SIDS Baby Monitor

kagwiz

Has anyone heard of this?? What is it? Do you need/want it? Is it in addition or instead of the typical baby monitors? 

 I just heard about it today - and wondered what the story is... 

 

shootingstars00

There are two. The angelcare and the snuza. They alert you if the baby stops breathing. I have read a couple bump stories where they saved a baby's life but most people say they cannot actually prevent SIDS and if there is an issue you'd need a hospital grade breathing monitor. But they can give piece of mind. EXCEPT for the likely false alarms which would not be fun. 

srd3

My SIL had something like this with her son. It was a mat that went underneath him I think.. not 100% sure. I do remember she didn't use it long because of all the false alarms. Multiple a night.. made her stress more WITH it then WITHOUT it..

ChristyML

My husband had a sister who died of SIDS and then a brother who was diagnosed with apnea when he a young baby. The doctor said that MH's sister probably died of apnea, but they just never caught it. 

My brother in law had to be on an apnea monitor for a while. He was born more than 2 weeks early, which is why they put him on the monitor. His monitor went off a few times, and my mother in law would just flick his feet or do something to get him to breathe again. If my baby is born more than 2 weeks early, I think I will want to have an apnea monitor just in case.

I don't think there is anything that can prevent actual SIDS though. 

ETA: I wouldn't worry about apnea though unless your doctor says something about it or if there is a family issue of it. I wouldn't waste money on the monitors that you can just buy. If there is an issue, your baby's pediatrician will tell you and prescribe a monitor. 

ETA: I also just realized that me saying the bolded part makes it sound kind of like that's what happens with all babies, but it's just a thing in my husband's family, not something that everyone needs to be aware of. 

pamiva1

I have the monitor and I used it with both DD and DS. It does give quite a bit of false alarms, but I was ok with that and it never really bothered my kids. I didn't use it as much as I thought i would because my kids ended up sleeping in a co-sleeper in our room until about 6 months old and you can't use it with a co-sleeper because it needs to be on a firm base. But, I'm glad I have it and it made transitioning to the crib easier.

Leinistar

DS hated sleeping on his back. For the first 2 months we were able to swaddle him tightly and lay him down in the RnP to sleep but then he started being able to sit up a little so I didn't feel safe with him in there any longer. He would always flip over on to his tummy once we put him in his crib but he couldnt flip back over. This worried me so I bought a Snuza monitor for some extra peace of mind. I never had any false alarms and never any close calls but I'm still glad I purchased it. I liked that it could be used with any sleeping situation that was stationary (not in the car or swing) rather than the angelcare that its pretty fixed.

etude de la vie

We used angelcare for both kids. 

I got it because DD had severe reflux and colic as a baby. One night she was sleeping on her back in the bassinet and I heard a gagging noise. I looked up and she was choking on her own spit up and turning blue! We already had the bassinet at an incline and she was on meds. She saw a  specialist and they told us she could ONLY sleep on her stomach.... She was 2 months old! I got the monitor after that. 

Yes we had some false alarms but they were more often when she was older and would scoot up to th corner of the crib away from the pad. It always gives a warning beep and I would run upstairs (or wherever I was) to her room to check on her and reposition her.

DS slept on his back until 4 months and then on his own would roll onto his stomach. He also had reflux but not as severe as DD and did fine on meds and an incline. 

Honestly this was my #1 best purchase for both kids!  

naybird

I have both the Snuza Go and the Angel Care Monitor.  The Angel Care Monitor is in his crib and the Snuza is for when he's sleeping in his Rock N Play.  The Snuza is a little monitor that attatches to the baby's diaper and detects the up and down breathing motion of the stomach.

I will admit it, I am paranoid.  My cousin lost her little boy to SIDS when he was 4 months old.  So it scares me. I sleep better knowing LO is being monitored.  We did have a false alarm with the Snuza, but that was because DH didn't put the diaper tight enough.

Nothing prevents SIDS, because nobody knows exactly what causes it.  But these monitors will detect if the baby stops breathing or moving, so you can wake the baby up and hopefully save his life.

SewSewBlessed

We have the Angelcare and I love it!! It gave me peace of mind knowing I could watch the little pendulum swing back and forth, which meant he's breathing. I didn't have any false alarms until DS was rolling around the crib and off the mat, and by the point I wasn't really worried about SIDS. I will be moving the Angelcare to the new nursery and getting regular video monitor for DS's room.

j_gayla

My brother and his wife have Angelcare and love it.  They did tell me that if you have a fan on in the room, it will give a false alarm.   

Sweet Sadie Mae

I owned both the snuza halo and the angel care monitor (first time mom/ crazy freak). They are pretty much the same. The angel care has a thin hard plastic pad that goes under the mattress. If it doesn't detect breathing after a certain point an alarm will sound on the parent receiver. They also now come with a viewing monitor - mine didn't have this feature. The snuza is a small clip that attaches to the front of the diaper and an alarm will sound and it vibrates to stir the baby if it does not detect movement after 20 seconds. I loved the snuza up until she started rolling then I just got all false alarms throughout the night and had to stop using it. My angel care lasted about 15 months and no longer works. I loved having them both for my piece of mind. I liked the snuza for when she used to sleep in the RNP (due to reflux) and I like the angel care in combo with the snuza in the crib. The snuza was also great for taking to grandma's house when she had a few sleep overs. HTH

J234

I have the Angelcare monitor and LOVE it.  It's had very few false alarms, but imo, they are totally worth the hassle.  You can adjust the settings to prevent false alarms (baby rolling off the mat, using a blanket, etc.)

At 10 months, we are still using it.  I don't know how I would have slept those first few weeks without it.   

Elsa1984

We have the angel care and love it. Didn't start getting false alarms until she was older and going to the far end of the crib and curling so was nowhere near the pad. But I would rather have a false alarm and check on her, than have no alarm and not know she stopped breathing. It isn't going to "prevent" SIDS, I don't know why people always say that. It will just alarm you so you know something is wrong and can check, and if baby is having breathing problems, you can react instead of finding them lifeless in the morning and wishing you could have tried to save him or her. We had the same thing happen as the previous poster, at 6 weeks our daughter spit up due to her reflux in the middle of the night and choked on it. The alarm going off helped us react in time.

And the comment about the fan setting off false alarms is not correct. The monitor works off of movement. It clearly states in the instructions that you should not have anything that makes noise or moves attached to the crib, or have a fan on. The vibrations of any of those will make the monitor think it is the baby moving and will not sound an alarm if baby stops moving or breathing. My friend had a mobile on and took her son out of the crib and it freaked her out that the monitor didn't go off, but it didn't go off because the mobile moving was causing enough of a vibration that the sensor pad was picking it up thinking it was movement from the baby. Once she took of the mobile, took the glow seahorse that plays music out of the crib, etc.....she took her son out of the crib and the monitor was no longer sensing movement and it went off like it was supposed to.