At what age did you stop using a baby monitor?

[december2020]

Like most parents, once DC transitioned to his own room we got a baby monitor.

And have used it ever since.
DC is now 3.5 (moved out of a cot bed age 3) and I realised (maybe purely out of habit) we still use the baby monitor.
I don't think we even look at it any more - it's just been so routine it never occurred to us to stop.

So maybe it's time to give it up.
When did you stop using the baby monitor?

About 2 years. We realised one day it had been several days since we'd even looked at it, so stopped switching it on.

It seems like I should have stopped a long time ago!

@HiCandles we haven't looked at it for ages either! Maybe it's time !

We only used the monitor if we would be out of ear shot e.g. if we were sitting in the garden. We never bothered when in the house as we could easily hear them!

DC are 9 and 4 and we still use it but only because they sleep on a different floor. We want to make sure we hear them if one has a nightmare / wets the bed / gets sick etc.

We wouldn't if they were on the same level.

As long as you can either hear them if they call out for you, or they are able to get out of their room and come and find you if they need you then you probably don't need a monitor. There's no harm in it though, so if it gives you peace of mind then no need to stop using it. Whatever works for you, doesn't really matter when other people felt ready to stop.

9 and 4 is a bit much...

We’ve never used one. We live in a 4 bedroom semi so we’re never that far away

Why? What difference does it make?

We still use one for 4 year old. They have a habit of waking up and shouting for me and the earlier I hear them, the less chance they wake the whole house. They also don’t seem to wake before throwing up but I now recognise the cough that means they are being sick whilst still lying down very quickly.

With DD it was aged 3, when she went into a bed and could come find us, before that it was needed as we wouldn’t have necessarily heard her shout- long, thin flat with bedrooms at opposite ends. Still used on holiday like if staying with relatives or in a chalet/villa up to about aged 4 in case she woke up and got confused. DS never really had one except when on holiday as we were in a house by then and his room was next to ours. DD has slept on the floor above us since we did the loft conversion when she was 4.5 and it still wouldn’t occur to me to put a monitor in. After a certain age it just seems a little invasive.

We only used one if we were a long way away from the DC eg on holiday or staying with family in large houses. In our current house or in previous flat we would have heard an upset child.

We use it for ours still at 2.5 and 4.5

This is because they both stay in their rooms and shout and sometimes if we're watching a film we can't hear them. When we come to bed it goes off though

I think we'd probably keep using it until the little one was old enough to get out of bed and come fetch us if he needed anything

You watch your 9 year old on a camera in their bedroom? I hear your reasoning, but honestly that is a massive invasion of privacy at that age.

When the child is old enough to get out of bed themselves or call out if they need help, so around two.

Dd is nearly 5 and we still use it for sound, although thr camera part broke ages ago. Like pp's, I can't always hear dd easily due to sleeping with a fan plus the layout of our house, and she will often shout rather than get out of bed.

We still use ours for our 3.5 year old but in three months time the baby will need it in her room so he'll be without! He definitely doesn't need it anymore. It's more of a habit than anything else now.

Just to add we’ve never used a camera one, just an old fashioned sound one.

Nowhere does this mention watching them, in fact it specifically mentions hearing them. Not all monitors have a camera.

Sometime around 3-3.5, mostly for evenings, because we wouldn’t have heard them if something happened in the evening and we were downstairs/outside/in the shower. We didn’t use it at night. I think I would leave it on, because otherwise, it would set off an alert that the handset was off. But I’d leave it plugged in under the bed. We could hear them easily at night from our room.

I think when DD was about 2.5. We used to close her bedroom door so the cats didn’t disturb her and wanted to make sure we could hear if she called us.

Depends on your home.

We stopped using camera a few months ago, now we only use the sound one (2 and half year old).
We will propably use this untill she will be able to go down on the stairs alone, as we have a big house and we spend a lot of time in the garden while she's sleeping.

Our DD was 3.5 when DD2 was born so definitely before then.
We moved house when she was 2.5 so I think we didn't bother setting it up again in the new house. Old house was an old cottage with thick stone walls so harder to hear things in other rooms.
DD2 I think we stopped around the same age when she wasn't napping in the day anymore and we could clearly hear if she was up or crying after bedtime.

I used one for DS 1 until six months none for DD a sleep consultant told us it was a bad idea as you should learn to listen out for your child and interpret different cries. We live in a big house with lots of levels, from the kitchen you cannot hear what is going on upstairs. Both kids were fine.

I was about 38.

You’re correct, I assumed it was a camera one you were referring to.

My point still stands though, listening in to a 9 year old in the privacy of their own bedroom is an invasion of privacy at that age. Massively.

We've got a 5 year old and 2 3 year olds and haven't used it since the twins were in their beds at 2.