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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to wonder why motion sensor monitors are not more widely used?

91 replies

sausagelover · 25/05/2010 22:00

Having read a little bit about keeping baby in your room or not and lots of people on thread are talking about SIDS... I wonder why motion sensor monitors (pad under the mattress detects breathing and alarms if no motion is detected) are not more commonly used and I think they must help to prevent SIDS?

OP posts:

LilRedWG · 26/05/2010 10:36

I found it extremely reassuring to use. I knew that I would be checking DD every two minutes otherwise. Sure, we had a couple of false alarms but it was worth it for the stress saved. I would definitely use again.

ladylush · 26/05/2010 10:36

I personally don't feel over-reliant on the machine. I co-slept with my prem dd for 6 months then when she stopped sleeping well (snacking on bm all night)she went into her own room and that's when I started using the monitor. We used it a bit before then when we were getting her used to the cot by putting her in it to nap. She sleeps on her tummy (always has) so it does give me a bit more reassurance but I still check on her etc.

LilRedWG · 26/05/2010 10:38

Have to say that I suffer from anxiety and panic issues so the monitor was for me more than anything else.

coppertop · 26/05/2010 10:49

When my ds was a baby he had a bad reaction to his immunisations and eventually stopped breathing. Fortunately by the time he reached this stage he was already at the hospital. He then spent the night in hospital on one of those sensor pads to monitor his breathing.

Everytime he moved even slightly the alarm would go off. By the morning I was a bag of nerves from worry and lack of sleep. Ds was a poor sleeper at the best of times and the alarm made this even worse.

I would use one if it was suggested for medical reasons but not for general use.

LadyintheRadiator · 26/05/2010 13:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Melaniefhappy · 26/05/2010 13:31

Mine saved my child's life three times until she was diagnosed with acute acid reflux. There's nothing like trying to resuscitate a floppy, going blue child to make you grateful for the alert the system gave us to wake up and check on the baby.

I have no idea why they do not market this product more widely- we'd been using the system for six weeks before this happened with no false alarms. I wrote to the manufacturer to thank them for creating such a great product and said they could add my child's name to the list of those saved.

Each to their own however!

Fleegle · 26/05/2010 19:34

ladyintheradiator

When are you planning to stop using the monitor? I assume your son can just sleep through it- but it's a bit odd to be using it at that age, no?

LadyintheRadiator · 26/05/2010 19:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Fleegle · 26/05/2010 20:04

LITR

I think anxiety is a hard thing to deal with cos half the time our worries are a bit unreasonable (can you tell I am a worrier too!).
In an ideal world you wouldn't need to use the monitor, or could just use it for first 6 months. Have you had support or CBT with you anxiety?
I think you probably know you need to think about stopping using the monitor for your child- easier said than done sometimes though..

LadyintheRadiator · 26/05/2010 20:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Fleegle · 26/05/2010 20:28

I expect you'll be more relaxed with DC2. It sounds like it's more habit than anything now.

And your DS will prob move into a bed at some point- bit tricky to monitor then

If you carry on being anxious, look into CBT, it can really help.

withorwithoutyou · 26/05/2010 20:29

We had one, no false alarms.

I don't really understand they argument that they give you more to worry about??

But don't think people should use them if they clearly don't want to.

BrokenBananaTantrum · 26/05/2010 20:32

my sister had one of these and she also had a little clip on one that clipped onto her sons nappy so that if he was sleeping away from his cot he could still be monitored. She was completly obsessed with it.

I decided against using one I HAD to believe that DD was healthy and well or I would have gone completely mad with worry and I took other precautions to help prevent SIDS that my HV advised and from research done on the internet.

Each to their own. I have not however seen any proof that these can prevent SIDS. We do not even know the cause of SIDS.

Pozzled · 26/05/2010 20:42

I'm with you on this OP. We used one for DD, couldn't see any reason not to. I still did everything else recommended by FSID, but it just gave that little bit of extra reassurance. I think it only went off twice (apart from the many times we picked her up in the first few weeks without switching it off). Once she had wriggled right to the bottom of the cot. Another time she was in the middle of the cot, couldn't find anything now. Will never know if it was a false alarm or if the alarm started her breathing again.

I wouldn't hesitate to use it if we have another DC.

Pozzled · 26/05/2010 20:43

Couldn't find anything wrong.

Morloth · 26/05/2010 20:57

I wouldn't trust a machine with this. We kept DS1 either in our bed or right next to it for the first 12 months and DS2 is in the cot right next to our bed at the moment (though to be honest he spends most of his time in our bed, cause I like to have him close).

