[Closed] Baby monitors-tell me about them?

we used ears

http://www.johnlewis.com/angelcare-movement-and-sound-monitor-ac401/p231136658

This was a tip to me from another new parent. They were right, so I'll always pass it on.

BT branded ones used off the eBay. Nothing else needed. Clear enough, good range, cheap. Cameras, pads etc will just make you even more twitchy.

Bought a fancy pants motorola thing with a moveable camera. Six weeks in we haven't really used it yet...... I'm gutted. Seems a great gadget but zooming in and out of the TV screen wears a bit thin apparently 🙁

is the baby not sleeping in your room for a few months?

We've got a Motorola video unit.
Been using it for 18 months now, 1 or 2 times a day and it's still going strong.
The wire on the charger broke, so we had to buy another one.

Thoughts:
- the video would be a nice to have, if it could see in the dark, which it can't very well. you can basically see grainy shadows. so we don't really use it. used it for a couple of months, once junior went into his own room but his room is now pitch black so you can't see much.
- the temperature sensor always says that it's 19-22 deg. C which it isn't
- you won't use any of the other functions on the unit like the music
- the range is pretty good
- it doesn't suffer from interference unlike our telephone and our internet...

I'd buy it again.
-

Don't forget when you are telling your new born about the wife/MIL/ boring dinner guests etc that they can hear you too!!

We got a hand me down tommee tippee one, no video but it did come with the sensor mat. Found it pretty useful as it can be difficult to hear crying when downstairs or with the TV on.

The sensor mat was useful as an aid to relaxing - I didn't feel the need to check on our son as regularly as e had a little flashing light that went on and off with his breathing. Did lead to some leaping out of bed though once he managed to roll out of range!

BT150 worked really well for us, does temperature and allows you to talk to little un from the handset, which is great for freaking them out but bugger all use for anything else.

Pads, video etc just give you more to worry/stress about.

That is an excellent price for the Angelcare. We have one. We used it with our newborns (1st was 6 & 1/2 weeks early). After all the monitors and 24 hour staffing in Special Care, it was very reassuring.

BT one gets the best reviews. No need for camera etc, when a baby is quiet you know its ok... or dead, we found temp useful as Jnr FD room always appears to be way cooler than other rooms in the house.

Still use ours, means I can go cut the lawn etc on a night when Jnr FD is asleep.

If your going yo be just down stairs, and just sit there all night then no need for any device.

Of course there is nothing wrong with some reassurance, especially when baby has been puking up, choking etc on own flem.

We had a basic BT sound monitor and a baby sense pad.

Did lead to some leaping out of bed though once he managed to roll out of range!

Had a couple of false alarms and one incident that might have turned out quite differently without the pad. Who knows, impossible to know for sure, but we're very glad we had the pad.

Pads, video etc just give you more to worry/stress about.

That's what I used to think about the pads, but see above comment.

Not had a video monitor but could see that being more useful when they are a bit bigger to see what the little buggers getting up to 🙂

we used ears

That's what I planned to do, but we got one when the little guy moved into his own room.

Monitor is great when our lass is out and I want to go on my rollers in the cellar or she's asleep and I'm in the workshop.

BT one here, very clear and great range - will connect right down the garden, where WiFi doesn't reach. It had lights, music and talk back and we don't use any of those features!

http://www.johnlewis.com/angelcare-video-with-movement-and-sound-monitor-ac1100/p231377141

We went with the one above. Realise its a bit steep but does everything and the transmitter/receiver have a good range. Some see it as peace of mind some see it as something else to worry about.

🙄

I loved you so much, I spent £200 on a baby monitor...

+1 for the angelcare from John Lewis. Good audio, crystal clear image and really solidly built. Wouldn't bother with a movement sensor: they grunt, twitch and generally lark about far too much while they're asleep to be of any use. Ours is now 2.5 weeks old, his party trick is randomly raising his hands in the air at about 2am as if caught by Corporal Jones lurking on warmington-on-sea's pier

Angelcare movement and sound monitor is all you need. We've used it for number 1 and it'll be ready and waiting for number 2.
Video is all fine and well...but in no way necessary!

