Baby Monitors

[bebebringingup]

Whats more important in your opinion- one where you can see your baby or one with a movement sensor? What did you have?

The really expensive ones include that my DH can see our baby when he's at work on his iPhone which is rather cool.

I've been looking at the Argos website and I am still at a loss.

I don't want to buy a rubbish one because if something happens, I'll never be able to forgive myself. I know it won't stop cot death or problems

The irrational first time mum

We bought a Moterola video monitor from argos that came with a Babysense movement monitor. It has two sensor pads, so covers the whole cot and can be used after baby starts crawling. The video is pretty good quality, I can usually see DDs chest rising and falling. Because the two systems are separate you can use just the monitor, just the sensor pads, or both (I don't know if that's the case with other monitors too).

I dtarted out with a basic noise one but once ds was about 7months (i think), he would happily sit in his cot playing silently with his teddy for ages after waking from his nap (i suspected but wasnt sure with just a vnoise monitor).

So i got a video monitor - so much better! I could actually tell when he was actually asleep and when he was wide awake. Even now at 2.5yrs its useful - if i go into ds before hes fully awake in the morning he will be grumpy as hell all day, with the video monitor i can see when hes properly woken up and started playing with his toys (hes as quiet as a mouse when playing in his room, for some reason), which makes him much happier.

With regards to the movement monitors - they are said tp mostly increase anxiety - they go off quite often, just because baby has wriggled off. Plus when i was pregnant with ds there was an article about them somewhere that said they actually dont go off until its too late to actually do anything in the event of baby really stopping breathing.

Op, IMHO you need to do whatever you feel will help you relax and not continuously worry. If that means getting a baby monitor and/or a camera and you can afford it then that's what you do.

We have the following and they have been great for us. We have the breathing/sound sensor and the camera which can be viewed on IPads/IPhones etc.

www.johnlewis.com/angelcare-movement-and-sound-monitor-ac401/p231136658?kpid=231136658&s_kenid=5291998b-75f4-a508-2acc-000065f05968&s_kwcid=106x22064&tmad=c&tmcampid=73&kpid=231136658

And

www.amazon.co.uk/Y-Cam-YCW005-Professional-Indoor-camera/dp/B00AQTY0QK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1409006938&sr=8-5&keywords=y+cam

I could not sleep with DS in the room with us. Nothing to do with anxiety, he was too blooming noisy! I held out as long as I could but feeding every three hours, plus not sleeping in between, was sending me round the bend. I also had the movement sensor on when he was in with us because it bleeps like mad if they stop breathing (which they can still do, even if they are in a room with you) which meant (when he was quiet) I actually got a little bit of sleep. Plus when he decided a day time nap was acceptable, I didn't have to keep popping up the stairs to check on him.

I put him in his own room at three months and would do the same thing again but only if it felt right at the time. I know what the guidelines are but ultimately, you have to do what feels comfortable for you and baby. He slept better and so did I.

See how you feel after a while OP, you never know, it may go against all your instincts to let them go in on their own. But this thread wasn't about that!!

I still maintain that the near £200 we spent on the Angelcare was worth every penny.

Right. After 6 months the SIDS risk drops considerably. Babies also start moving round their cots far more so are less likely to stay on thr movement mat sensors. In which case it will go off all the time.

Could I add that they don't have to lie directly on the sensor pad for the breathing sensor to detect their breathing. DD is nearly 8 months and moves around her entire cot. The AngleCare (audio/breathing) monitor still picks up her breathing even when she is tucked up in the crner of her cot. However should you get her out of her cot without switching it off, the monitor goes mental.

I feel the same as you Op! We have been looking and researching for months and finally decided on the tommee tippee sensor and video monitor, it is around £200 but If your in the UK ASDA have a baby and toddler event on and have reduced it to £90 so we went and brought it yesterday x

I had a similar dilemma and eventually decided on the angelcare sensor and video. The prices on amazon fluctuate a lot so I got it for £140, lot less that the £250 some places sell it for. I have had people calling me paranoid, but as a ftm I don't see the harm really - it's not going to make me more paranoid I hope

Now just need to wait for baby to arrive to try it!

Jodie- I have just gone to the Asda website and bought the Tommy Tippee one on offer. Now I can have both so I'll be double paranoid Thank you for that! Really helpful!

As a parent, children nurse and maternity night nanny I will always recommend a sensor mat monitor and use it til 2yrs of age seen and experienced too many awful things rare but happens.

Known sensor mats to save baby life alerting parents who resuscitated baby.

We have an Angelcare monitor which has both a movement sensor plus video and sound.

Personally I found it really useful in reducing my anxiety - we didn't get it until a week or so until after DS1 came home, and I just couldn't relax enough to sleep properly until we got the baby monitor, because I was anxious that he'd stop breathing if we weren't watching him.

Has anyone seen the Snuza.com which also monitors breathing. It's a clip which attaches to the nappy I think and if the baby stops breathing after 15 secs it starts to vibrate. After 20secs an alarm goes off.

Someone on another thread mentioned it and whilst it's not readily available in stores (small stockists) it looks like the best solution without becoming overly neurotic (ie baby doesn't move and alarm goes off)