Up until now we’ve coped with just an audio baby monitor. However my son can now climb out of his cot. He climbs onto the changing table next to the cot (which is quite high up for him and we’re worried about him falling off). Also, it will only be a matter of time before he works out he can do the same at the other end of the cot and get onto the floor.

I’ve seen that smart cams can have zones setup which will alert you if there is movement within that zone. So I’m thinking I can setup a zone above his cot and we’ll then know he’s trying to get out. Also the camera can be used for home security at a later date.

I’ve been looking at Hive camera as we already have Hive heating, and the Google Nest camera. It seems that you have to pay for a subscription for the Nest cam in order to get the better alert processing, noise, movement etc.

Has anyone used a smart cam in this way? Any others I should consider?

Have Neos ones originally for cot monitoring (in addition to baby monitor) and now have a few around. Zoned motion detection is one of their premium features if you pay a few quid a month (you also get more cloud recording, etc).

General wisdom is that once they’re capable of climbing out (and doing so) you should move them to a bed anyway.

With our two, we put them in those sleeping bag things for exactly this reason….. they can’t get their leg up.

100% success so far*

*I might just go and check on the 2 year old…

General wisdom is that once they’re capable of climbing out (and doing so) you should move them to a bed anyway.

Yeah, we have talked about that and his cot converts to a bed. The only thing is him then falling out of the bed. He’s not quite 2 and a half. I suppose he has to learn sometime and we could put a bed guard in. A camera would still be useful, if not more so then! We would have to do it in stages as he’s still in a Growbag sleeping bag so move him to a duvet then take the side off the cot.

He only wants out of the cot when he’s put to bed at the moment. What’s triggered the camera thought is we’ve had a few false starts where he seems settled then checked on him and found him sat on the changing table! Normally greeting us with “Morning!”

He’s happy to stay in the cot once he’s settled and is rarely up in the night at the moment

With our two, we put them in those sleeping bag things for exactly this reason….. they can’t get their leg up.

The sleeping bag is not stopping him now! In fact there’s a bit of struggle to get him in it nowadays.

Fix the changing table* to the wall. Convert the cot into the bed.

The real danger isn’t him falling, toddlers are notoriously bouncy, it’s tipping the changing table on top of himself.

A camera won’t help unless you’re constantly in the next room watching it. Don’t try to stop him climbing out, just make it safe for when he inevitably does.

* and any other furniture.

what perchy says tbh

youll be watching the cameras all the time

remove all furniture form his room and put a lock on the outside 😉

Fix the changing table* to the wall.

It is very much fixed to the wall already.

A camera won’t help unless you’re constantly in the next room watching it.

youll be watching the cameras all the time

Hence the smart cam and not an ordinary camera. You can draw an area in the field of view and if it detects movement within that area it will alert you. I wondered if anyone had made use of the feature for toddlers or babies

We decided against a camera due to over monitoring. What’s it going to do? Are you going to sit and watch it all the time so that if the baby starts to climb out of the cot you’re going to run upstairs to catch them? I doubt it. The chances are the first thing you’d know if the baby did fall out of the cot would be the sound of the thud and the crying…or laughing, afterwards. It’ll just add to your stress.

And besides its around now that converting to a bed is about the right time. Our cot converted to a bed but you could lower it so the drop wasn’t high – in cot mode the base was at its highest to make it easier for parents to lean over to place the baby into and out of the cot, but when converted to a bed the base could be lowered to only about 6 inches off the ground and had a few height settings. We did lay out cushions on the floor initially just in case but it wasn’t needed. I’d try them with the bed first before spending on a camera.

We put ours in his bed at that age.
as someone else said it could be lowered so he didn’t drop so far when he fell out.
he fell out twice and it shocked him so much he hasn’t since

youll be watching the cameras all the time

Not really how it works.

Monitor stays off unless there is noise.

Monitor lights up- you check what they are up to….either rolling over or climbing out. You then decide what to do. Instead of hearing noise on the sound activated version and wondering what they are up to.

Ours just a cheap bt one as I didnt want it hooked up to the internet of things

This seems like a great way to get a video of you charging into the room just too late as he falls off the furniture.

Not sure how we managed to bring up our 2 without the aid of a camera or monitor

They weren’t availble in 1922 though bruneep 🙂

as above, take the side, off, we moved ours to a full-size bed and popped one of these on

he can get out the bottom when he wants, doesn’t fall out when he doesn’t.

