Baby sleep movement monitor sensor

[NewMum26]

Will you be getting one or not? And what are your reasons?
I think I want one for peace of mind but just wondered what everyone's views are on them

I'd say save your money until baby is here and decide then whether you still feel you need one. Neither of mine would sleep anywhere but on me for a long time so buying one would have been a complete waste of money.

We debated it but honestly I think things like that just make you paranoid so we didn't!!

Yes but read the instructions thoroughly. Be prepared for false alarms and it will blare to wake the whole house up if the power is interrupted or you lift the baby without putting it off properly. They are handy but obviously in addition to your own observations.

I have loved my Angelcare monitors. They are brilliant for peace of mind when baby is small or has just started rolling... And we still use ours as an alarm system for when our two year old is out of bed and roaming around!
I think they're worth every penny

The only time I've heard where they are worth the money is on the rare occasion where someone has a really refluxy baby and the ONLY way the baby would sleep was on his/her front. Again, you'd have to wait until baby arrives to see if it is worth it for this reason - not something you can predict.

Watching with interest as not sure whether to get one or not either. Seem good in some ways but worried about making me stress out

I don't think they make much difference to the safety of the baby, tbh. However, I would never have slept without one, so I think they give you enough peace of mind to know that, at that particular moment, baby is breathing and OK, so you don't spend every hour getting up to check. (Which is what I what I would have done )

There is absolutely no evidence that they reduce the risk of SIDS and in some cases they can make parents happier to practice unsafe sleeping, for example leaving the baby to sleep in a room on their own before 6 months old. Put your baby in a cosleeper/Moses basket next to you and you don't need to go and check them, you can hear them!

I had one of these and used it with dd. It's worked ok in snuzpod but not when she moved into her own room at 6 months. If she rolled or decided to sleep right in the corner of her cot the alarm went off. Loads of false alarms. Also when dd was little sometimes I'd forget to turn it off before I'd lift her out for feeding and then it would wake everyone. Due no2 soon and won't be using it. I still use the video monitor for dd every night and think they are great.

I really liked mine for the first 6 months or so - I found I had to really wake up to hear her breathing over me and DH but could just open an eye and be reassured by the little flashing light and not wake up so far. As she got older there were more false alarms as you could see/hear her breathing but it wouldn't pick it up but she was 9th percentile - they go into less heavy breathing as they get older but the greater weight of child should compensate. Doesn't cope well with mobile baby roaming the cot either! We have the tommee tippee one and still use the video monitor part if we have guests or are away - just us we just leave the doors open noe she's in her own room...

I had one for my daughter and it saved her life. I've bought one for this baby too. At 8 weeks my daughter stopped breathing. I was alerted to the monitor and pulled my limp baby out of her cot. I blew on her face and bounced her up and down and she took an inbreath. She was right next to me so I was able to act quickly. It was the best thing I bought. I never had any false alarms.

Wow Whatsername, thank God you had it!

I still use mine with my 3 year old! Plus got new ones for newest baby!

Something scary about depending on modern technology to keep our babies safe, that's what my doctor said when I told her I was thinking about getting one

We had the same dilemma, to buy or not to buy. Originally decided to wait until baby is here and see how we got on but eventually decided to take the plunge. We've been pretty good so far and only really bought the bare essentials in advance of the birth so we figured this would be our one 'extravagance' for want of a better term. Still got 4 weeks to go till due date so no idea yet whether it's a good/bad purchase.

www.lullabytrust.org.uk/Document.Doc?id=43

That's a link to a really helpful document about monitors by the lullaby trust. Summary is that monitors don't prevent sids. Plenty of sids babies were on monitors and died anyway. Periods of apnoea (stopping breathing) are very common in young babies and the vast majority of these resolve spontaneously.

By all means get a monitor if you think it will give you peace of mind, but don't use it as an excuse not to follow the safe sleeping guidelines.

We've used ours for years, very useful at telling you your toddler is still in bed and not roaming around upstairs when you're either downstairs or fast asleep! Didn't use it in crib when in our room til 6 months though, as I don't think you need that peace of mind when they're right next to you. False alarm happened about twice in 3 years and only when standing up in corner of cot. It's not about relying on technology to keep them safe, just about using what technology there is available for your own peace of mind or convenience.

Loved mine as it meant I had less compulsion to go in and check and potentially wake baby in process.

Lots of false alarms when lifting out. One not false alarm but DS was breathing when we got to him so may have been roused by the alarm, we will never know.

Will use with DS2 for reassurance but past 6 months would have liked a video monitor. Love the idea of using it when the cot bars for DS1 come off!

What a strange thing for a doctor to say. What's scary about it? We use modern technology to keep ourselves safe all the time.

If you want my honest, true and blunt opinion then the reason I got one was because I was watching a program and a man was talking about his baby dying of cot death. He described waking in the morning and being pleased that the baby had slept through the night. You can guess the rest.

I decided that I would want to know immediately and not hours later.

I bought one when my dd was 3 months. We solely co-slept up to that point but I wanted to start putting dd in the crib next to me but I just couldn't relax, constantly waking to check on her. I found it very reassuring so glad I bought it.

We had the angel monitor. I had no problems with it until dd hit 12 months. She is in a cot bed and started sleeping right up to the corner but the corner she chose wasn't consistent so no matter where I moved the sensor pad it kept going off. At this stage dd had started sleeping through so I had to disconnect it as it was waking her.

I do however wish I'd spent more and bought the one with the video monitor. That would be handy now.

My DD would only sleep on her front so we bought an Angelcare monitor. It only went off once and we snatched her out of bed and woke her so no idea if it was a false alarm or not. It gave me huge peace of mind, especially after that incident.

Whatintheworld
That is an excellent point!!

Hmm, the doc from The Lullaby Trust states that no large scale studies have been done to see if monitors prevent SIDS, so while it is true to say there is currently no evidence they prevent deaths, that may well be because of a lack of studies, rather than the monitors being ineffective. It may be that they cannot prevent all deaths, but will prevent some.

I use one for DD, but have always practised the safe sleeping guidelines. We have had quite a few false alarms, but I am happy to pay that price to know I will be woken if something does happen. There have been a couple of incidences that were not false alarms, where I was able to rouse DD. Obviously, I have no way of knowing if she would have roused herself without it, and maybe she would have. Overall, I have found it very reassuring to have, but I would echo what others have said about not becoming complacent re safe sleeping if you get one.

I've always used one. Used mine until each child was 2 years old and just bought a new one for baby 3.

I liked to KNOW that the baby was breathing. I felt better about it and I also would want to know at the time (so I had the chance to do CPR etc) rather than wake up to find it's too late.

No idea whether that would actually help prevent a death, but I'd rather have something checking on the baby while I was sleeping.

Something scary about depending on modern technology to keep our babies safe, that's what my doctor said when I told her I was thinking about getting one

I take it your dr doesn't use technology to keep babies safe then? What an odd thing to say!