Customer Reviews

Kolcraft Cuddle n' Care Bassinet

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent Bassinet !!!, July 28, 2006

This is an excellent bassinet.
Positives are:
1) Very sturdy (important to us because we have a wild 2-year-old boy running around the house) and very difficult to knock over.

2) The mobile is awesome!! It has lights, sounds from nature, nursery rhymes, classical music and the vibration feature. If you install the mobile snugly and correctly, the vibration does not give a loud sound. Also, if you don't like the teddy bears, you can replace them with any other toys since they are looped in with velcro.

3)We liked the option of either having the base on a rocker or steady casters.

4) The storage basket underneath is handy for diapers, blankets and toys.

5) The bassinet basket comes off the base. This is a handy feature for travel. Our baby still has a familiar place to sleep when we go out of town.

6) On the whole the bassinet was very easy to put together. We almost bought the Simplicity 4-in-1 bassinet, but after reading the terrible reviews it had, we picked this one. I'm so glad we did. It was the right choice.

7) The mobile is also portable i.e. you can use it on a crib once you no longer use the bassinet.

Only drawbacks are:
1) the superthin mattress pad (what makes it worse is that there are two thin metal bars just below the pad, and I can feel the bars thru the mattress pad). You can fix this by either getting a better pad or putting a quilt under this mattress.

2) The color. White is beautiful, but it has a tendency to look dirty very fast, and cleaning can be a hassle because the fabric on the canopy is not detachable. The fabric around the bassinet does come off, but is attached to the plastic base, so it would need to be hand-washed. I fixed this problem by adding a colored fabric border along the edges of the cloth.

3) The mobile teddy bears are white. Rather boring. I fixed this by drawing a black shape on each bear (drew a triange, square and circle with a black permanent marker and colored the paws black as well). It takes 5 mins to do , and makes the mobile much more interesting for a newborn since they like black and white images.

4) The rocker option is nice, but if you plan to move this bassinet often from room to room, it is a pain to keep switching back and forth between casters and rocker.

5) If the mobile is not installed properly, it makes a loud sound when you enable the vibration.

6) The batteries on the mobile run out fairly quickly.

My son loved to rock when he was little and would only sleep in his swing for those first few months. I knew for this second baby I wanted either a rocking bassinet or a cradle to make my "nightlife" a little easier. Up until a week ago I thought I was getting a cradle simply because none of the bassinets I had found looked like they were really well made, could rock well, and be locked securely in place. I really liked the Eddie Bauer bassinet, but when I tried it at the store it would still rock a bit when locked which didn't seem real safe. Then I took a look at this new Kolcraft bassinet, and I must say that I was impressed. Although it doesn't look exactly like the picture here (the fabric color isn't quite as "rich" looking)it is the first bassinet I have seen other than the Eddie Bauer that did not seem flimsy, was well padded around the inside, and had a nice padded mattress that came with it. Not only that, but when I flipped the wheels up it rocked very nicely. This new model has all the other bells and whistles, but I would have bought it plain just because it is that nice! This model is also...cheaper than the Eddie Bauer, and lets face it, you can only keep the baby in a bassinet or cradle for a few months at most so why spend over this price??? I gave this four stars because I haven't had the baby in it yet, but I'm really looking forward to using it. If you're thinking about a rocking bassinet, take the time to look at this one.

This thing was easy for me to put together while alone with the baby and I don't think I used any tools. It works really well and seems to be really well thought out. There are little wheels at the bottom that will pop inside to make it into a rocker. There's a mesh basket at the bottom for storage. It takes regular bassinet sheets. I bought a 2-pack of another brand and it works perfect. Everything is washable too.

Ok, this is the 2nd bassinet that I have bought, and let me tell you, it's a 1000 times better than the Simplicity one that had before.
First off, out of the package, the bassinet is half put together already, unlike the other one that I had. The instructions were beautiful...simple, and to the point. Also, it's written in plain english, not some universal translator version of english that so many products seem to come with. The print is large enough to be easily read. And, hey, no tools required! Not that I am opposed to using tools (I'm the fix-it, put-it-together person in my house), but it's nice not to have to use tools, especially when trying to keep my 2.5 year old from making off with the pieces.
I'm 6 months pregnant right now, and figured that I better put the bassinet together before I get much bigger. I honestly will have to say this was fast to put together. It took me about 1/2 an hour total, but probably would have only taken 15-20 if I hadn't been watching TV at the time.
I actually love the color. The beige is a pretty beige (there really is such a thing, trust me). The ruffle and edge of the canopy is white with an ornate beige pattern to it that is very pretty. I know at least one review stated that it'll show dirt fast, but you know, any light color will. I like that it's not so gender specific. I know that my kid's a girl, and will be dressed as such, so why be to girly with the bassinet? Ok, I'll admit, I'm not a girly-girl myself, so I guess it carries over to my kids.
The music is really nice, both the vocals (which sound almost Celtic) and the instrumental. The vibration works wonderfully, and the light is just bright enough. I love that the mobile is portable. My last bassinet had many of the same features, but not as nice as this. The vibration feature was on the bottom of the bassinet on the underside of the wood bottom. To change the batteries, I had to tear the whole thing apart, and of course the baby couldn't stay in it. This one, since the vibration is a part of the mobile, I can the baby wouldn't have to be disturbed.
All in all, the only thing that I would change is the teddy bears. The off-white is bland. I'm planning on getting 3 different colors of RIT dye and dyeing them. If it doesn't work, I can send away for more from the company.

