- The Happiest Baby's SNOO smart bassinet has received recognition from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for keeping babies on their backs while they sleep.
- The SNOO is the first baby sleep product to receive such a distinction.
- Studies show that putting babies to sleep on their backs reduces the chance of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and SUID (Sudden Unexpected Infant Death).
Big news for anyone trying to get a baby down to sleep on their own: Happiest Baby’s SNOO Smart Sleeper, a smart infant bassinet that has long been a favorite of Good Housekeeping Institute testers, parents and product experts, has just received an important distinction from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The administration has granted the bassinet De Novo approval — "De Novo" meaning it's the first product of its kind — as the only bed that safely keeps babies on their backs while they sleep.
Putting babies to sleep on their backs is the No. 1 recommendation on the list of safe sleep guidelines put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Sadly, each year, 3,500 infants die from sleep-related deaths, the AAP reports, a number that's been the same since the year 2000. The National Institute of Health reports that back sleeping significantly lowers the risk of SIDS, and that babies who sleep on their stomachs are less reactive to noise, have sudden decreases in blood pressure, have less heart rate control and have higher arousal thresholds than babies who sleep on their backs. In other words: Keeping babies on their backs can be life-saving.
Dr. Harvey Karp, founder of Happiest Baby, Inc. and a fellow of the AAP, likens using a product that keeps babies on their backs during sleep to using a car seat. "You wouldn't drive with your baby sitting on the front seat even for three minutes, right?" he says. "But what's the number-one place that babies die in the first year of life? It's not in cars, it's in their beds. And yet we've just been putting them to bed without thinking, 'Why don't we just secure them so they don't roll into an unsafe location?'"
The SNOO's innovation is in the way it keeps babies on their backs in the bassinet. Instead of using foam wedges or positioners, which are unsafe because they can entrap infants, the SNOO uses its own wearable blankets, which have "wings" clipped to the bassinet to keep babies from rolling over. Lexie Sachs, executive director of the Textiles, Paper & Apparel Lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute, used the SNOO with her youngest and can attest that she stayed in place while she slept. "The sleep sack has wings on the side with openings to hook onto the SNOO bassinet," she says. "It's really easily to slide the opening onto the bassinet, and it's substantially sized so it stays secure."
The news comes amidst increased scrutiny around baby sleep products. Recalls for inclined sleepers like the Fisher-Price Rock 'N Play or soft sleep stations like the Boppy Baby Lounger, both of which have been linked to infant deaths, inspired the passage of the Safe Sleep for Babies Act, which prohibited the manufacture or sale of dangerous products like slanted cradles or padded crib bumpers. In addition, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has implemented a new federal safety standard that now must be met by any product marketed for infant sleep.
The SNOO exceeds those safety standards. The FDA distinction is one that is years in the making, starting in 2020 when the FDA accepted the SNOO into its Breakthrough Devices program, recognizing its potential to save lives. From there, the FDA analyzed data, read through published studies, and watched videos of the SNOO in action, all of which shows the approval isn't one that's easily won. "We're talking about infants and infant lives, so the FDA has been very, very careful," Dr. Karp says.
In addition to its swaddling sleep sack, the SNOO also uses motion to rock a baby to sleep and has a white-noise function. These help babies stay asleep longer — an extra hour on average, says the Happiest Baby's data — which means better rested parents, too.
If there's one problem Good Housekeeping testers had with the SNOO, it's the price: It costs $1,695 all-in for a new one. But Dr. Karp and Happiest Baby are working to make it more affordable. There's a robust rental program, for example, which costs just $159 per month. Happiest Baby is in conversation with insurance companies, and some workplaces, like JP Morgan, Under Armour and Snapchat, offer the SNOO as a benefit to employees. The FDA approval may mean more companies sign on to offer it as a benefit, showing that the price isn't just because it's a luxury item the way a designer diaper bag would be — it truly is a possibly life-saving device.
Dr. Karp is hoping that's the case at least: "We think that this is something that's going to grow and grow, because parents need the help."
Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; previously, she wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her toy-collecting husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found helping out her team at bar trivia or posting about movies on Twitter and Bluesky.
