Breathing Baby Monitors - Necessary?

[yourmother]

I'm a FTM preparing for my first baby.  I bought a very nice video monitor and am now wondering if I also need to get a breathing monitor as well.  Thoughts? Google isn't helping much. TIA!

[countthestars]

We chose not to get one because I had heard that many send off false alarms and I also didn't want an excuse to ignore SIDS rules like tummy sleeping and blankets in the crib because of false security. There are differing levels of comfort with the SIDs risks, so I'm sure there will be people who disagree or were just fine with putting their babies on their tummies, etc.

[anna7602]

If you're truly paranoid about this (and I know that's hard to keep in check!), I recommend room-sharing in the early days.

[halfpint]

I didn't get one. Some of the same reasons as above. I also remember reading some cases of babies getting tangled in the cords (though I suspect that was more user error, and I think some recalls happened as a result?). I think they are less than reliable, and was happy to just follow doctor/expert recommendations on SIDS prevention.

[halfpint]

Mar 5, 2015 11:46:49 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

If you're truly paranoid about this (and I know that's hard to keep in check!), I recommend room-sharing in the early days.

And this. I actually think room sharing is recommended until six (plus) months.  

[robinsbff]

we have an angel care and i like it. we don't ignore SIDS recommendations -- we still have no blankets, on the back to sleep, etc. if you install it right then the cords are not near baby at all. he'd have to lift up the mattress to get at them which i can't see happening with an infant. he stayed in our room for the first three months (in a cosleeper, without the monitor) then when we moved him to his crib in his room it gave me peace of mind that he was okay in there alone.

do you NEED one? no. do i like mine? yes. it, like so much other baby gear, is a matter of personal preference.

[timorousbeastie]

We used a snuza with DD until she was 6 months old. I wouldn't say I recommend it in the sense that I think it's a must have by any means. It did, however, give me a sense of peace that she was ok. I had a great deal of paranoia over SIDS, so there were many nights that I was able to tell myself that she must be ok because otherwise the alarm would have gone off. It was comforting to me. But, like I said, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, and I certainly wouldn't think twice about someone not using one.

[Deleted]

It depends on your own level of paranoia. I never had or wanted one.

[statlerwaldorf]

As far as I know, they haven't been shown to prevent or reduce the chance of SIDS. I don't think they are necessary.

[DarcyLongfellow]

I was absolutely paranoid about SIDS, so I didn't get one because I didn't want to rely on something that wasn't an approved medical device. If it gives you peace of mind, there's nothing wrong with having one. I just knew it would make me more insane.

[wavepool]

We follow(ed) all the safe sleep rules and still use one. O was on an apnea monitor after coming home from the hospital, then room shared, then we started using it when we put him in his crib. Now, at almost 2, we use it so we'll know the day he climbs out of his crib!

[thebreakfastclub]

I did not have a video monitor and I could only handle room sharing for a week.

I followed all of the safe sleeping guidelines and just tried to remember that the risk is extremely low.

[yourmother]

Thanks, everyone! I'm torn because I'm a naturally paranoid person. I do plan on having Baby in my room for a few months or longer. I guess I have time to research this.

[Deleted]

Mar 5, 2015 12:01:22 GMT -5 wavepool said:

We follow(ed) all the safe sleep rules and still use one. O was on an apnea monitor after coming home from the hospital, then room shared, then we started using it when we put him in his crib. Now, at almost 2, we use it so we'll know the day he climbs out of his crib!

I never wanted one because I think it would have made me more crazy. However, if I were in you shoes with a baby that came home on an apnea monitor I think This would have pushed me to get one for peace of mind.

[ngdgtco]

We had a Snuza because I expected to be a very paranoid FTM. In reality I actually wasn't and we didn't use it very much. If you decide you want one I'm happy to sell mine for half off.

[bowies]

Mar 5, 2015 11:52:08 GMT -5 timorousbeastie said:

We used a snuza with DD until she was 6 months old. I wouldn't say I recommend it in the sense that I think it's a must have by any means. It did, however, give me a sense of peace that she was ok. I had a great deal of paranoia over SIDS, so there were many nights that I was able to tell myself that she must be ok because otherwise the alarm would have gone off. It was comforting to me. But, like I said, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, and I certainly wouldn't think twice about someone not using one.

This exactly.

[cincodemayo]

We didn't get a video monitor so I wanted an AngelCare. I liked it for the first 6 months or so because it gave me piece of mind. Once he started rolling it gave off too many false alarms so I just use it for the sound feature now.

Jury's out on whether I will get a video monitor for hypo #2

[kershnic]

I don't like them since they're not actually proven to work and the scary recalls over the cords and false alarms would scare me so much.

That said we room shared with both twins for 9 months and one twin for 11 months. Having such little babies in another room would be hard for me.

[babyrn]

It is definitely not necessary. That said, I am extremely paranoid about things and we had both a snuza and an angelcare, lol. They don't prevent SIDS but they gave me peace of mind. We still followed safe sleeping guidelines and DD was in our room until about 5-6 months.

