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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to have never owned a baby monitor nor a thermometer?

78 replies

TheLogLadyMBE · 04/01/2011 17:04

monitor - don't get it. either a baby is close enough for you to hear or you'd rather not hear at all.

thermometer - if a baby/child has a temperature it's fairly obvious.

AIBU?

OP posts:

NewYearMoos · 04/01/2011 17:12

I had a monitor in my old house as it was a 3 storey town house with the kitchen in the basement - you really couldnt hear the bedrooms from there.

And thermometers I swear by. I need to be able to see temperaturs moving as DS1 had a febrile convulsion. DS2 has raynaulds too, so isnt always obvious he has a temp.

IMO YABU. Great you didnt need them, but they are IMO important safety things for some.

bubbleOseven · 04/01/2011 17:15

YANBU - i never "got" baby monitors either!

I could always hear my babies cry without one

AMumInScotland · 04/01/2011 17:15

YANBU not o have them, but YABU if you mean other people are stupid to choose to have them, just because you dn't see the value.

We never had a monitor - could have heard DS anywhere in the house. But I found a thermometer cnvenient.

bran · 04/01/2011 17:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

compo · 04/01/2011 17:16

Yabu not to have a thermometer

bubbleOseven · 04/01/2011 17:17

having said that I woudn't be without a thermometer. I don't think it is always obvious if a child has a fever. Also, there is a slightly raised temperature and a very high temperature so you need to know which one it is really and you can't tell that just by feeling your babys forehead

JamieLeeCurtis · 04/01/2011 17:17

I can't agree about the thermometer. I'd put an ear thermometer on a "must have" list. Yes a raging temp will be obvious, but conversly, my DS2 is a red-faced sweating individual, so can appear to have a high temperature when he doesn't (have been called by school when they have used one of those useless forehead thermometers, which is all they are allowed to use)

Maelstrom · 04/01/2011 17:19

Same here, bedrooms too far from kitchen, but we were lucky to have a baby who settled down and slept when we were not in the same room. Have I had to rock him to sleep and hold his hand all night long things would have been different.

The termometer we really needed. DS used to have fevers that lasted for weeks (without a cold) so it was important to know when it was time to land him in a tepid bath (sometimes several times a night as his temperature used to go up to 41 degrees very often). Had he had the odd cold with mild fever, perhaps we wouldn't have bothered.

I don't think you are unreasonable though, it is just that your circumstances were different.

Ragwort · 04/01/2011 17:19

I agree with you - can never understand people who can't hear their babies cry - they must live in mansions. Did have a thermometer but couldn't work out how to use it . Funniest thing was being with a friend in her (very small) flat - she proudly had the monitor set up - baby was only in the next room.

I believe it is all about marketing to make you spend more on your baby. I don't believe in the 'new mattress' for a new baby either - if you think about it, hospitals do NOT provide a brand new mattress for every new baby - including seriously ill babies.

JetSetWilly · 04/01/2011 17:20

Wot amuminscotland said

bubbleOseven · 04/01/2011 17:22

With respect, babies in hospital are usually hooked up to monitors and looked after continuously throughout the night, so they wouldn't need a new mattress.

Agree about marketing though.

ThatVikRinA22 · 04/01/2011 17:22

baby monitors are the work of the devil!

i once had a good moan about a pals sister who was in the next room listening to every word on the baby monitor which i had forgotton about...cue foot in mouth.

lecce · 04/01/2011 17:23

We used a monitor for ds1 and now live in the same house but haven't bothered for ds2! The original one had broken, I may have still used it otherwise but was certainly not going to buy another. I can hear him throughout the house.

However, ds1 did go into his own room at 8 weeks (something I have always regretted so don't flame me) while ds2 is still in our room (and bed, actually) at 17 months. I think if a baby is sleeping in another room, however small the house, while I am asleep then I want a monitor just in case of some dire emergency like choking on sick, for example. I would not trust myself to wake up to faintish sounds that may need investigation.

That said, I think I'm being irrational because I have no monitor now and ds1 could still choke or something during the night so this is very much 'chop't logic.'

Thermometers - I have a fancy digital one that I can never get to work, it just flashes mysteriously at me, so I tend to rely on my hands. Having said that, my dc are hardly ever ill - it's been a over a year since I've had to use it.

Chil1234 · 04/01/2011 17:25

YANBU... I've never owned either. The former because my house isn't that big and I have good hearing. The latter because my doc said it wasn't necessary. :)

Maelstrom · 04/01/2011 17:33

Matresses in hospitals are usually covered with a kind of plastic surface that can be sponge washed and desinfected. They are not mattresses like the ones you use at home. Hence why they don't change them between patients

plainjanesuperbrain · 04/01/2011 17:33

Crying may be able to be heard in a different room, but would you hear quiet choking??? or your baby being sick??

sarah293 · 04/01/2011 17:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

iloveyankees · 04/01/2011 17:36

I bought monitors with my first as they were on the list of things 'you needed' given to me by my midwife but I never needed to use them I did have a thermometer too as MIL gave me one :)

GetOrfMoiLand · 04/01/2011 17:37

I never bothered with a monitor, and thermometers didn't exist when dd was a baby.

But think that are useful for others.

missismonky · 04/01/2011 17:38

Neither here. I always suspected I was a bad mother.

GetOrfMoiLand · 04/01/2011 17:38

well of course thermometers existed when dd was a baby, I am not 250 years old. But not the new fangled ones which you put in a baby's ear. With electronic readings. Had forehead ones but they were crap aparently.

ragged · 04/01/2011 17:39

Does a forehead thermometer count? It was pretty pants,honestly, and don't know how many years ago I actually laid eyes on it.

Otherwise Me too, I've never had those things, and I don't think I've missed them, either. If a kid is too hot they are obviously "too hot", you don't need to know the specific number amount. I am always amused by the "My baby has a temp of XX.XX" posts on MN; I don't actually know what the normal number is supposed to be .

Choking... how are they going to choke unless you leave a choking risk in reach? If they're sick and they're bothered about it, they'll cry loud enough for me to find out soon enough!

Somehow we get away with it, anyway.

sarah293 · 04/01/2011 17:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

theevildead2 · 04/01/2011 17:40

Glad it worked for you, but I could never tell if someone is a bit warm, has a simple fever or needs to be hospitalized just by feeling them.

JamieLeeCurtis · 04/01/2011 17:41

ragged - no a forehead thermometre is pants. See my post above ....

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