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Post-natal clubs

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Original poster

Angel care minitor going off a few times each night on my 5 day old baby

18 replies

Emz2019 · 12/07/2018 07:05

My baby is 5 days old and we have an angel care monitor that monitors his breathing and alarms if he stops. It’s gone off once a night and we were thinking maybe it’s faulty or something but last night I used a much thinner blanket to swaddle my baby so there was no chance it wasn’t picking up his breathing and the alarm went off 3 times each time was when he had been asleep a long time and was in a very deep sleep. I’m concerned about this, should I tell my midwife when she visits today? Or will she just tell me not to use these monitors?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

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HaaaHaaaa · 12/07/2018 07:11

Are they able to be used right from the very start? Or do they say the baby has to be a certain weight.

LtGreggs · 12/07/2018 07:11

Definitely talk to your midwife about it.

I have no experience of using the monitors so no idea how reliable they are - but if I thought my baby might be pausing breathing I'd ask.

Is the baby sleeping near to you? You'll probably also get a sense of what's "right" in their behaviour - and that will increase over the next few days & weeks.

However, 5 completely unnecessary wake-up a night will drive you nuts.

Congrats on the néw arrival!

Shutupanddance1 · 12/07/2018 07:11

Check the placement of your sensor, sometimes it can be uneven due to slats in bottom of the cot. We put a very thin board of MDF under the sensor in ours

IVEgotthePOWER · 12/07/2018 07:13

You probably need to adjust the sensitivity also as pp said small piece of mdf if cot has slats

Original poster

Emz2019 · 12/07/2018 07:20

He’s sleeping In a Moses basket so the bottom is hard throughout and his basket is placed around 3ft away from the bottom of my Bed, but by the time I hear the first beep it then stops for 5 seconds and if there is no response it alarms so I quickly get up but the alarm has gone off after a few seconds so I’m unsure if the alarm is disturbing him from this very deep sleep? Or if he was just having a very long pause, which would be around 25 seconds in total. I will find the box and check if there are weight guidelines

OP posts:

IVEgotthePOWER · 12/07/2018 07:21

That is how it goes off re the beep then wait then alarm.

But yes i would check the weight limit

M0reGinPlease · 12/07/2018 07:36

I think- but am prepared to be corrected- it is normal for newborns to breathe like this with little 'gaps'.

However, I think these kind of monitors cause unnecessary stress. You should be monitoring your baby and trust that you will know if something is wrong.

Monkeypuzzle32 · 12/07/2018 07:38

They are designed to go off if baby doesn’t move within s certain time aren’t they? I’ve got one but not used the sensors just the monitor

GilmoresForever · 12/07/2018 07:39

We are using one with our little girl who was born 12 weeks prem she now weighs five pounds. When she was smaller it went off a lot. Sometimes it was that she had gone into a deep sleep and it wasn’t picking up her shallow breathing. Now it goes off when she is wrapped up into many blankets or has wiggled off! As she has got bigger and due to the heat is now as wrapped up it doesn’t seem to go off as much. It might be that Baby is wrapped up to much and it’s not picking up Baby. Quite often by the time I have got up to respond to it the alarm has stopped.

lalascribbles · 12/07/2018 07:48

We've used a monitor since he was two days old when we came home and he was only 4.12lb at this point and we didn't have any issues. I'd say if the green movement sensor bit is flashing when baby is in moses basket it's working correctly. We've had one false alarm since using it and this was once he moved into his cot and he is rolling around and was the other end of the cot!

I'd definitely speak to your midwife or health visitor this morning. Have you been discharged from the community midwives yet or are you still seeing them? I believe while you are still under them you can be seen by the ward you were discharged from. If you've been discharged from community midwives I'd make a GP appointment they'll definitely see you today due to his age.

Let us know how you get on, and congratulations 💖

lalascribbles · 12/07/2018 07:54

OP is there any way you can move the basket to by the side of your bed, would it fit like that? You'll find you get used to how they breathe when they sleep if they are right next to you. I used a monitor and still am ( he's 5 months) as it gave me peace of mind to sleep but in the early days he was very noisy in his sleep and his breathing could sound dreadful but I soon found what was his normal I also think if lo is having paused breathing you'd hear it.

NameChangeCuddleBums · 12/07/2018 07:54

I would ask your midwife. We have one and at birth baby was 6 pound 2 and was well swaddled and we didn’t have this problem. Congratulations.

MaverickSnoopy · 12/07/2018 07:58

We have used that monitor for both of our children and you can adjust the sensitivity. We used to do this by turning it on without baby in cot and then walking around the room to see whether it was picked up. If it was picking us up walking then it was too sensitive and we reduced the sensitivity.

Babies that young are also learning to regulate their breathing. It could be something or nothing.

Just as an aside, how do you put the sensor pad in the moses basket? I always thought you couldn't (and for that reason we used a crib) because the wire would be trailing out of the top?

lalascribbles · 12/07/2018 08:06

@Maverick can't answer for the OP but we made a little hole in the material covering bit and then were able to get the wire through the wicker part of the basket.

Original poster

Emz2019 · 12/07/2018 09:40

Ok so it can be used from birth or even in Prem babies my baby was full term and a decent 7 and a half pounds. He was swaddled last night in a very thin swaddle blanket (the kind with the Velcrow) underneath him was his mattress then the sensor. It worked fine all night where as I assume if it wasn’t working properly it would have gone off straight after turning it on. I don’t know but my midwife should be arriving soon hopefully she can either reassure me or have him checked. His basket would not fit beside my bed due to the layout of my bed room

OP posts:

Gromonster · 12/07/2018 09:48

Hi Emz, it’s probably nothing to worry about and as PPs have said you can turn up sensitivity, but we’ve used our’s every night since baby was a week old (now nearly four months) and not had any false alarms, so I would check with your midwife

A friend had a similar situation and once she was actually watching baby when alarm went off and could see she wasn’t breathing. It turned out to be sleep apnea but is now resolved.

I think the monitor is fantastic. It gave us peace of mind but not false reassurance in the early days, as we were still very careful with her sleep environment.

One thing we have found is that it can be so sensitive that it picks up a fan if it’s on rotation and so won’t detect a problem if there is one if fan is going

Original poster

Emz2019 · 12/07/2018 10:24

My midwife has been and rang up someone to ask and they have said to use the monitor today during the day and if I can see there is changes to my baby during the alarm I need to seek medical advice but my midwife was happy when she checked him over

OP posts:

Colabottle10 · 12/07/2018 10:34

Don't use the angel monitor, they are rubbish. Get yourself a Snuzahero. It clips onto the front of the nappy. It was MUCH more reliable.

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