Baby monitors/smart tech and anxiety

@ImPunbelievable it emits very very extremely low levels of radiation. I KNOW that they are extremely low and lots of articles online say they won't harm the baby, but why do it? Given how many electronics they will be surrounded by, why attach one to their foot as soon as they're born? It instinctively didn't sit right with me.

By records I was referring to a newsworthy item, report from a user via a device provider or otherwise. I did a deep dive into this when my twins were born.

I didn’t say they don’t help some people. Nor did I say they only cause anxiety – you should be replying to others if you feel strongly about arguing that point.

It's worth noting that if the baby is revived the incident cannot be recorded as cot death as that only applies if it is permanent. So its entirely possible that a baby is revived due to the alarm and SIDS is prevented, but it will never be recorded as SIDS prevention because it doesn't fit the permanently dead definition. Statistics aren't always straightforward and all I'm saying I would rather sleep knowing if my baby stopped breathing or oxygen levels dropped I would be woken up to deal with it and have a chance of saving them.

To say these devices only cause anxiety is incorrect, they ease anxiety for a lot of people and have saved some babies like PP with dropping SATs she wouldn't have known about without it.

Do you NEED one? No

Do they help some people? Yes

It’s worth noting that (by records at least), those smart function devices have never saved a baby from cot death.

Maybe. But when my DC has been hospitalised multiple signs for low SATs, I'm glad I had it rather than just standing by letting DC get more and more ill before taking action.

Yes but that doesn't mean she can't spit up and choke on it or choke on some sick or whatever else might stop her breathing. Yes, that's more of a danger now. Pre-Ann-Diamond you let the baby sleep how they were most comfortable - on the side for one of mine, kneeling on their front for the other, so sick would just fall out and not be a choking hazard. Not that either were ever sick while they were asleep.

I imagine it's a lot more difficult to get babies to sleep now too. Great that we understand more about SIDS and can do more to ward against it, but motherhood is more difficult now.

It's a bit chicken and egg.

I had a basic radio monitor, no video, before the birth. Post birth I went all out nuts, buying a special monitor and monitoring it religiously. In hindsight I'm sure I had some sort of post natal OCD/anxiety.

it took years to calm down and even now she is 7, if I'm especially stressed I will sleep poorly and wake up throughout the night checking her because I'm terrified she will stop breathing.

Sono it's possible your friend is struggling with mental heath and you aren't (yet) which I really hope you don't :)

We had a video one but didn't use it at all for DS2 because he was so loud we'd always know when he woke up

We have the owlet, it helps. We still practice all safe sleeping guidelines but with my firstborn I was setting alarms every hour for the first year of his life (insane!) I’ve not done this once with my second, rightly or wrongly it’s really given me peace of mind

Almost a decade ago now, but we had one of those angel care breathing mats with the companion audio only monitor.

Unfortunately the system also gives off an "out of range" alarms, which of course went off one night. In my bleary sleep deprived state I simply responded to the alarm I heard and assumed baby had stopped breathing. I lept out of bed and out the door so fast I smashed my foot on the door frame an broke my toe.

Baby was fine asleep in cot and slept through the whole thing.

It's not just your mental health that can be affected by these fancy breathing monitors!

We had a basic monitor that picked up noise only, there was a colour change also so noticed a low noise if you had music or TV on. That's it. Baby went to sleep upstairs and we joined later but we went up and down to check regularly. I think the idea of a camera is madness let alone a breathing monitor.

Parents to be are massively manipulated into buying things they don't need under the guise of safety and being a better parent. It goes on through babyhood and it takes guts to say no. A baby 'needs' milk and warmth and clean clothing and human touch. That's it. Anything else is extra.

We found the camera way more useful than audio baby monitors.
It means we can see when they are awake before they start crying, it usually gives us a 5-10 min headstart to have a coffee or finish whatever we are doing.
And if they wake up at night we can see if they are lying back down on their own before we go in.
For our toddler, we use it now to check on him when he is playing alone on his room.

Why?

We had audio only and only used it in the daytime as at night I could hear if the baby cried through the bedroom wall. Also useful if baby sleeping in pram in shed!

I do think a video one would have been useful with my second child who was a terrible sleeper, just to see what they were doing or whether they were actually asleep, as I couldn't risk going in there in case it stopped them settling. I would get a basic video one if you have the money. Definitely wouldn't bother with the extra gizmos though.

How big is your house?
We could hear if our babies needed us.
You don't need a monitor at all.

I didn't want the owlet sock as I didn't want electronics on my baby.

The Nanit has other features like a night light, music etc which I liked. I also have to go back to work (I'm not in the UK) when baby is 4 months so I wanted proper cameras throughout the house. I don't think it makes a massive difference, you'll be in with them for the first 3 months anyway.

In my view of you have a healthy term baby no need for a gizmo. Keep baby in the same room until 6 months, then get a basic monitor. If you have a baby with additional or complex health needs a fancier stats monitor is useful then.

Should warn though you have to pay a subscription (starts around £100/year) which is annoying 🫠

I was similarly anxious. My husband did loads of research on this. I really wanted to get the owlet but he found the reviews said it had too many false alarms. The problem with false alarms is they not only cause anxiety over the alarming but can also cause “alarm fatigue” so when something concerning is actually happening you don’t react as quickly.

The nanit however was well reviewed and isn’t known to false alarm so we got that. Have been using it now for about three months (from when baby was around three months). We’ve only used the breathing monitoring extensively recently as we had the snoo so it couldn’t work with the motion. However, a couple of times when he’s been sick with a cold I’ve opted to not use the snoo motion and use the breathing tech instead and it’s probably the only way I’ve felt reassured enough to sleep, otherwise would genuinely just be watching his little breaths all night.

Baby is still in the same room as us but getting ready to move into his own room. The camera has lots of other good features too, can view from anywhere (even computer at work), white noise, night light, can talk to baby. The notifications are pretty accurate too. If you get the travel stand (cheaper to buy on Amazon) then it’s great for travelling with too, or for us where he’s moving between trying to get him used to his room for naps, but still sleeping overnight with us.

Happy to answer any specifics but we like it.

Oh yeah I think those socks etc just cause anxiety.

It was 20 years ago.......... but with my two we had the cheapest option that was available at the time (£15-20). It was a plug in (the babys room and which ever room I was in) and worked perfectly at letting me know baby was awake etc (if I wasnt close enough to automatically know.
The ones with cameras........... waaaaaaay OTT and not something Id consider.

Dts are older now but they were prem and in NICU for 6 weeks. The nurses advised us not to get the angel care mat at the time as it just increases anxiety and they gave off false alarms. Video monitors weren't a thing then and you won't need
One for first six months anyway as baby should always sleep with you.

like most things in parenting there’s a huge spectrum of choices and differences in what people do. Some people literally never let their baby sleep away from them until at least 6 months or older. Some people put babies in their own rooms very early and so need a monitor asap. Some people use the all singing, all dancing ones that give you breathing data, EEG output and all sorts. Other people use audio only or in some cases don’t use a monitor at all if their house is small.

In general with most things I go for the middle ground, which in this case would be a) following lullaby trust guidance about safe sleep and b) getting a video monitor for once they’re sleeping alone for short stints. If in doubt this is a good approach for most things I think!