I recon a kid will fall over climbing out of a cot faster than you can get up the stairs cos a buzzer went off

Not sure how we managed to bring up our 2 without the aid of a camera or monitor

I wrapped mine in bubble wrap from the age of 1 month. Highly recommended. (leave small hole for mouth/nose)

I’d just take the side off the cot.

Ours never quite got to the stage of climbing out but with the cot bed base at the lowest setting and a spare duvet on the floor for a couple of weeks until the girls got used to the idea they could fall out…

Not sure how we managed to bring up our 2 without the aid of a camera or monitor

We actively encouraged our 3 to jump, just like those baby seabirds that go bouncing off the cliff and get eaten by foxes on that David Attenborough show.

A&E and social services only ask awkward questions third time round.

At the age of 2, our youngest managed to climb out of her cot (using a pile of soft toys as a ladder) and then over the gate we had across her door. I was alerted by the thump on the landing floor.

At that point I removed all barriers and put her in a toddler bed, reasoning that if she was going to escape, I should make it so she wouldn’t seriously hurt herself.

Thanks for the replies.

I’m thinking we will take the side off and move him to a duvet. However, I’ve just had a moment where a camera would have been useful. He was put down for his afternoon nap, but kept getting up and trying to get out. My mum told me about the Supernanny’s technique of just putting them back but without saying a word or reacting. I tried it and it worked after a few goes. I think if they don’t get any attention then they get bored. However I was listening at the door to try and work out what he was up to. A couple of times I went in thinking he was climbing out but he was still lying down and banging the cot with his feet. This then seemed to trigger him trying to get out again.

I wrapped mine in bubble wrap from the age of 1 month. Highly recommended. (leave small hole for mouth/nose)

Good effort Dez

There was no bubble wrap around for our two so we used Loft insulation.Worked fine but we did spend a lot on E45.

Safety first though.

All three of mine went in to ordinary single beds around 18 months in rooms with wooden floors and seemed to survive the occasional unplanned dismount as well as a tumble or two down the stairs on to flags, falls off the swing and trees, face plants off the sofa and so on. By the third, the socket covers, stair gates, cupboard clips etc had all been abandoned to exhausted indifference and in the realisation toddlers are of a surprisingly tough design.

we used Loft insulation.

Nice innovation… I bet they’ll never complain about merino wool being itchy.

Falling out of bed is a non-issue with a cot bed. Good chance you’ll just find them asleep on the floor!

Some of the camera attitude around here is always weird. We found they reduce monitoring and stress. Hear a noise loud enough to warrant attention? Touch screen, check, roll back over/get back to watching Netflix

BT Smart 6000 here, excellent.

Can log in via the app from anywhere and see what’s going on. Can talk to the child and also move the camera from the main parent unit or app.

https://shop.bt.com/products/bt-smart-baby-monitor-with-5-inch-screen-096030-F1S1.html

We have a couple of neocams for our 5 and 3 year old. Only look at them if we hear a suspicious thump sound which normally means one has fallen out of bed.

Quite amusing some of the positions they sleep in, and very amusing showing your 5 year old the footage of him landing on his head and not even waking up when he flat denies he fell out of bed in the morning

Also useful as a security cam when you are away

Surveillance in your own home? Talk about nanny state.

We use a Wansview camera for keeping an eye on our littlest.

App works on smartphones or ipads, in or out of the house – so useful if the wife is out and I fancy a night ride…

Eldest decided one night that the IR lights on it looked like eyes and that was the end of it in his room!

Useful to know if the noise from the baby’s room is him snuffling about and settling, or if it’s him preparing to kick off. It saves on unnecessary journeys up the stairs, plus just opening the door to check can change it from option a above, to option b and they’re awake…

Also have a Blink Mini from Amazon which is a bit rubbish for baby monitoring. Which is ‘ok’.
Connection to other wifi is quite easy, so we use it when visiting friends (or did) again to save going up the stairs every 3 minutes.. Switch between IR and normal has an audible click, but that won’t happen often…

Oh, one things with the Wansview one. When it powers on it makes a very loud beep. So if you have a small power cut in the night it’ll wake up everyone when the power comes back on!

Useful to know if the noise from the baby’s room is him snuffling about and settling, or if it’s him preparing to kick off. It saves on unnecessary journeys up the stairs, plus just opening the door to check can change it from option a above, to option b and they’re awake…

exactly our experience – especially as ours has a habit of waking – doing a noisy(youd think there was burglars next door) lap of the cot before settling back down for more sleep.