Do I need a baby monitor?

[kaiju8]

Are baby monitors even necessary? What are your thoughts on AI baby monitors?

For the past two weeks, I’ve been researching baby monitors. I’m interested in an AI monitor, but no matter the brand, CuboAi, Invidyo, nanobebe; the reviews are just terrible. I really like the concept of breath monitoring or cry detection, though. Does anybody have personal experience/thoughts on these brands and other AI-powered baby monitors??

I started looking at non-AI monitors, but without all the added features, I’m now wondering if it’s even necessary to get one. I think it may provide a little peace of mind, but is having a baby monitor really as important as others make it seem?

What exactly does an AI monitor do that a conventional one does not?

Just get a standard video monitor (Vtech do a great one for £50). The ones with all the additional features such as breathing would just stress me out. What does an AI monitor even do?!

No. You don’t need a baby monitor but most folk seem to have them. My babies slept downstairs in a basket with me in the evenings and then in a cot beside our bed until at least a year old. Then we just left doors open.

No. Don’t get one. One of the best parenting decisions I ever made, and I say this as an anxious, screen-obsessed person who would have distrusted my instincts and spent a lot of time staring at it rather than behaving normally and interacting with my baby when he needed me.

I wish I had made the same decision about an iPhone!

A lot depends on the size and set up of your house and also places you will regularly visit (eg grandparents’ house). When they are teeny tiny you probably have them nap in the same room as you anyway so you don’t need a monitor. When they get a little older and you want to be doing other things while they nap then it depends on whether you can hear them cry out or not. If the room the baby is sleeping in is too far away from the kitchen or living room or you live in a noisy household then a monitor might be a necessity for you.
AI is totally unnecessary. What is the point? A monitor just extends the distance you can hear or see (if video) that your baby has woken up and needs your attention.

We got the cheapest Vtech one which was £45 I think. We still use it now our daughter is 3.5 years old - she doesn’t sleep well so we need it to hear she’s up in the night! I think the standard ones are fine and do the job

I had a non ai one with a sensor that went under the mattress and monitored breathing. It went off twice in the middle of the night in that first year - may have been an error or may have been low breathing detected - either way I would buy one again.

It depends how you're planning on using it. We still use it with our 4.5 year old, but only between the time she goes to bed and we do (purely because our house is far too cold to "just keep doors open", the ceilings are too high so the noise doesn't travel and she doesn't seem to realise she can get out of bed if she needs something 😂 plus she can't reach the door handles haha).

Absolutely fucking not with AI though. Those owlet sock things were a no for us too. A friend had one and it kept going off in the night as baby kicked it off and she was just an anxious mess.

Just get a Vtech monitor you can see and hear them just fine ..

Yes to having a baby monitor in general. No to AI. I toyed with the idea of monitoring gadgets (owlet ankle monitor) and breathing pads etc but concluded they would cause more stress than they are worth.

I live in an old house that’s long and thin so can’t hear baby’s room without a monitor. I got a leapfrog one which is brilliant. Works off radio frequency so doesn’t drop out like wifi ones. Can’t access it on a phone but that’s a good thing for me.

I use it mostly to monitor the temperature in his room (old house, temperature fluctuates). It has a cry alert and motion sensor (turned that one off) so it only lights up or turns on at night if he’s making a loud noise. I’ll probably keep using it for years.

We didn’t use one because our house is small and has terrible sound proofing. We had a basic sound only one for when we were visiting people with nicer houses. I probably had 48 hours where post partum anxiety made me consider an Owlet and I’m glad I didn’t succumb.

We had a basic video monitor but one where we had to actively push a button to see the video (unless she was crying, then it came on). It removed the "staring at it all night" thing.

Our house and my in-laws house are too big to rely on sound travelling. Even in a fairly small house, moderate chatting or having the TV on could drown out a cry or shout for a parent. Also if we had guests over I'd rather have the doors closed to avoid disturbing her.

We decided against anything more technical and monitoring because I was unconvinced they'd work and I thought it would just fuel anxiety rather than anything else.@

Yes to having a baby monitor. My son was sick once or twice and I wouldn't have known without seeing it on the monitor. Also, he got his arm stuck in the cot bars a couple of times and I knew he needed me because I could see he was stuck. No idea about an AI one, I'd be worried about the security of it. Mine is a VTech on with a massive screen and I love it :)

No. You don’t need one. I was given one as a gift and never used it. I’ve seen other family members obsessively watching a tiny grainy screen of their baby sleeping, then jumping up if they move an inch. Bonkers. They were totally stressed out!

I never had one - but I had both my babies when living in flats/bungalows, and we co-slept (and they came to bed at the same time as me - when my kids were babies/toddlers we all went to bed between 9 and 10pm - until they moved to their own rooms) so they were rarely very far away from me anyway.

I never had one and I genuinely wonder how many ‘life threatening incidents’ have actually been noticed on a monitor? Can understand having one if a baby has a medical condition .
If my babies cried I heard them !

We have a sound only one. I can hear DC breathing through it, we didn't need anything more! It's useful though, I definitely couldn't hear them crying when I'm in the kitchen without it.

We have a standard video monitor one, I don’t really know why you wouldn’t. At 18 months we predominantly use to see if she’s going to settle herself when she’s woken up crying or whether she’s going to need help. I often set off upstairs when she’s started crying only to see halfway up on the monitor that she’s settling herself, if I didn’t have that I’d go blundering in, probably wake her up fully and cause a full scale incident!

You honestly can raise a baby w/o a monitor and w/o blundering about!