Age when you stop (or will stop) using the baby monitor?

WinesNotWhines · January 2012

This was a question on another board, and I'm wondering what the DC Moms think about this. If you've stopped using monitors for one or more of your kids, at what age did you stop using them? If you still use one, when do you plan to stop?

I was thinking I'd use the monitor until the kiddo is old enough to get out of bed and come into our room if he needs something, so probably around the time he transitions to a "big kid" bed. But I'm curious if anyone still uses a monitor with their kid in a "big" bed, and if it's still useful.

BabyHatch · January 2012

I'm really interested in responses for this. We just transitioned DD into her big-girl-bed this weekend (so far, so good) and I've found myself using the monitor even more now listening for her. I think I'll be keeping it on until she can be trusted to go in and out of her room without help. And we're just not there yet.

DCtoLowcountry · January 2012

We actually upgraded from an audio-only monitor to a video/audio monitor when we switched DS to his big boy bed a few weeks ago. Our rationale was we know where the baby in the crib will be; it's the one who can get out of bed and potentially roam around that we want to keep an eye on. I forsee using monitors for awhile.

vtkgirl77 · January 2012

I'm thinking probably around age 4 or 5 when she is independent enough to go to the bathroom by herself at night and come down a half flight of stairs and wake us up she needs us.

DD is 2.5 and could be in a big girl bed (and she has slept in it on a number of occasions). However, she still likes the crib and so I've steered her towards staying in it. I have a slight (I mean strong) preference for keeping her in the crib for a while longer for a number of reasons but I promise she will be out of it by college.

I also currently have a knob cover on her door so that even if she got out of the crib, she cannot open the door. I do this because I don't want her wandering around the house at night. Also, there's a half flight of stairs between her bedroom and our bedroom and I just worry about her falling or something.

I'll be keeping the knob cover on her door until she is (1) sleeping in a big girl bed and (2) capable of getting up in the night to go to the bathroom by herself. Right now, she still needs help with pulling down her pants, sitting on the toilet, etc. I mean, she can do it by herself but it's like she needs someone there for when she gets stuck (like sometimes she can't get her pants up). Also, she doesn't know how to wipe well enough when she goes #2.

I already have two monitors so I figure that I'll use them for a while to err on the side of caution. Also, our TV room is 1.5 flights down from DD's bedroom and on the other side of the house so I also use the monitor for when we are watching TV so we can hear if she needs something.

Artslvr · January 2012

I can't remember at what age we stopped using one for each of the girls (I think around 2 yrs old), but I can tell you we've never used it with DS. See what I mean? Third Child Syndrome is real people.

Seriously, we plugged the monitor into an outlet in his room and then put the receivers in our room and one downstairs in our rec room/basement and I don't think we ever turned them on.

Keep in mind DS slept/napped in our room for about a month when he was a newborn, and then was a colicky MESS the first four months of his life, so it didn't take a monitor to let you know when he was unhappy. Plus we have a small house. Amplifying the crying just made it more grating.

Even after the colic evened out I guess we just had so finely tuned our own parental hearing that even at night when DH and I are downstairs watching a movie and all three kids are upstairs in their rooms, we usually hear if someone is in distress up there.

bh2720 · January 2012

I would like to stop using it within the next 6 months for Warner. I was barely using it at all when he was in his toddler bed because he's always such a dependable sleeper. But now that he's in a "real" bed in his new room with no pacifier he's having a really hard time settling down at night and more than usual for naps. So I like to be able to keep an eye on him until he gets used to his new surroundings. Also, he fell out of bed one night last week (poor guy) and if I hadn't had the monitor on, I'm not sure that I would have woken as quickly. He was fine, but scared and I'm glad I got in there fast.

eta: also, our only tv is in the basement which is two stories below where his room is. we hardly ever watch tv anymore, but on the rare evenings that we are down there, it's nice to be able to hear him should he need us. unless he was actually screaming at the top of his lungs (and maybe not even then) I don't think we'd hear him from down there--especially not while the tv is on.

mssaint · January 2012

Artslvr:
I can't remember at what age we stopped using one for each of the girls, but I can tell you we've never used it with DS. See what I mean? Third Child Syndrome is real people.

Seriously, we plugged the monitor into an outlet in his room and then put the receivers in our room and one downstairs in our rec room/basement and I don't think we ever turned them on.

Keep in mind DS slept/napped in our room for about a month when he was a newborn, and then was a colicky MESS the first four months of his life, so it didn't take a monitor to let you know when he was unhappy. Plus we have a small house. Amplifying the crying just made it more grating.

Even after the colic evened out I guess we just had so finely tuned our own parental hearing that even at night when DH and I are downstairs watching a movie and all three kids are upstairs in their rooms, we usually hear if someone is in distress up there.

Raising hand here. We never used the monitor for LO. Well, that's not true. We used it for a few nights early on when we'd put him to bed in our room and then watch tv or something. Then we stopped. Then when we put him in the crib finally, we used it until I realized that the monitor was keeping me awake. Not him, but the sounds the monitor would make when it heard the heat turn on, the humidifier gurgle, the cat walk by. I would jolt awake at the amplification of those, and I could never get the sensitivity right. So we haven't used it since. I figure he'll let us know if he really needs us.

And he's our first.

Hey Jellisy · January 2012

We've never used them either. The only place I can't hear them is in the laundry room and I really try to spend very little time there I have become such a crazy light sleeper, it seems odd to even think about using one. There is one caveat, if I am doing yard work during naps, I set one up to let me know if DS is awake. DD can get herself out of bed, but DS is still in a crib.

