Please come and tell me what you think about sensor mats...from a stressed mummy!

[allchik]

Hi, we were given a tommee tippie sensor mat/monitor and we have started using the sensor mat since our dd wnt into her cot.
It will go days and work fine but then some nights the alarm will go off. Everytime this happens I will go n check on her and shes fine,ive even been in her room collecting sumit when its gone off when shes clearly breathing :/
Last wk we left it off but I started getting panicky thinking 'what if?' almost wish id never used it as think its making me paranoid,have that niggle that what if some of the time the alarm went off was because she stopped breathing.
What are peoples thoughts on these? Thanky
ou x

I love the angelcare. Never had a false alarm and gave me great peace of mind - I'm a bit of a worrier!

I had an Angelcare mat when my son was a baby and it stopped me worrying. I didn't feel I had to keep checking on him with the mat so I could relax. It only ever went off when I picked him up without turning the mat off first.

The thing is that these mats will not prevent something happening and when the alarm goes off it may be too late. Swallowing has a point.

Thing is, I don't buy that. If my baby ever stopped breathing for any reason, I think you'd stand a much better chance o being able to do something about it I it happened 20 seconds ago rather than 20 minutes ago, or 2 hours ago. You could possibly jolt them into breathing again, could start doing CPR, at least get oxygen I to them quicker and possibly reduce and brain damage if they wer successfully resuscitated and, at very least, get an ambulance with resuscitation equipment out to them quicker. Anything to increase the chances even by a fraction was worth having in my book. Especially in the case of accidental suffocation/strangulation rather than underlying medical issue.

The mats dont prevent something happening but they will alert you if something has. When the alarm goes off, there may still be a chance to perform CPR and call an ambulance and get help.

Flat mum explained it better than me! That's my reasoning behind using one too.

I used one with DS until he was old enough to start shuffling around the bed. When he was small we only had one false alarm (which admittedly scared the living daylights out of me and DH). I could watch the little light go with his breathing and it reassured me. My idea was the same as flatmum's - it would let me know quickly if something had happened.

Thing is....flatmum put that perfectly.