I received this Bassinet as a gift from my Mom for my Son. It is BEAUTIFUL, it is sturdy, plays a wide array of musical songs, it works perfectly and I wish I could use it forever. It is perfect beyond my expectations and would reccomend it to ALL. My son is a big boy, born at almost 9lbs and he fits perfectly and seems to adore this Bassinet aand all that it offers

Starts out wonderful, everything from the music to the vibrate function on the mobile, baby loves the vibrate and then it quit working - on the first one of these we had - less than two months after we had it. So we exchanged it for the second one. We haven't had it for a month yet - and guess what! The vibrate stopped working already! Wouldn't be a big deal if my daughter didn't love that part of it! Oh yeah, not to mention that it's sold with that feature and SHOULD work.

Aside from that and the failing singing lady's voice who sometimes sounds like static on a bad cell phone call, this thing is constructed well, looks very nice and fits nicely in tight places.

Oh - and good luck finding a second sheet to have as a backup to cover the pad.

Sent this to my sister for her new baby boy, she is still raving about how much they love it. He was 3 weeks early so I ordered it the day he was born(aternoon CA time) and even though they live in the middle of nowhere if still got there the next day( I paid for overnight, but it wasn't scheduled to arrive until Monday) So I was very happy, it got "home" before he did!

me and my husband are going to be parents next month and we already bought a bassinet 4 our coming baby but yesterday wen we went to target 4 shopping we saw this beautiful bassinet with all the features my husband was looking for in a very reasonable price so we decided jst after giving a first look that this is the one were looking for.we buy it and remove the one which we bought earlier from baby's room.it has very delicate and luxurious look WE SIMPLY LOVE ALL ITS FEATYRES.

My premature daughter came home from the hospital & will use this for quite sometime. She loves the music & mobile. I loved the ease of putting it together. I also loved the idea or it being able to rock & be stationery. I love everything about it.

I really like this bassinet.

I use the vibration feature every night. The vibrate feature is not mattress mounted. Rather it is the mobile that vibrates, which in turn vibrates the bassinet. As such the vibrate is not all that strong--although it has been fine for my baby. Additionally, the vibrate feature is VERY loud. The first night, my dog started barking at it, and I quickly turned it off as it startled me with how loud it is. However, I got used to it, and the baby loves it.

There is also the option for instrumental music, vocal music, or nature sounds--all with a volume adjustment. I don't use these features too much as they automatically turn off after about 7 minutes, and the baby would wake up fussing when they turned off. Instead I got a conair noise machine which I keep on all night.

There is a mobile that turns. It has 3 white bears. The bears are kind of boring, but it was easy enough for me to switch out the bears with other more bright animals.

This bassinet also offers a rocking feature. I didn't use that for the first month as the rocking is kind of rough and when I rocked the bassinet, the baby flailed from side to side. After my baby was about 2 months I started rocking her and she still kind of moved from side to side, but it was okay as she was bigger. I now rock her every night.

I like this bassinet as it is very convenient if the baby wakes in the night and does not need to be fed, to be able to just lean over and hit the vibrate feature and manually rock the bassinet for a few minutes without having to get out of bed. Usually, the combo of vibrate and rocking puts my baby back to sleep in no time. (However, now that she is outgrowing the bassinet, I am at a loss as to how I will be able to transition her to her crib as that does not have the vibrate or rocking feature.)

All that said, please note that this bassinet is shorter than some of the other ones (simplicity for example). As such, my baby barely fits in it any more and she is average size. If you are tall, you may want to cross shop bassinets for length so as to get the longest use possible.

Finally, the mobile goes through a lit of batteries. We have to change the batteries about every 1 1/2 weeks. (I do use the vibrate feature a lot.)

As for an extra sheet--we just use king size pillow case.