We've got the older model Angelcare with the pad still.
Seeing as our youngest is now 6 I reckon we should sell it. 🙂

They are good until you lift the baby & forget to turn the pad sensor off...

We got a cheap BT one which has been great (18 months in).

You don't need anything fancy.

FWIW, our little one went into his nursery to sleep as soon as we got home from hospital. Brilliant decision!

Keep the baby within ear shot. The bonus is you'll end up with a kid who'll sleep through normal household noise, sleep in a baby seat, sleep on a car ferry, sleep in a train, sleep in a noisy tent, sleep whenever given the chance.

Young mammals are much happier when there's a human presence. Take it away and they feel insecure.

We have the single receiver version of this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Angelcare-Movement-Sensor-Monitor-Deluxe/dp/B0033XABR8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1379315803&sr=8-2&keywords=angelcare+baby+monitor

but the one with two receivers is only 16p more at the moment so seems rude not to!

It has been faultless with no false negatives or positives on the movement sensor unless babybgoode has got himself properly wedged at the top of the cot but then its good to know so we can unwedge him.

We looked at the ones with a video link as well but decided if we were just going to stare at a screen watching him we may as well sit in the nursery and do it.

Battery life is excellent, it turns the audio off when no sounds are being received so its not constantly humming and is very easy to use.

Cheers

Danny B

see these pads? I read somehwere they need to sit on a bit of plywood or something??

Agree with CaptFlash (and the rest). We had the angelcare with motion sensor and it's been good. Motion sensor was a little bit fiddly to get positioned right at first as JrDrDeath is a wriggler and would just roll off it, but once that was sorted we were away.
Reasonably tough as well, montior has been dropped down the stairs at least twice and still works fine (slight crack in the protective screen).
The motion sensors need to be mounted on something flat. I didn't realise this until it came to set it up so just used a piece of thickish cardboard I found lying around and this worked fine.

We went with phillips advent. It has temperature and noise. Range and signal really good. I was interested in video at first but having not used it it wasn't necessary in our case.

[url= http://www.babysecurity.co.uk/philips-avent-scd525-baby-digital-monitor.html?gclid=CI7tnaK9z7kCFcpX3godpRUAoQ ]This one I think[/url]

I feel like a callous uncaring parent reading all this 😉

We had planned on using ears only -got given a sound only detector (don't know brand/model) and used it - and found it useful. Never really felt the need for anything more fancy.

Don't bother. Pavlov knew what he was talking about. When your phone beeps do you leave it? Multiply that by an order of magnitude and factor in a walk up the stairs.

They come with a built in alarm that is loud enough.

BT one gets the best reviews.

Ours keep breaking - we're now on our third in two years, and the display has just failed. Luckily, John Lewis have been very good about replacing them.

Keep the baby within ear shot. The bonus is you'll end up with a kid who'll sleep through normal household noise, sleep in a baby seat, sleep on a car ferry, sleep in a train, sleep in a noisy tent, sleep whenever given the chance.
Young mammals are much happier when there's a human presence. Take it away and they feel insecure.

Our house is by no means big but we can't hear her when she's upstairs and we're downstairs - she was in our bedroom for the first few months and is now in the adjoining room. So no baby monitor needed when we're upstairs too but what about earlier in the evening or during her daytime naps?

You're going to get a multitude of advice on here. Go with what sounds good to you and your situation. We use ours for evenings and daytime naps as we can't reliably hear our daughter from downstairs. Downtime for parents is precious!

We went with the Summer Baby Touch (be careful googling it). It's been very reliable and the signal has been good wherever we've used it, it hols the signal out into my garage so I can fettle bikes whilst hoppy jr sleeps. It can be run off batteries which is useful for camping too. The cordless handset is a decent size to carry around if you have to.

