Recommendations for newborn alternative to moses basket?

[Tinadecember]

Morning ladies,

I am 24 weeks with baby 2, our first son. Our daughter is 12 years old so quite some time since we have had a newborn.

When she was newborn I carted a moses basket up and down the stairs and she slept/relaxed in a moses basket in the living room during the day. This time we have decided on a next2me for night time sleeping upstairs, however, I am struggling with what the baby will sleep and relax in downstairs.

I have seen the Nuna Leaf recommended a fair amount, however, it is £250!! is it worth the money?

Would be interested to see what you thought was an absolute must for you from personal experience.

thanks ladies!

We got a travel cot for naps downstairs - bigger than moses basket and had mesh see-through sides so could see him easily if I was sitting down. But in reality he only had a handful of naps in it - I was naive in thinking I would just pop baby into it and they would sleep. Haha I can laugh about it now but for 6 exhausting months he would only nap on me during the day. Never fell asleep in pram either. From 6 months he was like a completely different baby - napped fine in his cotbed upstairs.

But whatever is cheapest. Two of mine would not entertain sleeping in anything.

We had a tinylove 3 in1 for downstairs and the cot upstairs. Never bothered with a Moses basket, and I’m glad because I had tall babies.

I had a playmat with sides that folded up and down.

They both slept on that downstairs.

Typical sneery mumsnet post, assuming people who use Sleepyheads and similar because they 'look good' I bought a Sleepyhead in desperation for DC1, this was before the advice against them, and they were v popular at the time. DC1 was a terrible sleeper (undiagnosed silent reflux and CMPA, it turned out) and would only sleep when held until we got the Sleepyhead. Didn't magically fix everything but it certainly helped.

I didn't use the Sleepyhead for DC2 because the warnings had come out before she was born, but also because I knew what to look out for with the reflux and CMPA, recognises the symptoms and cut out dairy so she was happier lying flat.

However, I wouldn't judge people who use Sleepyheads or similar - they are just trying to enable their babies to sleep comfortably. There are apparently risks but everyone makes their own judgement about what risks they are comfortable with. If it's literally the only way a baby will sleep it's better than a parent being so sleep deprived they risk having an accident and injuring themselves and/or baby.

Typical sneery mumsnet post, assuming people who use Sleepyheads and similar because they 'look good' I bought a Sleepyhead in desperation for DC1, this was before the advice against them, and they were v popular at the time. DC1 was a terrible sleeper (undiagnosed silent reflux and CMPA, it turned out) and would only sleep when held until we got the Sleepyhead. Didn't magically fix everything but it certainly helped.

I didn't use the Sleepyhead for DC2 because the warnings had come out before she was born, but also because I knew what to look out for with the reflux and CMPA, recognises the symptoms and cut out dairy so she was happier lying flat.

However, I wouldn't judge people who use Sleepyheads or similar - they are just trying to enable their babies to sleep comfortably. There are apparently risks but everyone makes their own judgement about what risks they are comfortable with. If it's literally the only way a baby will sleep it's better than a parent being so sleep deprived they risk having an accident and injuring themselves and/or baby.

We had a Next2Me in our bedroom and a Moses basket in the living room - got it for free from a friend so just had to buy a new mattress for it so it didn't matter she grew out of it within a few months.

@SW1amp they've been linked to 12 deaths and countries like Canada have actually completely banned them so yeah, they're not great. Saying that, I still got one 😅

Do you have a source for the 12 deaths?
google isn’t showing anything for me, and one article I found from when Canada banned all sleep nests says
“We are aware of open investigations in another jurisdiction regarding baby nest incidents,” says Gary Holub, spokesperson for Health Canada. He adds that “there have not been any incidents involving baby nests reported to Health Canada.”

”open investigations” sound a long way from confirmed cases…

So offensive to assume that parents buy them because they look nice but fuck their safety. It’s hardly like we are suggesting the OP uses a base of fire surrounded by broken glass to put her child down in.

Lullaby trust also has quite negative advice about slings, cosleeping and swaddling too. I think every parent should do their own research and come to their own conclusion about the risk vs convenience of any product they’re using.

Some useful content here on sleepyheads: www.buggybaby.co.uk/blog/2020/07/are-sleepyhead-baby-pods-safe-for-my-baby/

I bought a moses basket for downstairs from asda and it came with stand. Only cost £36! I bought 2 fitted sheets and 1 mattress protector from there aswell so overall cost me less than £50!
Here is a link ..i bought a similar one..they have a few different prints in this price

direct.asda.com/george/baby/moses-baskets-stands/little-rocker-with-folding-stand-cream/050036184,default,pd.html?cgid=D5M11G1C10?shareProduct=true

It isn’t 12 deaths that sleepyhead is linked to, it’s actually 2 and dock-a-tot which is the American branding

www.consumerreports.org/child-safety/more-infant-sleep-products-linked-to-deaths-a1380476200/

made for mums did a load of research, here:
www.madeformums.com/baby/are-baby-sleeping-pods-and-nests-safe/

they say:

”As of 2020, we haven’t been able to find any evidence of reported cases across the world of babies’ deaths specifically involving a sleeping pod or nest used outside of a parent’s bed. We found 7 non-UK cases where a baby had died while co-sleeping in their parents’ bed when sleeping in a pod or nest. Medical reports suggested the deaths were linked to bed sharing rather than the nest itself.”

We used a Sleepyhead with DD1 and will use it again with DD2 (assuming she is happy in it!). It'd actually one of the Purflo ones we have for DD2 as our Sleepyhead got so much use it was looking a bit grubby even after washing, but same idea.

I also did a lot of research and couldn't find any compelling evidence that Sleepyheads specifically, not just the nebulous 'nests and positioners' which cover all manner of things, were dangerous. I don't care about how they look (do they look good enough that people would put a child in them regardless of safety? Ours is white and not exactly attractive), just about us all getting some decent sleep!

We had our pram in the dining room with my son as he often fell asleep so much quicker being able to rock it.

Thanks for those links

Really comprehensive (and reassuring)

You’re welcome. I think it’s really important that parents do their own research and check for impartial sources rather than a knee-jerk reaction to what might actually be untrue.

There is a world of difference between a baby positioner which props the baby’s head up, obstructing its airways and putting it in a forced position, used overnight and produced in a shonky overseas factory with no H&S considerations; to an EU product designed to strict H&S standards and used for supervised daytime naps. Both fall in to the category of “sleep positioners and nests”, parents should do their own research on their specific product.

If you get a snuz pod instead, it can lift off the base and you can take that about the house
id also recommend love2dream swaddles- theyre brilliant ( and safe)

It weighs a lot and is quite difficult to carry by yourself
i love our snuzpod but it’s not very practical to move around the top bit

We got a lot of use out of our Moses basket for first few months. It was only £40 or something from Asda IIRC. Agree re: Snuzpod. We almost bought one for that reason but I tried it out in Mothercare and found it quite heavy and unwieldy and couldn't imagine traipsing up and down stairs with it.

Agree on the snuzpod - great for upstairs but cumbersome to move.. we used the sleepyhead for downstairs or the top of the pram. Did our research and were more than happy that the sleepyhead was safe for daytime naps.

In Scandinavia they are presented with a strong cardboard box I believe?

We get one in Scotland too! The baby box with a mattress (and lots of other goodies).

Please don’t spend loads of money on something fancy. The Baby won’t appreciate it and you’ll only get a few months use out of it.