Talk to me about baby monitors please

[MrsMigginslovespies]

Hello,

I'm sure there must be a thread on this somewhere, so apologies for any duplication!

DH and I are starting to look at monitors for our first baby (due August) but don't know where to begin! My sister swears by her AngelCare one, but DH is quite keen on one with a video. I think it's a bit of a gimmick, but is he right? Are they good? Or should we go with a monitor mat one/normal BT type thing/etc etc? And what about two way talk/lullabies/flashing lights bla bla? Agh, any help must welcome!

Thank you!

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Hello!

We've noticed this thread is quite old and some of the product recommendations are a little out of date. We've spent weeks speaking to parents and testing out baby monitors. Read our reviews to see which product was crowned best baby monitor.

Hope that helps!

MNHQ

In most houses you can hear your baby perfectly well and don't need one at all!

If your house is big/stone built or something then you might need one to hear baby when he wakes remember it will be a few weeks before baby is going to bed before you so plenty of time to try out hearing him you don't need to buy now.

Don't see the point of video myself. If he cries I go to him, I don't need a video of a crying baby. I just have a cheap one, it works well enough. It has music and stuff but i don't know how to use it, think it would make poor ds jump out of his skin!

We have the BT 150, as does my bro and a friend. It does the job. We only have a 2bed house so i didnt feel the need for anything fancy. It plays lullabies, i can talk to him if i need to (which i dont really), and i can hear him clearly if he is in his room and i am in the garden. I fancied the cctv but dh said i would get obsessive, prob right.

We are considering a video one too...but think we might put it in the kitchen so we can monitor the dog's counter raiding activity .

Like your DH, mine is keen on the gadgety aspect but given that we can clearly hear the dog snoring downstairs when we're in bed, I think we'll probably be able to hear the baby just fine so I'm going to hold off on buying one until after baby is here so we can properly assess the actual need for one.

We have the basic bt 150 one too and has been great. Video would only have been handy recently when dd has gone into a big bed - so that we can see if she is still in her bed, or trashing her room, without going in and getting conned into 3 more stories!!! Before then, a crying baby is a crying baby, you're going to go upstairs anyway! Music has been useful feature, dd has it on every night.

My friend insisted on getting a video monitor because he wanted a gadget but apparently now they just spend every evening when their son is in bed watching the monitor when they could be having adult conversation and doing non baby things. So are now regretting their purchase.

We used a regular monitor at first but we started turning the volume off and when the flashing went from green to red, we figured we had to investigate then. It wasn?t long before it was relegated to a drawer. Unless you live in a mansion, you?ll hear them. We sleep at the opposite end of the corridor from our son, his door is closed, ours is closed and I wear earplugs. I can still hear him when he wakes up. But it means I can?t hear him snore, snuffle, trump and all the other noises that would keep me awake but didn?t need investigating.

Some people love the mats but I just think they would stress the hell out of me. When they get a bit bigger and start rolling off the mat, the alarm would be going off all the time!

Unless your house is tiny, I'd get a monitor as it does give you peace of mind. We could hear DD without the monitor perfectly well most of the time but, in the evenings, if DP was cooking with the extractor fan on & listening t to the football & we'd shut the door between the sitting room & the kitchen & I was in the sitting room watching TV, we couldn't hear her without it. It also meant you could hear her with more clarity so could distinguish between a disgruntled grizzle & a proper cry more easily. The other bonus is that when slightly deaf grandparents babysit, we know that they will hear her. And if we go & stay at friend's houses, we know we will hear her.

I think the key think to look out for is that the parent end is portable (ie doesn't have to be plugged in all of the time). This makes it much easier if you're moving around the house, going out into the garden etc (remember that you'll use it for day time naps as well as at night). However, you also want it to have the facility to recharge whilst in use if it is plugged in. The BT 150 does this but I don't think they make it any more.

The BT 150 has a torch, talk back & plays lullabies but we've never used those functions.