We use a Tomy one:

[img] [/img]
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00361FMQM

Works pretty well. Video with infrared, temperature sensor, night-light with rotating colours, and two-way sound (so you can tell baby to shut up without having to get up from the X-factor).

We still have it in our 3 year olds room, so we can make sure she is sleeping instead of getting up to play as soon as we go downstairs.

And we've bought a second camera for our latest arrival. (Both cameras can talk to one screen).

Only really suffers from interference when the microwave is on or if the phone is next to it and downloading something.

Pricey new, but usually a few bargains on eBay.

I was skeptical about a video monitor first time around as the missus was already quite fretful and had us literally tiptoeing round the house - but actually it really helped her relax because she could see that baby wasn't really waking up every time one of us farted.

is the baby not sleeping in your room for a few months?

Fair point. No rush. You'll probably have the baby in your room for the first six months or so anyway, especially if your missus is breastfeeding.

They come with a built in alarm that is loud enough.

Loud enough to hear a baby choking on its own vomit when you are downstairs with the telly on?

Remarkably good hearing you have.

They come with a built in alarm that is loud enough.

Seriously, my wife would insist on having the TV/radio/hi-if at a whisper all evening if we didn't have a baby monitor. Our baby makes a racket when she really isn't happy but she's much easier to handle if you catch her before she's worked herself up into a rage.

All babies are different and some are far easier than others. The parents of 'easier' babies have no clue how vastly parenting experiences can differ. The Angelcare monitor is good, though we never got round to plugging in the movement sensor (I never had any worry that she'd expire, she was very vital and keen to tell us all in the early days). Thermometer is quite sensitive, handy for deciding what she should wear at night.

We have a BT unit as others have mentioned above. Never felt the need for anything more. Our daughter is 2.5 now, but we live in a three storey house, bedrooms on the top floor, so it's still handy for the time between her going to bed and us doing likewise.

We switch it off during the night as our rooms are next to each other, so we can hear her naturally when she does anything loud enough to require our attention. Otherwise you tend to find yourself being woken up by perfectly harmless snorts and farts, and my wife does enough of those herself.

We had the BT ones too. Sound and temps.

my wife would insist on having the TV/radio/hi-if at a whisper all evening if we didn't have a baby monitor

Yep! My missus used to make me watch telly on mute with subtitles till we got a monitor and she could see everything was fine.

Decide what features [i]you[/i] want, set your budget, read reviews on amazon and get the one that best suits. It's your baby so try not to let others tell you what not to worry about. The only thing I changed my mind on was the video feature after seeing how twitchy it made some of our friends. We just went for a sound and temperature one - Tomy TD350. It's been grand.

We used an Angelcare movement sensor unit, up until a year old, which we bought secondhand from some friends. There was no need for a bit of plywood in our cot, just make sure each corner is on a slat. We've got no use for it now- PM me if you're interested.

Cheers,
Jamie

We went with a BT 250 sounds and temp unit. Great sound and very good range, can work in the garden etc and not worry.

A family friend lent us the angle care thing but our son moved about so much it caused more panic than it gave in reassurance.

We had a couple of false alarms before I moved the pad into the middle of the cot.

Cheers,
Jamie

I never understood what these were for. Babies do scream pretty loudly - every time I've been at someone's house when they've had a monitor on you can barely hear the monitor over the real screaming coming from upstairs 🙂

If the kid's going to die of SIDS would you actually hear anything? Likewise, would a movement sensor be able to pick anything up?

Temperature was also not an issue either for us. Babies aren't as delicate as people think.

Loud enough to hear a baby choking on its own vomit when you are downstairs with the telly on?

Does that actually happen? Babies heads tend to be on their side ime, the puke then falls out and puddles on the sheet.

According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, "Healthy babies automatically swallow or cough up fluids. There has been no increase in choking or other problems for babies who sleep on their backs."

