So, what age was your LO when you ditched the baby monitor?

[Washersaurus]

Following a discussion with DH last night, I just wondered for how long people usually use their baby monitor to listen to their LO's when they are in bed.

I'm guily of keeping ours switched on at night even though DS' room is directly opposite ours...much to the annoyance of DH!

(DS is nearly 20mths)

I still use it in the evenings for DD1 and DD2 ages 2 and 3.
its only so i can hear them if they need me or so i can catch DD1 getting out of bed before she gets down the stairs!

I've never used one, don't have a problem hearing him if he is crying. If he's a bit snuffly or has a cough (like now) I look in on him a little more but have managed wihtout so far.

Still have mine on downstairs with dc 9,6 and 3. I seriously cannot hear them shouting if they need me without it on. AND woe betide them if they even think of getting out of bed once the lights have been switched off.

I am using one for DD who is 13 months and keep it on at night but I have partial hearing loss in one ear and DH has a very noisy bike which has ruined his hearing so without it we can't hear her even if we are in the next room!

Will prob get rid of it when she is old enough to come downstairs and get me if she needs me.

We used ours until they were in beds - the rational being that if they needed us in the night while they were in a cot we had to be able to hear them. Once they're in a bed they can come to you.

What baby monitor?

Never really used ours other than as a night light when I was feeding/changing ds' nappies. I figured if ds cried, I'd hear him anyway and couldn't face spending my evenings listening intently to the monitor and jumping at every little variation in his breathing...

Well I'm way on a limb here, but I still have one for a 5 year old and a 3 year old.

However, we have a house on three floors and their bedrooms are on a different floor to ours. When they have just gone to bed, and we are downstairs there are 2 floors between us. If we had the tv on they could get very very distressed before we heard anything.

Also, they are not encouraged to wander in the night as there are very steep steps up to the floor they are on, which have a gate across them. It means that we have to go up to them if there is any upset in the night, not vice versa.

We have those 2 way monitors. Usually one of them bleats and we call down it saying - go back to sleep. Works a treat! You can sit downstairs with a glas of wine and say "Do you WANT me to come upstairs and give you a smack bottom?!" into it when DD is trying one of her many diversionary tactics.

Also at the weekends we tell them that it is not time to get up yet and that they can play quietly in their rooms (we try and keep them there till 7.30am but it doesn't always work).

Having the monitors generally makes my life easier by avoiding some journeys up and down stairs, rather than it being a case of me listening nervously to every squeak.

We chucked ours one week in because we can hear our DD and it was just masking me more stressed.

Never had one for any of mine. Having said that mine were usually asleep wherever we were until they were old enough to come and find us or call for us.

I still use one for DS (3) as we cant hear him on an evening if doors closed and we have music/tv on. He has a gate on his door so he cant get to us either. Dont have it on when we go to bed though.