You have just welcomed your baby into your family. Do you find yourself constantly checking on your baby to see if he or she is breathing properly? Or perhaps you have read about SIDS and you are worried about it.
Checking on your baby’s breathing is a legit concern especially so for babies who are either born prematurely or with respiratory challenges.
The baby monitor industry has changed a lot and now includes functions that can observe track, and alert parents on their baby’s breathing through wearables. Depending on your needs, you might want it to be contact-free or to come with a smartphone app.
Below, we will discuss several baby monitors which either use different ways to track the baby’s breathing or include different setup.
Clip Ons Wearables
So one method to alert parents on your baby’s breathing is to use wearables that have zero contact with baby skin. To achieve this, you can check out Levana Oma Sense baby monitor which has a patented, one-hand clip-on feature that you can clip on near your baby’s belly area.
It is important that it does not emit wireless frequencies as EMF exposure can be harmful to your baby. Levana Oma Sense is cordless and portable. While it does not have an app to go along, it uses wake-up technology that creates vibrations pulse to gently encourage baby to move and breathe.
If your baby does not move within 5 seconds of the vibration stimulation, it will alert parents to attend to your baby.
Another clip-on option is Snuza Hero, where you have similar functions to Levana Oma Sense. This solution is direct and easy to use. Do remember that this is more so for younger infants (0-6 months old) as they might pull it off when they grow older.
Wearable Socks
Owlet uses wearable socks to track information like the baby’s heartbeat and oxygen level through a pulse oximeter. It is useful for babies with medical conditions as parents are able to get peace of mind knowing that Owlet is tracking and alerting these vital signs to you.
Owlet socks come with a base station that picks up on the sock’s sensor. You can use an app to see these alerts or without it is fine as well. Both socks and base station needs to be charged.
Again when it comes to wearables, there is a chance that the sock might slip off especially when your baby is older.
Contact Free (No wearables)
While there are wearable baby monitors that have zero contact with baby’s skin, they are still generally attached to the baby’s clothing or feet. Miku baby monitors is an all in one baby monitor that tracks everything from breathing, humidity, sound, temperature, and motion.
Miku is the first baby monitor that allows you to track real-time breathing without any wearables. It is a wifi baby monitor that comes with an app to deliver you the insights and alerts. Do consider this if you like all the analytics and non-wearables breathing tracking.
Wearable Onesies
Another wearable that functions similarly to clip-on is Mimo’s wearable onesies, which has zero skin contact. So it uses smart clothing technology and is integrated into onesies such that it doesn’t risk sliding off. Mimo tracks if the baby rolls over. It tracks their temperature as well.
You can simply detach sensors and wash the onesies. Do note that it comes with 3 onesies only and so you might need to buy extras.
Mimo app can be used to track multiple babies. So if you have twins or triplets, Mimo will be really helpful.
Under the Crib Motion Detector Pads
The last category consists of older technology that isn’t wearables but are motion detector pads that can be placed under baby crib or mattresses.
Baby Sense 7 baby monitor gives you 2 of these pads. It monitors micro-movements that highly correlate with the baby’s breathing and overall care.
It doesn’t track oxygen levels and heartbeat rates like Miku but it has a really sensitive pad that will sound off the alarm if there’s no micro-movement within 20 seconds or if there are less than 10 micro-movements in 1 minute.
And, it comes with the standard baby monitor features on top of this function. You do need 2 separate remotes for both motion sensor pads and camera.
Also, you can check out Angel Care baby monitor, which is a similar mattress sensor pad concept.
Final Thoughts
Not all parents will require wearables to check on the key vitals or breathing signs of your baby. In fact, recent baby monitors are powerful enough to help monitor your baby.
To consider wearable baby monitors if your baby is born prematurely has respiratory problems or if you are a really anxious parent who wants to know your baby’s breathing and other vital signs. Then, the wearables can indeed bring peace of mind to you.