For DC2, we are considering getting a video one (we left one end of the BT 150 on holiday recently so need a new one). With DD, I dismissed them as being a gimmick but there were times when it would have been useful to see what she was doing. A couple of times I went to check on her when she was crying and she was actually crying herself to sleep and, if I could have seen she was lying down & cuddling bunny, I would have left her to it and she would have been asleep within minutes but, as it was, I went in & disturbed her and spent another hour settling her. When she has a cough, she sometimes coughs enough to make herself sick and I could have checked that on a video monitor rather than constantly going upstairs to check on her. I don't think we'd spend all evening obsessively watching the baby - it would just be a useful tool which would mean we wouldn't actually have to go into the room.

Thanks all, very helpful indeed. Please keep the comments coming though! I've looked at the BT one too and suspect it might be the one we go for. We have a small 2 bed house, but like others, won't be able to hear if we're downstairs and the baby is upstairs, especially with TV on or DH is by himself as he's not got such keen hearing as me!

Pickle, I tend to agree with what you said about the mat thing. I think it would stress me out too, and I also know that DH would forget to turn it off and they're VERY LOUD, having heard my sister's one go off once.

We also have BT 150, its still going strong after 2 years! It has a nightlight and thermometer which is useful and two-way talk back which I used to use when stuck upstairs breastfeeding to get dh to bring me stuff!

We are in a fairly small house but can't hear dd crying if we are in the kitchen with the washing machine/ extractor fan/music on, nor if we are in the garden.

I do know someone that has recently invested in a alarm mat one as their toddler son gets out of bed, so they can check on him without having to get sucked into stories etc.

We were set on a video one but I wasnt impressed by the baby monitor types - they were too tiny! Plus so expensive! My DH, being the gadget obsessive he is, found a digital photo frame with a CCTV camera - I think it was from Maplins or similar - anyway, it's great, sound night vision etc and the camera it comes with connects to our tv so we can see him downstairs - its very good and has saved us many a night sleep when we realise he is just turning over or moving about etc I will try to find a link! It was about £100 but it was a gift from his parents and it also doubles as a digital photo frame once we decide to stop using it

Baby monitor shopping was one job I gave my dh. Typical man loving the gadgets he has chosen the ultra expensive iPad/iPhone one. He really wants it as he is worried he will miss ds when he goes back to work and it would mean he could view little ds having his nap in his cot while he is at his desk on the iPad as it all connects to the Internet. Only 31 weeks though so haven't actually bought it yet

Hmm, suspect my DH would also like an iphone one... which is it please Florin?

A vote for the angel care one with sensor pad. Best purchase I made.

I had visions of something happening in the night even when next to her but the sensor pad just gives me that reassurance that she's breathing (it sounds dramatic and I sound like a control freak...it isn't and I am )

If the sensor doesn't detect movement (breathing) for 15 seconds it beeps, if no more movement for 10 seconds, the alarm goes off.

If you are a fret head like me, go with a sensor pad rather than video monitor; 1) you cant see if baby is breathing on a screen if asleep and 2) you can't see the screen when you're asleep!

Hth

We went for quite a basic Tomy one. Still going after 4 years. I liked having the lights as well as volume so could still 'see' dd crying even if sound was turned off, or if quite noisy downstairs (people over for dinner etc). It doesn't have any other functions - oh - might have nightlight on baby's end - but has done us proud.

mrsM it is this one

BT 150 with the DTs.. It was great - until I dropped it onto a stone floor and it smashed 4 days after getting home with baby DD.

Sent DH off to buy another BT 150 from John Lewis. They don't do it anymore there is a 'new improved' BT one and it is a piece of shit rather over designed and counter-intuitive. Just little things like the buttons are harder to find in the dark and you can't get the display screen to light up easily and when you give up and go get up with the baby but turn it off so you don't wake DH with the nappy change bit, it beeps SO loudly that you wake up DH and your twin toddlers. Brilliant! Avoid. Try and find a second hand 150 instead if you can.

we have a tomy one deluxe one, found that the monitors my sister got us interefered with the wifi!

this one has talk back and the lights as well as sound. do the job brilliantly and have enough channels to not interefere with the internet!

the bt 150 one is great! i have had a cheapo tomy one in the past and the background buzz was really annoying.

the bt one is clear as a bell and has a good range so you can go out in the garden (though not to the infants school to pick up the biggest one as my friend suggested :s) it has been dropped and mauled lots and is still going strong!

