breathing /pulse monitors

[Themummy1]

anyone any recommendations? Baby had a short period of not breathing, checked out at hospital and told it was just one of those things. Keen to buy some sort of monitor but not sure which one? Prefer something portable for use in car seat etc. Baby 10 weeks old

[SirJamesTalbotAndHisSpeculum]

If it wasn't recommended by the hospital then you don't need one.

You can drive yourself mad with things like this.

[BabyST]

Like mentioned above I wouldn't. Firstly to get accurate ones can cost hundreds. You'll only make yourself anxious.

Was she crying at the time? Can just be a normal breathing for little one.

Only need to be concerned if you can see their ribs clearly when breathing and faster or slower than they should. Other than that I know it's hard but try not worry.

Don't use Dr google. If concerned self present to A&E or call 999.

Hope their doing well x

[Smurf123]

I don't have a portable one but I do have the tommee tippee movement and video monitor. The sensor pad goes under the mattress and sounds if it doesn't detect movement for 20 seconds.
We have had false alarms where it has gone off and ds has been fine. Especially when he was smaller as he would roll of the sensor pad or something. But I like having it and still use it at 17 months old because it reassures me a bit and while the false alarms can be stressful I would rather that than not having it.
(My son was in nicu when he was born and he was connected to so many monitors and alarms while there it was reassuring when we came home)

[MiniMaxi]

OP we had an Owlet pulse & o2 monitor which at the time could only be purchased in the US, not sure about now.

Did have a few false alarms but I found it reassuring.

[Suzie81]

I had for my first, but actually just made me anxious. Plus had countless false alarms.

[triballeader]

I had an MR10 Grasby monitor for my prem son.

He had recurrent admissions to BCH for RDS linked with brittle asthma. This was supplied by their chest clinic as he kept being admitted with RDS, aponea and cynosis. Simply put when breathing got too hard he would stop breathing and go a horrible grey blue colour not helped by his PDA prem leaky heart valve [This is why my hair started to go grey] The MR10's sensor is taped directly to the area where the diaphtragm muscle is. It is however VERY expensive.

It does not give warning of desats of oxygen or indicate other forms of breathing difficulty i.e RDS, shallow breathing and so on until breathing stops. Most babies with slightly longer sleep breathing pauses will begin to breathe if you flick their feet. Its the ones who do not respond well to this with dropped sats that give A&E real concern. I had to do a full infant resus course with his specialist chest nurse before we could have it at home.

The only false alarms we had were when son worked out by five months that he did not need to cry to get any attention....all he had to do was pull the tube that connected the sensor out of the monitor to get instant parents day and night!

In all honesty I went more by parental instinct than the monitor. That was far better at picking up when he started to have trouble breathing.

If your concerned follow the Lullaby Trust's advice for safer sleep and speak with your HV. If your really worried head to A&E.

[Dandelion1993]

If the hospital didn't suggest one then don't buy one.

You'll just end up paranoid constantly checking it.