How long do you use a baby monitor?

Visted a family last night, their eldest is three years and three months old, and they still have a baby monitor for him – in fact, have just bought a swanky new video-capable one. Is this healthy?

Healthy for who? Why would it be unhealthy?

We couldn’t bear it for long..
Maybe six months

If my 3 year old wants anything, he texts us or slips a note under our bedroom door..
In fact, now he’s nearly four it’s more often us texting him to get him to bring us a cup of tea or a bacon sarnie

3 weeks. The snuffling was unbearable.

Has anyone else heard their baby start crying, only to be followed by a soothing adult voice on a baby monitor?

First time it happened to us, the nano second it took to conclude that it was someone else’s alarm interfering with ours was terrifying!

On and off for 18 months. More for when we were visiting friends/in-laws as he didn’t settle well in new places/travel cot.

Not sure what model we had but would only cut in to our receiver if prolonged noise, something like 5 seconds so light noise/movement in bed was never an issue.

Has anyone else heard their baby start crying, only to be followed by a soothing adult voice on a baby monitor?

Not happened to us but if it had, i’d shat a brick.

You can shat a brick in a nano second, believe me 🙂

Never. Pavlov knew his stuff.

About 2 hours, when we realised that there was no way of figuring out any problems from the snuffling noises, and that as soon as she woke and cried we heard it anyway.

Some sort of bio monitoring would be more useful. So it would monitor breathing, heart rate and unusual movement, then stay quiet until something actually bad happens.

We used ours for a few nights before we got fed up with it picking up the signal from the local taxi firm.

At least until the child leaves home.

Our daughter’s gonna turn two next month and she still has one. Comes in handy when we go out as we can just take it to the inlaws next door and they can listen out for her without having to come through (our houses adjoin through the pantry so it’s effectively one large farmhouse).

We don’t use ours at night, never have, but wee guy is nearly 2 and if he’s ill we’ll put it on while downstairs watching films. I’ll also use it when in the shed/garden during his naps

As long as you want. There are no rules.

Stopped at 6 months. Will be reinstalled when she starts bringing boys home!

😆

As long as you want. There are no rules.

This.

4 and 6, still have one, bedroom is quite a distance away. tribes sleep with their kids in the same room so I don’t see a problem. It’s not a conscious decision to keep it, just never thought of moving it, but then our kids don’t really bother us in the night.

Ours broke after 6 months with our first child. It never got replaced for our second.

for as long as you want to watch them for. if you are downstairs and they are upstairs you can keep an eye on them or if they are in another room at night you can decide wither to get up or not if they make a noise. never bothered with just a speaker, all three kids had/have a video one. This is what we have, its brill.

http://www.shop.bt.com/products/bt-video-baby-monitor-7500-lightshow-078690-9V8G.html

MoreCashThanDash – Member

Stopped at 6 months. Will be reinstalled when she starts bringing boys home!

pretty sure there is a law against that ya perv

For boys it’s till they are mid 60s or get married and have someone else take over the supervising

Better off with the movement / breathing sensor pads.. so at least you know if theyve actually stopped breathing in their sleep. Or on the occasion they roll right off the sensor and the alarm goes off at 3 am.. more shitting brick moments as you sprint to the cot…

Only used ours when we are away and couldn’t hear him from where we were.
Don’t bother at home as we can easily here him.
I’m a bit fatalistic when it comes to the breathing monitors as if they stop breathing is there really much you can do. Sure cpr would probably keep them going for a while but I’m not sure that it would help that much.

Ours just rings a bell for our attention 🙂

Seriously though, we only had ours for maybe a year? I know my mates had theres for years. Everyone is different, as long as both of you are comfortable.

WHAT!

So are you saying that you wouldn’t try CPR as there wouldn’t be much point

About a year for #2, a couple of years for #1 but that was due to being in a different floor of the house to us so I often couldn’t hear her cry.

#2 has just gone to sleep in a bed (as opposed to cot) for the first time. Currently sitting outside his foot waiting for the inevitable footsteps….

One year for no1, when no2 came along it didn’t work properly but would function just about, no3 its stayed in the loft. But by the time you get to no3 you realise that they can fend for themselves / take advantage of the older two 😉

Got an (almost) 2 and (almost) 4 year old here and they are both are on a video monitor. The only time it really get used is when mrs blobby is out and I’m on the turbo. Find it useful as I have a set of headphones on, two big 18″ fans going, and the noisiest turbo known to man, so there is no chance I’d hear anything going on right behind me let alone upstairs. I’d think it a bit irresponsible otherwise. I don’t think it’s unhealthy for anyone concerned.

Ours is still on a monitor, three in two months. The receiver lives in the kitchen, I’m hoping the missus doesn’t notice for another few weeks and we can disconnect it.

The sensor pad got binned in no time flat, was more bother than it was worth.

Not at all. I would always try cpr.
But unfortunately healthy babies do not stop breathing unless something is seriously wrong.
So unless that can be addressed then the chances of repeated incidences have to be high.

As long as I’m in the garage, or the wee lad is asleep in the car on the drive.

So far 9 months. Won’t be stopping any time soon.
His bedroom is three flights of stairs up from where we are on an evening, so wouldn’t hear a thing without one.

Just sound though, no video

Sweajnr is almost 2 and as per MrBlobby it now sits by the turbo. But we’re in a bungalow so our bedroom, his bedroom and living room are very close together. Turbo is however in basement.

Only so we can go next door and drink wine and then only up til a year. In the house, about 2hrs, it’s like having a pig in the bedroom, constant snuffling noises. Unbearable.

Ours lasted a year maximum – I hated the snuffling and farting noises it carried.

Frankly, when they can walk, they can shout or come to our room for help.

All the people saying they couldn’t stand the snuffling noises etc.

Did you not have a volume control?

Ours is totally silent 99% of the time, volume is set so we can hear crying and pretty much nothing else.

A week after our daughter was born mother in law came to stay, a few days later my wife and I are in the nursery room and I says to the wife ‘when’s your mum going home, I hate watching Coronation street’ guess where the monitor speaker was and guess where my mil was?

About a week. Dog whined when he woke up anyway!!

They all have noises gates don’t they or do some transmit sound constantly? If they do have a noise gate and the low level sounds are annoying, just move the transmitter (and thus the mic within) further from the baby.