Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 66 total)
  • Baby monitors-tell me about them?
  • organic355
    Free Member

    Next on my list of allocated items to research for our imminent arrival is a baby monitor.

    So what do I need?

    Digital?
    Room temperature sensor?
    Video?
    Cot pad/apnea pad??

    What brands are good with no interference with home wifi/ cordless phones?

    Don’t mind spending if I have to, but not just for the sake of it. Not sure video is necessary and getting it set up for the correct view will probably be a hassle and don’t want wires ganging everywhere.

    Cheers

    rob-jackson
    Free Member

    we used ears

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    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.

    TooTall
    Free Member

    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.

    waller
    Free Member

    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 🙁

    rob-jackson
    Free Member

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

    brakes
    Free Member

    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.

    teamhurtmore
    Free Member

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

    spudly1979
    Free Member

    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!

    bigG
    Free Member

    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.

    TroutWrestler
    Free Member

    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.

    FunkyDunc
    Free Member

    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.

    mark90
    Free Member

    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 🙂

    gravity-slave
    Free Member

    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!

    juanking
    Full Member

    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.

    crikey
    Free Member

    🙄

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

    hot_fiat
    Full Member

    +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

    jamesy01
    Free Member

    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!

    takisawa2
    Full Member

    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…

    makecoldplayhistory
    Free Member

    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!

    Edukator
    Free Member

    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.

    dannybgoode
    Full Member

    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

    organic355
    Free Member

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

    dr_death
    Free Member

    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.

    Sidney
    Free Member

    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.

    This one I think

    clanton
    Free Member

    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.

    TiRed
    Full Member

    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.

    ransos
    Free Member

    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.

    chiefgrooveguru
    Full Member

    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?

    Sidney
    Free Member

    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!

    mrhoppy
    Full Member

    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.

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    We use a Tomy one:


    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.

    chiefgrooveguru
    Full Member

    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.

    stevestunts
    Free Member

    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.

    aphex_2k
    Free Member

    We had the BT ones too. Sound and temps.

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    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.

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    Decide what features you 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.

    jamiea
    Free Member

    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

    BlindMelon
    Free Member

    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.

    jamiea
    Free Member

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

    Cheers,
    Jamie

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 66 total)

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