges of parenting a newborn and it affects everyone in the house…enter the SNOO!

The SNOO Smart Sleeper may just be the answer to your prayers; a boon to sleep that you desperately desire and a respite from the overwhelming exhaustion.

In my family, our breakthrough was reading Dr. Harvey Karp’s, The Happiest Baby on the Block. This was truly a game-changer for us. Dr. Harvey Karp is renowned for his trusted and extremely effective techniques for dealing with parental exhaustion and overly tired and fussy babies.

His unique “5 S” method of soothing a newborn recreates the environment and sensations babies are accustomed to feeling in the womb: swaddling, side/stomach positioning, shushing, swinging, and sucking. These five factors work together in a synergistic formula to immediately soothe your fussy baby.

Dr. Karp is now taking these proven methods into the 21st century with the ingenious SNOO Smart Sleeper. A smart crib that creates an infant sleep space which mimics the conditions inside the womb and also serves as an ever present night time nurse and sleep specialist.

The revolutionary SNOO has the potential to add hours of uninterrupted sleep to both you and your precious little one’s nights.

Newborns Are Still Developing During The Fourth Trimester

Reproducing three of Dr. Karp’s 5 S’s techniques, the SNOO detects your baby’s cries and responds intelligently with various degrees of rocking and white noise.

The fussier your baby gets, the louder the volume of white noise from the SNOO, and it can even change pitch depending on her current needs.  According to research softer, rumbling noises are more effective at leading your little one to fall asleep, while louder, higher pitched sounds are best for soothing an agitated and cranky baby.

The smart sleepers mechanized swinging is designed to mimic a parent’s rocking or the gentle swaying inside the womb and can subtly adjust to the stress level of your baby’s cry by changing the speed up or down as necessary.

It is important to remember that there truly is no substitute for a parents love and care. The SNOO can never totally replace you!  Should your baby cry longer than three minutes, the SNOO shuts off and it’s your responsibility to take over. The SNOO isn’t a total parent replacement.This is a great training mechanism for parents and infants alike that help new parents understand the difference between a baby crying because she needs soothing and a baby crying because she’s hungry or needs a clean diaper.

SNOO is Smart

The SNOO is loaded with all of the functionality that you would expect to find in a modern piece of smart technology. You can control the feature rich smart sleeper, such as adjusting rocking speed and white noise levels, through your iPhone or Android device using the SNOO Smart Sleeper app.

There is also a very handy training program that allows you to set the smart crib to automatically wean your baby off the soothing motions to prepare her for the six-month transition to her crib.

This is such a great tool and allows you to continue your blissful nights of sleep even after your child outgrows the SNOO and begins to use a more traditional crib at night.

SNOO is Scientifically Safer

The SNOO comes standard with three different sizes of a mesh SNOO sack, the SNOO version of a 5-second swaddle, that hangs loosely around your baby’s legs but fits properly around her hips to protect her developing joints and is made from organic and breathable cotton to aid her in regulating body temperature and prevent overheating.

Another innovative design feature of the SNOO swaddle sack is the wing clips which fasten to the sides of the SNOO. Once in place, these safety clips totally prevent your precious one from rolling over onto her stomach or side.

Other safety features of the SNOO include a very low center of gravity making it virtually impossible to tip over and breathable mesh sides to ensure that your baby has proper airflow through the crib and heat and CO2 can easily dissipate into the surrounding atmosphere.

SNOO is Super Stylish!

One thing the SNOO is not short on is style. The smart sleeper was designed by well-known furniture designer Yves Behar and engineers from the MIT Media lab. The SNOO Smart Sleeper is a harmonious marriage  of stylish good looks and advanced science and robotics.

Just take a look through the news headlines and you will see celebrities all over Hollywood crowing about the wonders of their SNOO Smart Sleeper.

This is no surprise as the SNOO’s dark wooden base with its white mesh sides are incredibly sleek. It looks both refined and trendy making it a perfect compliment to even the most demanding nursery designs.