Angelcare with motion sensor and temp for us.

Nothing quite like getting halfway into a 2am nappy change and having an alarm go off behind you as you forgot to knock the monitor off when you picked up your little poo factory.

Likewise, would a movement sensor be able to pick anything up?

Cheers,
Jamie

"If the kid's going to die of SIDS would you actually hear anything? Likewise, would a movement sensor be able to pick anything up?"

if the baby is in the process of dying it stops moving the motion sensor normally that detects movement/breathing then triggers the alarm, as the movement has stopped, you then rush in to find the alarm noise shocked the baby into breathing or at least in time to do something.

I mean would it be able to pick up anything up that's significant? If it monitors breathing then that could be useful. Otherwise, babies spend periods of time not moving anyway. Being asleep and all.

My advise is dont do it.. Monitors are the spawn of the devil that prey on new parents inability to think for themselves, making us all ridiculously paranoid that jnr is not OK. When the reality is, JNR is fine, the temp of the room is fine, the fact that he has wriggled is also fine.... + the camera ones can and have been intercepted by weirdo's.

I wasn't aware that our monitor had stopped me thinking for myself. I'll bin it when I get home. If I make it. 🙂

quite the contrary, they give you peace of mind that they are ok, and stop you going in every 10 minutes to check that they're still breathing.
parents will behave in a particular way towards their children (which they're entitled to do) regardless of whether they have a baby monitor or not.

I forgot to mention that ours is two-way, so that you can talk to baby over the monitor. this may or may not freak them out a bit, depending on what voice you put on.

Dont' get me wrong i've had (got) 2 kids. The first one we didn't use a monitor as she was a V. loud child at night, so if she wanted something we knew, and oddly enough we didn't worry about the temp of the room or anything else, but just checked on her every so often.

Sui JNR however, for some reason the decision was made that we must have a monitor, 2 way, with chimes, with temp sensor... ARRGGHHH the arguments we had over the temp of the room and if it was ok or not, a [low] number does not necessarily mean the child is uncomfortable. All it seemed to do was put the missus on edge, the lights might flash or, it would beep for another reason - was it the out of range beep etc...

I appreciate you could consider it peace of mind, but at the same time the number of gadgets on them these days just leads to emphasising the paranoia that we all have as new parents.

I never understood what these were for. Babies do scream pretty loudly

Indeed, but if you can to get to the baby/child BEFORE they get to the screaming loudly stage then it makes them a lot easier to settle down again!

Temperature was also not an issue either for us. Babies aren't as delicate as people think.

A moderate controlled room temperature is one of the measures [url= http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/getting-baby-to-sleep.aspx ]recommended by the NHS[/url] and other health bodies to help prevent cot death.

Granted it may make very little actual difference. Babies in hot countries seem to cope. But personally I'd rather follow the medical advice.

Monitors are the spawn of the devil that prey on new parents inability to think for themselves

My baby monitor says that is utter nonsense and I should post a roll eyes for you.

🙄

The main use for the two way bit is to talk to the wife when she is upstair with the baby to ask her to bring your slippers/phone/other stuff downstairs when she has finished calming the baby down. 😈

Other than that, my advice on monitors would be "don't ask for advice about childern on an internet form". These places are full of nutters and people with significant chips on their shoulders and the very nature of this type of audience means all you will get is extreeme and conflicting advice.

As we see with everything from "I'd get one of those beds they put babies in, in hospital, just to be sure" right through to "beds? beds are for the weak, wild animals don't sleep in beds"

molgrips yep it monitors breathing. They are very sensitive which you can adjust as appropriate.

I really fancy the idea of a two way one so I could freak crankbrat out but I may just get a walkie talkie and hide it in his cupboard.

I forgot to mention that ours is two-way, so that you can talk to baby over the monitor. this may or may not freak them out a bit, depending on what voice you put on.

I like to do this one:

The wife disapproves.