[yourmother]

Mar 5, 2015 12:49:27 GMT -5 babyrn said:

It is definitely not necessary. That said, I am extremely paranoid about things and we had both a snuza and an angelcare, lol. They don't prevent SIDS but they gave me peace of mind. We still followed safe sleeping guidelines and DD was in our room until about 5-6 months.

If you had to pick just one, which one would you pick?

[jeaniebueller]

We never had one, but I slept next to DD (in the RNP) on the couch for the first 8 weeks.

[Deleted]

I had a good friend loose his son to SIDS at 7 weeks when I was pregnant with DS. I was super paranoid about SIDS & was going to buy a monitor until a friend told me she had CONSTANT false alarms with hers.

I room shared for 3 weeks, but DS was the loudest baby on earth when he slept so he went into his own room then.

[lmb5109]

We have the AngelCare video monitor and had DD sleep in an Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper next to me for 5 months. DD is 26 months now and I still use the monitor pad when she hasn't moved for awhile. The piece of mind it gave me even with her sleeping right next to me was priceless. We used white noise when she was in our room so I was afraid I would't hear her if something did go wrong.

It did give us a few false alarms when DD went into her own room at 5 months when she started to move around. If she got into the corner, the monitor would go off but I would just look at the monitor to see she was in the corner. I also like this monitor because the microphone isn't on all the time. You can adjust the sensitivity of the mic. I have it on the lowest setting so I only hear when DD is crying, not when she's talking to herself. But I can also turn that off and have the mic on all the time.

[simpsongal]

Nope - admittedly I'm one of the few on this board that thinks a video monitor is unnecessary too

[babyrn]

Mar 5, 2015 13:06:00 GMT -5 yourmother said:

Mar 5, 2015 12:49:27 GMT -5 babyrn said:

It is definitely not necessary. That said, I am extremely paranoid about things and we had both a snuza and an angelcare, lol. They don't prevent SIDS but they gave me peace of mind. We still followed safe sleeping guidelines and DD was in our room until about 5-6 months.

If you had to pick just one, which one would you pick?

Probably the snuza. I really liked the portability of the snuza. We could use it in the swing, RnP, etc. as well as the crib. We used it for the first 6 months and then switched to the angel care because she started sleeping on her stomach in the crib and it fell off sometimes. I've heard there are things you can do to help prevent this but since we already had the angel care we just switched to that.

We had bought the angel care first and then had to buy the snuza because she would only sleep in the RnP at first.

[mrshandy]

I don't really understand their purpose. Never had or wanted one.

[babyrn]

Also, we rarely had false alarms with either of ours. The angel care gave us a couple at first but we adjusted the sensitivity and never had a problem again. We never had a false alarm with the snuza.

[yourmother]

Mar 5, 2015 14:13:13 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

They are not necessary, but I sleep much better having one. We have two AC monitors, one for each girl (my toddler is still in her crib). We got a lot of false alarms for a brief period of time with my first daughter, because she moved around a lot while she was still pretty small. If she moved too far over to the side of the crib, it would go off. It lasted a few weeks, and after that alarms were very rare. We never got a lot of false alarms with my second. She's bigger an stays more in one place at night. She's been sick this week, and I had an alarm last night that seemed like the real deal. She likely would have been okay and it was just a brief period of holding her breath or very shallow breathing, and maybe some would argue that it caused unnecessary worry. But I'm even more satisfied with them after that.

We used a Snuza with DD2 because we put her in her room pretty early on, while she was still in a Rock n Play. With DD1, we didn't put her in her own room until we moved her to the crib.

Thanks for posting! Your post on ML is what alerted me to look into the breathing monitors.  I really hope you're baby girl is doing much better this afternoon.

[Deleted]

Mar 5, 2015 14:14:10 GMT -5 simpsongal said:

Nope - admittedly I'm one of the few on this board that thinks a video monitor is unnecessary too

You are not alone.  We have some expensive Motorola one that we have still not used.

Before we had our child, we thought about getting one of the Angel Care monitors, but as PPs said, we were deterred by the idea of the false alarms.

[BAMFMrsB]

Mar 5, 2015 14:13:13 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

They are not necessary, but I sleep much better having one. We have two AC monitors, one for each girl (my toddler is still in her crib). We got a lot of false alarms for a brief period of time with my first daughter, because she moved around a lot while she was still pretty small. If she moved too far over to the side of the crib, it would go off. It lasted a few weeks, and after that alarms were very rare. We never got a lot of false alarms with my second. She's bigger an stays more in one place at night. She's been sick this week, and I had an alarm last night that seemed like the real deal. She likely would have been okay and it was just a brief period of holding her breath or very shallow breathing, and maybe some would argue that it caused unnecessary worry. But I'm even more satisfied with them after that.

We used a Snuza with DD2 because we put her in her room pretty early on, while she was still in a Rock n Play. With DD1, we didn't put her in her own room until we moved her to the crib.

I never thought of that angle. It would have never worked for us, then. DS is a tornado in his sleep. He goes to bed in the center of the crib and usually wakes up somehow flipped upside down, backwards or in a pretzel shape. It's mind boggling how he sleeps comfortably like that.

Our pedi said because DS didn't have breathing issues or a heart problem, even being a preemie, that we didn't need one.