No amount of high tech gadgetry is actually going to keep your kids safe, false security. It would probably help if the baby is in a different room as then you can't hear them making their little noises and detect any change in those noises.

moosemama · 26/05/2010 21:34

We have used the same one for all three of our dc's, the latest being dd (now 16 months) after lending it to my sil for her ds.

I almost didn't use it with dd as I am much more laid back with dc number 3 and we never needed it with the boys.

BUT I am so grateful that we did.

At 5 weeks old dd was sleeping in her crib right up against my side of the bed. Suddenly we were woken by the alarm going off. She in a crib rather than a cot, so I knew she hadn't wriggled off the pad. I sat up and looked at her and she was blue all around her mouth with blue lips and blue hands.

I grabbed her and tried gentle resuscitation (tummy and back rubbing, blowing on her face etc) - nothing. Dh took her and loosened her clothes then repeated what I'd done - again nothing. He panicked, passed her back to me and as he did so she finally took a breath. It felt like hours, but in reality she was only not breathing for about a minute and a half.

If we hadn't had that monitor I am convinced my beautiful girl wouldn't be here now.

After that we purchased a snuza babe, which is one of the ones that clips onto the nappy waistband and this too has given us much reassurance over the past twelve months, as it not only monitors her breathing in her carseat and pushchair it also gently vibrates before sounding the alarm just in case she is sleeping really deeply and just needs to be gently stirred.

Fortunately for us, it only ever happened the one time - but then again if we hadn't had the monitor once could have been enough.

I think the pad monitor cost us about £65 back in 2002 and the snuza cost about £70 early in 2009. Imho they are both worth their weight in gold.

As for noticing them stopping making their usual little noises etc, neither dh or I woke until the alarm went off. We were both in deep sleeps and I honestly don't think we would have known a thing about it had we not had the alarm.

Original poster

sausagelover · 26/05/2010 22:42

You see, there is actual evidence right here in this thread.

To those who are saying that they don't prevent sids, I will say it again - of course it will NOT prevent your baby from stopping breathing if that is going to happen. It's all about alerting you to it, like in moosemama's example.

I really think they should be more commonly used.

OP posts:

sanfairyann · 26/05/2010 23:26

as I said before sausagelover, it is not exactly scientifically proved is it if you've got someone saying 'well it helped me'
there's loads of posters on here who think using certain creams stopped them getting stretchmarks despite a complete lack of scientific proof in trials that it does anything of the sort. how can you prove a negative - my child would have died without it - unless you look at large population studies?
my dd slept in the bed next to me without a monitor and several times I woke to find her completely unresponsive and quite cold to touch. she was fine (after I shook her for what seemed an age). I just assumed she'd been in a very deep sleep. never occured to me to put it down as a 'near miss' incident.no doubt it was nothing of the sort.
I'm not completely opposed to people using them but I don't like to see anyone getting ripped off by dubious science either - where are the facts and the studies that prove that the monitors reduce sids in 'normal' babies? why aren't paediatricians campaigning for all parents to use them? why aren't the sids pressure groups publicising their benefits? interested really rather than opposed to them as such. mind you I wouldn't be using them unless my child was advised to by a medical professional either

ladylush · 27/05/2010 10:20

I wouldn't always rely on a medical professional thinking to advise. My dd had one in SCBU. It struck me as odd that she needed one the night before she was discharged and apparently (as no mention of it)not the next night when home. The clinical picture was exactly the same. I mentioned to one of the nurses that I was thinking of getting one and she said she thought it was a good idea, but there was no mention of it otherwise. I don't think these monitors prevent SIDS per se but they do alert parents when baby has stopped breathing which allows intervention e.g. resuscitation.

megapixels · 27/05/2010 10:33

SIDS is not something that even entered my head when mine were babies. Maybe because I am from a country where SIDS is, allegedly, non-existent. I kept my children with me when they slept when they were little though. Not because of SIDS but it just felt right and natural that they should sleep next to me at night. I wouldn't have bought a machine thing and when I saw these in the Mothercare catalogue I thought they were a silly invention for paranoid parents.

ladylush · 27/05/2010 10:42

I've had to resuscitate my dd once. Not all of us are paranoid

megapixels · 27/05/2010 10:44

Ladyl, that's what I thought at the time, not what I knew or know to be true.

mamatomany · 27/05/2010 10:46

I think it's a lot easier to just keep the baby closer personally, we had one for a DC and it drove us batty, having her lying next to me so I could hear and feel her breath worked out better.

ladylush · 27/05/2010 10:52

mega oh I see what you mean

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