Sensor pads any good?

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My 8 week old baby settles amazingly to sleep on her front. Yes I know this is against all advice about her needing to be on her back.
Currently do this in the day but not at night however seems cruel as she suffers badly with wind and is so much happier on her front.
Read about monitors with sensor pads that give off an alarm if there is any change in breathing patterns.
Has anyone tried these do they work for piece of mind?

Hi, we've got one of these as i was so paranoid in the early days although baby has always slept on his back. I'm not sure if they work as the alarm has never gone off iyswim but it certainly reduced my anxiety levels,

Also my son suffered from wind issues and silent reflux and I found that if I raised the cot slightly at one end and kept him upright for 10-15 after a feed then that helped a lot and could then sleep on his back, so it may be worth trying that if you haven't already.

A local family lost a baby last year to SIDS, the baby was on a sensor monitor. It went off but unfortunate the baby could not be saved.

I had a sensor monitor, I was very paranoid after my first child was stillborn.

The monitor did nothing but increase my anxiety. It gave off multiple false alarms causing a hell of a lot of unnecessary panic. Ended up swapping it for a video monitor.

Will definitely not be using it for dc3.

Thanks Gladiator we have tried not much makes a difference apart from the sleeping on the front.

Notso Jesus that's awful so sad

Ducksy

Thanks I had heard about false alarms good to get different perspectives

We had one and it saved my DD's life when she stopped breathing as an infant. Never got to the bottom of why it happened but ran upstairs when it went off, picked her up (she was going blue!) and she started breathing thank God! Scariest moment of my life.

Wow that's scary so pleased it worked for you and prevented a tragedy.

We used one for our 3 dcs and it definitely decreased my anxiety. Didn't get any false alarms. I felt I would rather know immediately if something went wrong.

We use them and I find them reassuring. Whilst it cannot prevent SIDS, at least if they stop breathing for some reason you've got a window to try whereas without a sensor you may not know for quite a while.

If you are thinking of allowing front sleeping then I would also look carefully at the other risk factors for SIDS and see how they apply in your case. The following link (for example) suggests that front sleeping is between 1.7 and 12.9 times more dangerous than back sleeping and personally that is outside my risk appetite even though the vast majority of babies will be absolutely fine.
www.nichd.nih.gov/sts/campaign/science/Pages/backsleeping.aspx

Also worth bearing in mind that many babies with wind issues calm down at about 12 weeks so it won't be forever that you're having to go through this.

If you do go down the route of getting a monitor and putting your baby to sleep on her tummy, you should also learn how to perform infant CPR so that you know what to do if the alarm does go off.

I have a sensor mat which is being used in DS cot bed. He has been in his own bed since 7 weeks. I haven't had any false alarms with it and feel very reassured having it. I have an angelcare 403.

I have found the sensor really helps me to be less anxious. I still check on him a lot but the sensor pad reduces it a bit. As a pp said, it might not stop sids but at least you'd have a chance to do something.

We have a video monitor and sensor combined and I think it's one of the best buys we made.

Thanks for all the advice I have read the article and I think I will stop and persevere on her back

Only thing is what when she can rollover if she chooses to roll onto her front to sleep. All the issues raised on the article would still apply.

From same website as my original post on faqs as to if my baby rolls over onto their front, must I move them back.

If my baby rolls onto his or her stomach during sleep, do I need to put my baby in the back sleep position again?
No. Rolling over is an important and natural part of your baby's growth. Most babies start rolling over on their own around 4 to 6 months of age. If your baby rolls over on his or her own during sleep, you do not need to turn the baby back over onto his or her back. The important thing is that your baby start every sleep time on his or her back to reduce the risk of SIDS, and that there is no soft objects, toys, crib bumpers, or loose bedding under baby, over baby, or anywhere in baby's sleep area.

Also in my (limited experience) most but not all babies are 5+ Months before they can roll onto their fronts. Rolling front to back is normally first as much easier. And as you can see from the attached chart by 5 month the risk of sids has declined significantly

Can you tell that I've looked into this before

We didn't get any false alarms until the last two weeks. DS is almost 8 months now and moves around a lot in his cot so I think he just rolled right to the corner away from the sensor. We had no problems up to then and we've upped the sensitivity which seems to have worked.

I've never run up the stairs so quickly in my life as the first time the alarm went off.