I have some experience of different monitors as I've bought 7 in total!

They don't actually make the best model I've found anymore, but the BT digital ones were generally better. I had a tommytippee one too but you had to unscrew the back to adjust the sensitivity and that bugged the hell out of me,

I wouldn't bother with video/mats unless baby has a particular health condition or something as I think they can just contribute to anxiety. (and I speak as an anxious mother!)

My criteria are:

-Digital
-Sensitivity function so you can adjust the level if you don't want to hear every little snuffle.
-Temperature not necessary as when the weather is warm it can keep beeping/flashing when there's nothing you can do about how warm the room is. Most of the time you can just tell if it's too cold/hot in their room.
-Music - I like the music and used to use it as a "it's time to go to sleep" cue for the baby.

My final piece of advice is don't be afraid to take them back if they don't do what they promise on the box. I've had so many monitors because I would take them back if I wasn't getting the range or battery time they promised.

We're in a 2-up 2-down terraced house and so far haven't ever needed one! For the first few weeks/months I doubt you'll put baby down to sleep anywhere too far away from you anyway as you'll be paranoid about him/her breathing. This is where having a cot next to your bed is actually really helpful!

And after that initial clucking attentive phase has ebbed you'll be able to hear him/her squealing from a mile off

One other thing: I've read that one of the early days problems with babies (we certainly had it) is that new parents will pick them up at the slightest noise, when in fact they might self-settle if left for a few minutes.

Now I am not advocating abandoning baby in its cot to cry, but if there's any chance he/she might go back to sleep then I'm all for it! My worry would be that I'd be jumping at every noise (moreso) if I had a monitor to hand, whereas if my newborn DS was loud enough for me to hear 15ft away then I knew he needed something and wasn't just making random baby noise.

Hope that's useful :)

We live in a 2 bed flat but it's Victorian so we've very thick walls and until I FINALLY convinced dh that the cats would be ok in the kitchen overnight ds's door and our door had to be shut, no monitor, no chance. Also as others have said of an evening it's not totally quiet what with tv, extractor fans etc. We've got a bt 100 and it's been good for 2.5 years. I like the travel bag as well as I keep phone chargers etc in there as well so we've only got one bag of travelling wires. We didn't have an angel care when he was a newborn as I dismissed them as an anxiety device but changed my mind when we saw that our ds, who was far from being a good sleeper, keeps really really still when asleep, was very very quiet and used to be very pale. So when he did go to sleep I'd wake up worrying and have to hold a licked finger in front of his nose to check he was breathing! When he moved into his own room the angel care was brilliant. We took it out when he was bigger but have used it a couple of times since when he's been poorly. Now he's a toddler we both wish we had video to see what's going on! I like the idea of the photo frame CCTV camera...!!!

when everyone was buying BT150s I was snorting about falling for pink-tax and how they're all much of a muchness etc etc, bought a cheapo and the background noise was really annoying, replaced it with a BT150 in the end!

Don't buy one yet! The baby should be in your room for 6 months so you won't need one, and by that time the technology/price will be better!!

Our major criteria were one with a rechargeable portable bit - our friends initially got one with batteries and were forever changing them. Useful bits were room temperature (although v annoying at height of summer with all windows open etc and still above 28 degrees so beeping a lot), torch facility, ability to silence alarm. Oh and like poster above, in the early days, although DS was with me constantly, it was most useful to be able to order a cup of tea from DH downstairs - we were in a town house so 3 flights of stairs to run up and down.

If you're a member of Boots parenting club, then you can get lots of points by getting things like this through Boots and then you can treat yourself to other nice smellies free (or boring things like breast pads and cotton wool)!

Nofoodwithaface we had dd in our room for 6 months and still used a monitor. I wasn't present in the room the entire time she was asleep what about naps and 7pm bedtimes?

You can turn off the alarm for the temperature beeps, we did that. It still flashes but no annoying noise.