SNOO is Swanky…and is Priced That Way

The curring edge technology in the SNOO isn’t cheap. It is expensive by almost anyone’s standards and if you consider it is only usable for the first six months it is even more so. The SNOO costs about $1,200 which is considerably more than most standard cribs! Yes, you can find other traditional cribs that cost more than a SNOO Smart Sleeper but for most families, it takes a considerable investment or sacrifice in some other area to afford the SNOO.

Is the SNOO Worth the Cost?

However, what price can you put on your own health and the well being and safety of your child? Many, formerly exhausted parents who now own the SNOO, will argue that the peace of mind and the blessed blissful sleep provided by the SNOO is worth every dollar.

If you are one of the weary parents struggling through your sleepless days and nights you have probably fantasized about a crib that can automagically sooth their screaming baby back to sleep. The SNOO proves it can answer the call!

The SNOO attempts to replicate the sounds of the womb and comes with a  specialized swaddle to prevent your little one from tossing and turning over into a potentially dangerous position. No other crib can do these things.

According to Happiest Baby and mountains of research, babies rolling over in their sleep is a leading cause of death in more than 3,500 babies a year.

SNOO is able to sense when your baby is crying due to the three built-in microphones, which filter our ambient noise and intelligently respond only to the fussing and screaming of your cranky baby. Then, depending on the stress level of your child, the SNOO will emit scientifically engineered white noise tailored to your child’s current mood. Again the SNOO will sound lower-pitched and slower when her crying is softer, or higher-pitched and louder when she becomes fussier. The SNOO also will gently rock and vibrate to soothe your baby back to sleep at various levels of activity.

The SNOO is versatile, the white noise can range from the sound of heartbeats, similar to what you hear from an ultrasound during a sonogram to the much louder static from white television screen. The SNOO’s motion is also adaptable to your baby’s current state and on one end is a gentle rocking but in response to the loudest cries will grow significantly stronger.

Again it is important to remember the SNOO is not a replacement for the love and care of a parent. If your child’s situation can not be handled by soothing, such as your baby is hungry or in need of a clean diaper then you will still need to take action.

The SNOO is scientifically designed to trigger an infant’s innate Calming Reflex. Just like any reflex, it is impossible to ignore and an infant’s calming response is involuntary when the reflex is triggered properly. The entire purpose of the SNOO is to activate this calming reflex to soothe fussy infants who need pacifying, not to replace a caregiver. However, if your infant relaxes right away when the calming reflex is triggered, you won’t have to get out of bed to soothe. If the crying persists, then you know that something else is going on with your child and you need to feed or change your little one.

Putting your child to sleep is simple. Just swaddle your precious baby in the special organic sleep sack and secure the safety wings to the side of the crib to prevent her from rolling over. Now your child is ready to sleep safely through the night. Another quality of life feature of the SNOO swaddle is that it can quickly and easily unzip in the front and also be opened from the bottom for easy late night diaper changes. The swaddle is also ventilated to help regulate body temperature.

Swaddling, rocking and white noises, all staples of the 5 S techniques and the SNOO Smart Sleeper are universal triggers of the calming reflex that soothe not just babies but adults as well. Have you ever wondered why it is so easy to doze off in moving vehicles or why so many adults find comfort in wrapping themselves up like burritos in blankets when we go to bed? In this way, adults and infants are the same in how we respond to the calming reflex.

The SNOO Smart Sleeper is the Next Evolution of the Baby Crib

SNOO is proven to be effective at putting your fussy baby to sleep and is based on sound research and scientific data. It is time that we apply modern technology to an age old dilemma! Traditional cribs have not changed much over the course of recorded history: “If you look at the design of baby beds,” Karp told Wired, “they haven’t changed in probably 3,000 years. They’re really just boxes you put babies in to keep the rats away.”

You may be able to debate the 100% accuracy of Karp’s analogy, but, he is right in many ways. Our cribs and bassinets haven’t really evolved to keep pace with modern technology and technological developments.

Does that really matter? According to Dr. Karp and his team of engineers at the MIT media lab the answer is yes, yes it does. Our cribs, cradles, and bassinets have been missing one vital component: technology. Technology which empowers parents and allows our precious babies to develop in the best and most natural way possible.