Baby monitors - your tips please! Baby Angel, anyone?

[mummy2benji]

I used a £50 BT one with ds which worked fine and had a cordless receiver so I could move around the house without having to unplug it and even take it into the garden (unlikely at this time of year). It has given up the ghost though so need to buy a new one for bubs. Hubby's colleague has been gushing about their Baby Angel (or whatever they're called) - the one which gives you heart rate and temperature and all that jazz as well. Not sure what I think of them - too much info which could make you paranoid, or extra peace of mind because you know baby is fine? Any thoughts would be helpful and appreciated! :)

Phillips Avent ones are fantastic (but pricey). Comes with talkback function, temperature reading and music. I bought a Motorola one recently which does all this for a fraction of the price. I agree that heart rate/video ones make you paranoid, but I find the temperature function really handy (I guess you don't need it if you have a Gro Egg as well though, but I digress). Hope this helps!

I've bought an amazing bt one that has temp colour change, a projected light show, lullabies etc etc. I was going to get the angel care but I was advised that it's not worth the money by a lady working in mothercare. I have done a lot of research on monitors, it took me ages to finally decide!!!

I have the BT one. It's fab. Wouldn't get an Angelcare one. I think it would make me paranoid.

I love my angelcare monitor, it reassures me and stops me peering into the crib to make sure baby is ok! I got mine second hand, best thing I've brought.

We have a Tomy SRV400 video monitor. Our son has a heart condition and it ha given us (almost) complete peace of mind and helped us relax enough to leave him
sleeping in his own room. His cardiac consultant said , whatever we do, do not get one with a mat that senses movement as they cam cause more anxiety.I know
some who love them though.

Ours video one was only £65 and is amazing.

I bought a Motorola video one and whilst I now can't imagine being without it I do drive myself (and dp and my parents when we stay there) a bit mad by staring at it all the time, the temperature function is great for sussing out bedding but the battery life isn't great if its not plugged in.

Please don't buy the Philips Avent one. We had one about 5 years ago which is absolutely fab - no interference, great sensitivity, easy to use. It's a bit knackered now so we bought the new model for new baby and it is terrible. It's got loads of features, all singing all dancing etc BUT you cannot hear a bloody thing on it. The parent monitor is so quiet that lots of people have complained that they can hear their baby crying through the ceiling before they register it on the monitor. In which case what is the point in having a monitor ? We sent ours back.
I don't really have any other recommendations but have heard good things about the BT one.

Angelcare all the way for me, and I wouldn't call myself paranoid! It's been fantastic. Bought it on Tesco Direct which was cheapest at the time... whichever monitor you choose, shop around to make sure you get the best price

I have a Summer monitor, a cordless one. At first I thought it was a bit rubbish because it sort of hisses all the time. Then we went on holiday and used the all singing, all dancing BT monitor there and I realised how much I love my monitor. Yes it hisses, but it is incredibly sensitive and even with the TV on I can hear baby sighing or even shuffling around the cot; with the BT one I could barely hear a bloody thing. And the background hiss means I know it is on and I'm not constantly checking.

But as she gets older I think I might end up trading in for a video monitor. Once they're old enough to sit or stand up in the cot it might be easier to see what they are doing. But while she's little and can't move too much, I love my Summer.

If you're going the breathing mat route then I recommend a separate mat (we have this babysense one www.anawiz.com/acatalog/Breathing_Monitors.html?gclid=CO_I3u3I7rICFYXMtAodRgQA1Q ) and monitor (ours is a BT sounds only one). We've never had a false alarm, other than when baby was removed from cot, as there are two sensor pads rather than one. Friends with the Angelcare one have had loads of false alarms which must be terrifying! The mat has a loud beep when it goes off, which can be picked up by the other monitor or heard streets away

I'm getting an Angel care - it's my sister and she's loaning it to me! We looked after DNephew with it. If they roll off the mat and the alarm goes off you move at lightening speed! It's good as well because you can change the sensitivity of when it kicks in and the volume of the parent side. However I have no experience of any other make!

oh dear, we had settled on getting the Angelcare and this thread has made me doubt the choice all over again... how on earth do you make a decision and know you've made the right one?!

I'm on dc 3, I've had a all singing all dancing BT monitor, lindam video, tomy walkabout and a motorola. The BT is by far the best, remote control lulabys, nightlight, talkback, thermometer and crystal clear sound even lo's breathing. Excellent monitor.

Thank you ladies! That has definitely given me food for thought. I'm going to go browse on Amazon now and have a look at them all! :)

Stateofconfusion - which BT one have you got/did you have?

It's the Bt digital monitor- 150 it says on the box. We had the older version which had the stars on the baby unit but a clumsy person me dropped the parent unit in the sink. Replaced with the 150, and have just brought that one again 2nd hand for dc3 as we loved it for the older two, I believe they've changed the look again but all function the same and we think they're ace.

Only one I'd avoid is the lindam clarity digital video, very cheap plastics and essentially fell to bits.

Our friends who have the monitor with a movement sensor get loads of false alarms which scare the beejezus out of you. Unless your child has a health problem they're more trouble than reassurance.

Think hard about the functions you'll really use, not just the ones you think are cute, and only pay for those. We have a Tomy TD300 which is great and has some useful functions, like sound level lights, but we never use the talkback function because it scares DD.

Daft question, but I assume the ones with the mat can be used without the mat too? I was planning on gettin one and using the mat for the first few weeks but when im not so neurotic taking the mat away

Roger that was our plan too - trust me you will never get rid of the mat :) DS is now 18 months and I'm dreading moving him into a bed as we will have to stop using the sensor mat! We haven't used the alarm function since he was tiny as it constantly went off for no reason, but it has a light that flashes with each movement / breath and I still wake up in the night and just glance at it, it's made me a million times more paranoid than I would have been without it!

I've got the angelcare one because my sister had episodes of stopping breathing in the night when she was a baby so it is something I would be paranoid about anyway... If I didn't have a sensor pad I'd probably spend all night standing over the cot!

However the BT 150 also gets v good reviews, better than the 250 which is the more recent model. The 150 is hard to find but refurbed ones are sold on eBay.

We have the Motorola all singing and Dancing one. We couldn't decide on one going back and forth. Fil offered to buy us one and had this one recommended by a friend of his so said would it be ok. It seemed to do everything we wanted so went for it and love it. Was Nice having decision taken from us a bit as we found the huge choice a bit baffaling! We thought about the mat ones but I think it would have scared the hell out of me. Do love the video though as if ds crys in his sleep we can check on him without disturbing him.