RomeRomance06 · January 2012

I'll probably stop around 1 year. The only reason I use it now is because DH is addicted to it. Me, less so. I keep it by my side of the bed even though DD is literally, a couple steps away, but that's only because I can hear her stirring in the morning and that gives me about 15 minutes to start getting ready before she needs me to come get her.

ch ch ch chia · January 2012

We never really used it. There was a short period when she first moved to her crib, but that didn't last long.

Sofka · January 2012

Kendra, DD learned how to open the door w/ the knob cover on when she was about 2.5...

we'll be using the monitors until the kids figure out what the green light in the room is for and then we'll move them and spy on them and their friends when they come over

I would not hear the kids w/out the monitors (all doors are closed and everyone has lots of white noise) so we still use ours every day.

MrsPhilDunphy · January 2012

Hey Jellisy:
We've never used them either. The only place I can't hear them is in the laundry room and I really try to spend very little time there I have become such a crazy light sleeper, it seems odd to even think about using one. There is one caveat, if I am doing yard work during naps, I set one up to let me know if DS is awake. DD can get herself out of bed, but DS is still in a crib.

Same. We have a pretty small rancher and the only place I can't hear him is remote corners of the basement. It got to the point that every little blip on the monitor was keeping me up at night, so I just put it away. Probably at 2 months?

We do take one when we visit family beach houses because those are bigger than our actual house (sad!) and there's usually more ambient noise from our parents, etc.

kastle · January 2012

We stopped using one around a year when he was most definitely sleeping through the night. We can hear when he cries.

however, i do think once he's in a "big boy" bed we'll turn it back on.

vtkgirl77 · January 2012

Sofka:
Kendra, DD learned how to open the door w/ the knob cover on when she was about 2.5...

Uh oh! I better not get too comfortable :-) However, DD is so laid back she's just not the type of kid to really put effort into trying to figure it out. But I will definitely keep an eye on her.

EKJin DC · January 2012

We have video monitors for my 11 mos old DS and 3.5 yr old DD. But, I really only use my son's monitor when we are in our basement TV room and he is two stories above us, He is a pretty sound sleeper and when he wakes up he makes it known if he needs us. However, I use my daughter's monitor all the time. Now that she is is in a big girl bed and does quiet play in her room instead of napping, it is a good way to make sure she isn't destroying her room. One time, she was peeling the tree decal off her wall and "feeding" it to her stuffed giraffe. At night we also use it because she has fallen out of bed a few times and scared herself. If we see her in a precarious position, we may go in a move her a bit.

Useonfire · January 2012

We just got a new monitor (the fancy pants motorola one) but mostly for the new baby. DS has been in a regular bed for about 3 months, can get out of it, open his door, and walk downstairs by himself, so the monitor doesn't do a whole lot for us except show us that he is or is not sleeping. However, we will be moving him to his new room further down the hall from us (so sad) this week and I think we will leave the monitor on at night now. For a long time, we had been turning it off at night when we saw him fall asleep. I'm just afraid that I won't hear him call out to us at night if he needs us. He doesn't usually get out of bed at night at all if he needs something, he just yells for us. I'd feel horrible if he really needed something and we didn't hear him. Oh, and the reason he doesn't get out of bed is because of the glorious Tot Clock that we purchased (best $60 we spent in ages). Unless that clock is yellow, he stays in his bed for naps and doesn't get out of bed until it turns yellow at 7:10am.

BirdGirl01 · January 2012

We stopped using ours at about 15 months when ours died. We got our full purchase price refunded (yay Amex!), and we haven't felt the need to buy a new one. I don't think we will until baby # 2 (hypothetical) comes along.

tomandcourt · January 2012

Never! I am obsessed. J is still in his crib, so it's not like he's going anywhere, but I like to know when he falls asleep/wakes up so I can gauge his naptime better.

When we have #2, I'll get another camera but still be watching J (presumably by that point he'll be in a big boy bed).

I guess probably once he drops his nap and is just sleeping at night, so 3-4?

AgrippaRidesAgain · January 2012

As soon as this girl starts consistently STTN again we will quit. So, hopefully soon. We never used one with DS and wouldn't with DD except that she has spent the last 6 months waking at least 2x a night with sickness/teething pain/separation anxiety/you name it. We only got the monitor to use in the newborn months so that she wouldn't be crying long enough to wake DS.

Mama Angelina · January 2012

We had to make the decision whether to just switch the camera to the new baby or to buy another and keep DS's on him, and I still feel comfortable with a camera on each kid. We are in a townhouse and I can't hear DS if he cries while I am in the basement, so that is one reason. Another is that in the middle of the night when I hear sounds I like to look over and see if DS is OK or needs one of us (to go potty/get a drink of water/occasional nightmare/etc). He is not yet in a big boy bed, but when he is I think I would want to see him even more in the beginning while he adjusts, so I will know he is safe and whether he's in his bed or not, etc. I'm not sure when we'll give up the monitor at this point, but not anytime soon.

pixieprincss · January 2012

I think this really comes down to house size. We cosleep at night so that eliminates the need then, but even for naps we only use a monitor when we're outside, in the shower, in the basement, etc.

tracy042206 · January 2012

We used it for Maggie until she was about 3.5 - it was just easier to hear her if she needed us and she was 3.25 when she transitioned to her toddler bed. We did away with Molly's at about the same time because if she needs us she can be loud enough that we will hear her since we really only live on 2 levels of our TH (SIL lives in the basement).

****AWS**** · January 2012

Stopped using ours when reed was 10 months or so. I can hear him crying without it. We'll probably start using it again when we move into our new house since it's twice the size of our current house.

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