A moderate controlled room temperature is one of the measures recommended by the NHS and other health bodies to help prevent cot death.

Yeah, but you can test that easily enough by going in there, surely? Do they need it to be a certain temperature within a degree? And it's their temperature that's important, so it depends how warmly you've dressed them surely? To me it sounds like the advice is simply to make sure the room's not boiling or freezing.

You see a lot of babies and even toddlers heavily overdressed and looking really hot. People seem really bad at figuring out how to make their kids comfortable for some reason.

Other than that, my advice on monitors would be "don't ask for advice about childern on an internet form". These places are full of nutters and people with significant chips on their shoulders and the very nature of this type of audience means all you will get is extreeme and conflicting advice.

It's not just internet forums, it's everwhere 🙂

Monitors are the spawn of the devil that prey on new parents inability to think for themselves

My baby monitor says that is utter nonsense and I should post a roll eyes for you.

Who also played the rather annoying game of research and came to the conclusion that not one model didn't have something inherently wroing with it?

"beds? beds are for the weak, wild animals don't sleep in beds"

i like this 😀

Yeah, but you can test that easily enough by going in there, surely?

Completely agree - but as you point out people are really crap at judging how to keep a kid comfortable. Plus some people are so used to overly hot central heated houses and heated cars that an 18 degree room feels bitterly cold to them.

Second time around I suspect we'll pay less attention to the temperature on the monitor, but the alarm on it is very occasionally useful (e.g. when we left a portable radiator on by mistake and her room got to 26 degrees - or at the in-laws house where 26 degrees is the default room temperature!)

Try living in Oz and dealing with 40c nights. Actually it's not /that/ bad. Ducted aircon helps!

+1 for Angelcare with breathing monitor pad. It's well worth it and the breathing sensor definitely works, speaking from personal experience. Now using it for number 2 son, would be without it. Don't let anyone else tell you not to get one if you think it will give you peace of mind.

if you think it will give you peace of mind

You might think that now... But once you've been up the stairs seven times in an hour 😉

Keep the room temperate and check on them occasionally. Babies get too hot, not too cold. And they cry. For all sorts of reasons. And none at all.

Aside from a nursery thermometer and advice to place them on their backs, is there any evidence that the incidence of SIDS has fallen with the advent of baby monitoring? And what of parent neuroses?

You might think that now... But once you've been up the stairs seven times in an hour

With sprog#1 we were up the stairs seven times an hour (at least!) before we got the monitor.

Once we got one the missus could relax and we got a precious bit of our evenings back.

As others have said, everyone reacts and parents differently.

(I've mentioned before that we also used the video monitor to allow us to have a meal and quiet drink at the bar while sprog#1 was asleep two-storeys above us in a locked hotel room)

An alternative approach which we are finding works really well is to get an extra cotbed and put it in/near the living room so you can monitor them in person. We do have a lot of stairs though.

We found a sensor matt alarm a great comfort for the first few months - it just gave you that reassurance that everything was ok.

Breathing pads?? is this a new thing? i'd never heard of them before today!. I must be a bad parent (well certainly according to some on here). we had one of those plastic wall thermometer things and kept the doors open so we could listen out for them and that was about it. When they were babies we had them in our room for the first 6 months so we could listen out for them. Seems to be a huge amount of tech out there now!. I do sometimes think some of the manufacturers come up with solutions which are for problems which are relatively rare. Dont get me wrong but if i were that concerned about issues with sleeping then id just keep them with me downstairs and take them up when i went to bed.

Daytime naps were near us wherever we happened to be. A small, thin mattress that rolled into a shopping bag with a small quilt made a makeshift bed anywhere. The nounou had a similar arrangement for the kids. When he started school at two and half, siesta time was the first time he'd ever slept in a proper bed.

We just used our ears most of the time, but occaisionally I'd use the baby monitor function on my Motorola 446 two way radios (they're a good toy to have when out on the bike as well).