Any parent who has tried tiptoeing around the nursery only to accidentally wake their sleeping baby can appreciate a good baby monitor. In today's market, there are endless monitor options to meet the varying needs of most families. Baby monitors are audio and video devices that allow you to check in on your baby by listening in or watching live-stream video while you are in another room.
Most often used to monitor your baby while they’re sleeping, baby monitors are a great way to put your mind at ease, and there are monitors for every need and budget. Some work in conjunction with an app on your phone so you can watch your baby from work or anywhere in the world; some come with a separate viewing unit, some can accommodate multiple cameras, which are great for parents of multiples.
Of course, there are also monitors that promise to watchdog and track your baby's heartbeat, breathing, or movements, sending an alarm if breathing stops (apnea) or when heartbeat is atypically slow. These types of monitors have led some parents to worry that they need a baby monitor for safety's sake.
Fear not, says Dr. Jordan Wright, MD, FAAP, a pediatrician with Kaiser Permanente in Denver, Colorado: “There really isn’t any data that tells us baby monitors are needed for safety. They are more often used to provide parents with a subjective level of reassurance around sleep and safety, although current evidence does not objectively demonstrate that they are actually useful for this purpose.”
In fact, says the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), "Home apnea monitors give little or no protection from SIDS." Research hasn't established a link between apnea and SIDS, and even full-term newborns may experience brief periods of apnea in their first few weeks.
"Parents may actually feel more fear and anxiety if they often use medical equipment to check on their healthy baby," the AAP warns. "One study found that parents of monitored infants said they felt more depressed, compared to parents of infants that weren't monitored."
Dr. Wright agrees: Apnea monitors and those that track movement “provide varying amounts of individualized information, but there is not significant evidence to show that they increase safety or decrease the occurrence of outcomes such as SIDS. There is some data to show that these monitors can result in false alarms or inaccurate readings, and in some instances fail to register clinically significant events altogether. This can potentially lead to increased parental anxiety, associated sleep disruptions, or unnecessary medical visits."
Ultimately, Dr. Wright sums up, if you feel more reassurance than anxiety using these kinds of monitors, that's up to you. But take their health and safety claims with a grain of salt, and always follow the AAP's safe sleep recommendations. Babies should always be put to sleep:
- On their back, not on their stomach or any other position
- On a firm, flat crib mattress, covered only by a tight-fitting sheet, with no blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, or anything else in the crib
How we chose the best baby monitors
Knowing how important baby monitors are to parents' peace of mind, we set out to select baby monitors that are easy to use, easy to set up, and offer a good value for the price. If the monitors are audio-only, we wanted them to have good sound quality and a long battery life.
Video monitors, in the meantime, should give a clear picture of small details (such as whether a baby's eyes are open or closed) at minimum, even in a darkened room. Features such as two-way audio, temperature check, a night light, and soothing sounds are nice to have, but not necessities.
It's a tall order, so we started our search in BabyCenter's Community, searching through millions of posts for unvarnished advice from parents on what monitors work best. Once we had a list of likely suspects, we handed them over to our expert editorial team to ensure the monitors met our own standards of quality and ease of use, as well as criteria from the AAP, Dr. Wright, and other experts.
Read on to find the best cheap baby monitor, the best non wi-fi baby monitor, and more. And if you're looking for more safety and home security equipment, our picks for the best babyproofing supplies and nanny cameras might help.
