Bassinets and Moses Baskets

Bassinet is a small bed specifically for newborn babies, from birth to about four months, and small enough to provide a “cocoon” that small babies find comforting. Because newborns are unable to sit or crawl, there is no reason to restrict their mobility in the way an infant bed or crib does. Babies may be able to rollover by themselves as young as three months. At this point, depending on the construction of the bassinet, it is no longer safe for the baby to be left in a bassinet; the rolling baby may tip the bassinet. Babies can typically sit up at six months and no bassinet is safe at that age. Bending over to place a child into a bassinet puts strain onto an adult’s back, so often the bassinet is raised on a stand or other surface.

Metal frames with wheels are available into which the bassinet can be placed to create a perambulator and the term bassinet was often used for any sort of perambulator. In a hospital environment, a special form of sealed bassinet is used in a neonatal intensive care unit. On many domestic and nearly all long distance flights, most airlines provide a bassinet (which is attached to a bulkhead) to adults travelling with an infant, i.e. a child under the age of two. Rather than the age of the infant, the restricting criterion for the use of the bassinet is usually size.

Although there are many variations, they fall generally into two categories:

• light and portable types sometimes called “moses baskets”
• and sturdier but less portable cradles.

In both cases they are generally designed to allow the resting baby to be carried from place to place to be close to its mother. Within the home they are often raised on a stand or other surface to reduce back strain when bending over to tend the baby, and wheeled frames to convert a bassinet into a pram or baby carriage are common.