Is a video baby monitor worth it?

[rhaenyra01]

We are hoping to put DD in her own room soon. It is literally next door to our bedroom, so I’m hoping we’ll hear any noises in the night, but I’d like to get a monitor to be on the safe side. I’ve seen some quite affordable ones which are audio only, I wondered is it better to have a video one? My only hesitation js that they’re quite expensive from what I’ve seen.

DD tends to wake around 2/3am for a feed. Then she only ever stirs around 5am, for some reason she gets quite unsettled at this time and will start tossing and turning, nothing is ever noticeably “wrong” but she just needs resettling.

I don’t know whether to splurge on the video monitor or stick with an audio one - any recommendations?

We got a cheap video one and got a lot of use out of it. I think it was maybe 40 quid from John Lewis. Imo there's no point spending more on something like that but you can get extremely fancy ones.

The main helpful features are night vision and a long enough range that you can sit in the garden, say. Our 40 quid one could do that.

What you don't need is high definition- my dd was just a handful of pixels but crucially we could see if it was moving! From 18m she could climb out of bed silently like a ninja

Yeah, for us it has been 100% worth it.
Not sure how baby goes down at the moment but my little one goes down awake then settles herself and being able to leave the room and see that she's settling okay without having to go in and check is great.
She also makes some really random noises throughout the night (sometimes awake and sometimes asleep), so we wouldn't be able to tell for sure if she actually needed us just by sound alone

I have both for various reasons, and once DD2 is in her own room I suspect I’ll only use the audio one.

With DD1 I found it too easy to obsess over every twitch, I much prefer just to know if something is so wrong they’re shouting.

Worth it

My DS is 2 and I still use his video monitor.

We don’t have the sound on, but if he’s crying in the night I have a look and can see if he’s lying down and still asleep (most of the time he is) or if he’s actually properly awake.

He rolls around and chats to himself half asleep in the morning but he’s not fully awake so we leave him and stay in bed ourselves until we can see he’s starting to stand up on the monitor.

Also when they’re still young but starting to sleep in longer stretches I found it reassuring to look at the monitor and see that he’d moved.

Definitely worth the money. We have the BT 6000 and can recommend.

We use a TAPO camera off amazon, its amazing! £20 or near enough, connects to an app on your phone. Can have alerts for either motion and/or baby crying detection.

We always hear her crying, open to app on our phone and see if shes going to drop back off or whether we need to go in. Its fab! If for whatever reason we dont hear her crying, the notification wakes us up

Used one with our first. Haven't with our second. We have a small house tho so we'd always hear her. But even when visiting family, I will just pop my head up the stairs every 30 mins or so.

I've got one it was £60 in boots and wouldn't be without it. It's nice to be able to see if he's up in his cot or just babbling but half asleep. The ones that have a monitor are better I think than the camera that goes to phone cuz that way you're not having to constantly open the app on your phone if you're doing something else on it

I had a little elf camera that connected to an app on my phone and my echo show. Way cheaper than the video monitors!

I just have an audio one, never felt like I missed the video. We can tell if he's rolling over/kicking the cot and mostly don't go in unless he actually starts crying!

We also have an amazon purchased one (it can do babies, dogs, general house security) so it isn't a specialist one just for babies. It streams directly to my phone via an app. I love it, we've been using it for 3 years now. I think it is a Reolink one.

Recommend bt 6000

get one second hand off fb!!

We never even used an audio monitor! I don't think you need one. If baby is awake and needs you you'll hear her. If she's asleep you won't, all good.

i think it’s worth it. We never had one and it would have made some things easier / put my mind at rest

We got a security camera for €30 and downloaded the app on an ipad we already had. It has audio and HD video. Our house is small so when I am up in bed I mute the iPad but use the video. I find it very handy if he makes noise to be able to see if it's a wake I need to respond to or if he is just grabbing his dummy. Wouldn't be without it.

Hi @rhaenyra01 thanks for your thread! If you're still looking for baby monitor recommendations, you might find our guide to the best baby monitors useful. If you have any feedback on the article at all, do get in touch 💐

3 kids, audio only. I think the video ones aren't necessary at all.