Monitors

A
baby monitor is now considered to be an essential purchase by many parents with more than 70% of Mums buying them. Advances in technology mean that today's monitors are compact, reliable and often packed with features which need to be clearly explained.

How do they work?

A baby monitor works by picking up the sound from around a baby and transmitting it using radio waves to a receiver which is close to the parent. The sound of baby can be transmitted either as analogue or digital. The main disadvantage of the digital monitors is that feature for feature they appear to be more expensive than the analogue equivalents.

But what exactly does digital mean? A true digital monitor sends and receives the radio transmissions as a binary encoded signal in pure digital form. This nearly completely eliminates the ‘hiss and crackles’ associated with analogue monitors as they are far better at rejecting interference.

Some ‘semi-digital’ monitors use a ‘digital microprocessor’ to give them extra features such as the transmission of ‘pilot tones’ which can be used to ensure extra privacy or used to send temperature data from the baby’s room to the parental unit. Although these ‘semi-digital’ models incorporate a digital microprocessor the audio signal is still transmitted in analogue format. To avoid interference, there are tones which are transmitted so that interference is reduced and the receiver only displays data from a similar monitor - the same model from the same manufacturer.

Some of the features that are worth pointing out include:

  1. Power - The cheaper monitors generally use mains power only. Slightly more expensive ones use batteries with power adapters and the most expensive use rechargeable batteries. Note that the power options may be different for the transmitter and receiver.
  2. More than one or dedicated channels - Interference can be a problem with monitors especially when there are a lot of them in use in the local area. Simple monitors usually have two channels so you can switch to a different channel if there is interference. Other monitors are designed so that the receiver unit will only give the sounds from the right transmitter. However, radio waves are very public and somebody may still be able to tune in to what is being said.
  3. Nightlight - The inclusion of a nightlight can eliminate the need for a second purchase.
  4. Room Temperature - A number of monitors will also monitor the temperature of the room and a few will sound an alert of this falls outside of a preset range.
  5. Video - The addition of a camera means that baby can be monitored either in black and white or full colour. Some monitors come complete with a small display unit; others connect directly to the TV. The cameras are sometimes disguised as a soft toy and parents should be warned that these are not for children to play with.
  6. Breathing alarms - Reassurance monitors monitor the movements baby makes when he is breathing and sound an alarm if he stops for more than a pre set time (usually about 20s) which for many parents can be very reassuring. We all have had the urge to get out of our nice warm bed and check that baby is still alive! Most work by having a sensitive pressure mat underneath the mattress which picks up the slight breathing movements.

There are three issues to consider. The first is that there are possible instances where baby could stop breathing but the monitor would not detect it e.g. If baby were choking. Secondly, there are going to be false alarms. All babies have periods when they naturally stop breathing for what can seem quite an age before resuming. If baby is not on a monitor then no one is any the wiser. But if baby is being monitored, the alarm will go off. This does not mean however that the monitor has prevented a cot death!

Finally, there is little point in having one of these monitors and not knowing how to resuscitate a baby if the worst should happen. The manufacturers do their best offering instructions and videos but there is nothing to beat doing a proper first aid course and using a resuscitation mannequin.
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