Babies sleep alarm went off

[mahe10]

Hi! I have a sleep alarm that sits under her mattress and if it doesn't detect anything for 20 seconds it will sound to wake us up.
She sleeps in a bedside crib and last week (when she was 7 weeks old) it went off in the middle off the night. Other than giving us the fright of our lives I put my hand straight on her belly and I have her a belly rub and I called her name in a sleep - shocked state. By the time my partner turned the light on, she just looked awake and is if to say what the hell are you doing waking me up. The next day after a rubbish nights sleep I thought it might be the batteries - but it ended up that it wasn't.
This hasn't happened since and didn't really think anything of it until I mentioned it to my sister (the one who gave me the monitor) and she told me to mention it at our 8 week check tomorrow. But now I am thinking - should I have rang the doctors the next day? Or would that be pointless ? Or even over exaggerating?? Because I can't be sure she did stop breathing other than the alarm sounding? Because when I saw her she was awake and breathing fine.. I have since started googling tonight and panicking she has some sort of sleep apnea

Please don’t worry - those monitors are a bit unreliable and known for going off without cause now and then. You checked her immediately and saw that she was fine.

@Toplowlight

Please don’t worry - those monitors are a bit unreliable and known for going off without cause now and then. You checked her immediately and saw that she was fine.

Ah thank you for reassuring me, I'm going in circles tonight on Google - always a bad idea

Is there a particular reason you have this monitor for her?

They can be very unreliable, and babies can actually miss/hold a breath for up to 20 seconds without it being reason for concern.

My friend had one and the alarm went Off so many times for no reason that her partner threw it in the bin. She was a nervous wreck because of it. They are really unreliable but it would do no harm to mention it at the 8 week check anyway

She probably just moved off it mine used to go off loads it was somewhat unreliable and it got ditched.

Is there a reason you have it? Does she have underlying health issues? I’m a paeds nurse so look after babies who have an MR10 Apnoea monitor for various different health reasons. However they often lose contact - if baby is sweaty and go off or fall off at times but you know if they are going off frequently there is something wrong. One alarm isn’t significant of anything especially as it’s not sensitive enough to detect much at all. You’d also look at your baby, check she’s warm and pink and alert. I think they make you more anxious.

If you use one of these monitors, you have to be prepared for lots of false alarms. It will likely happen again, so have a think about how you will manage it in the future.

My eldest was 11 weeks early and spent 7 weeks in SCBU. When the time came to take her home, the staff urged us and other parents on the ward not to get one of those monitors. They said they are quite unreliable and we need to trust our instincts rather than a mechanical device that can get it wrong.

There's a reason that these monitors are not recommended, they are very unreliable.

Chuck it in the bin, practice safe sleeping and you'll be grand.

I only had it because I had a lot of hand me downs from my sister and just used it. Never had any false alarms before, and neither had she and she used it for both of her babies but after all the replies I think I'm going to take it out from underneath her bed. She's a healthy, happy baby. She sleeps great at night (gives me lots of sleep aha) so like some mentioned it's probably going to make me worry more. Thank you everyone!

We have one of these and also used one for our older son. Occasionally it goes off, particularly when they can wriggle about. I still like to have it for peace of mind though.