As parents to a newborn, you need all the help you can get taking care of them and monitoring them.
Luckily, the tech revolution has given birth to some excellent wearable gadgets dedicated to helping you do everything from monitoring their temperatures to tracking where they’re located all day –the latter is particularly great for parents who need to work shortly after having a new baby. After all, you need to know where your baby is at all times.
Bottom line, these gadgets are meant to help parents have more peace of mind while taking care of their babies or doing something else in the home or away from the house. These gadgets have become increasingly important to many parents and ushered in a new era of what is now being referred to as digital parenting.
For instance, installing a camera or audio to watch the baby means that you have to watch for and/or listen to them all the time. Unfortunately, most people can’t watch their babies sleep all day without getting tired or their attention waning.
Even more is the fact that people are every busy and will probably have little or no time to watch their babies all day. As a result, it’s easy to miss when babies stop breathing or grab a cloth and pull it over their faces, for example.
Parents who are skeptical about the efficacy of these gadgets and feel that we’ve done well without these gadgets in the past might not see the need for it. However, you cannot rule out the attendant benefits of these gadgets, which are many by the way.
Why Should Parents Outfit Their Infants With Wearable Gadgets and Devices?
1. Might Help Reduce the Risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SID)
Do you know what the leading cause of death in babies is? It’s sudden infant death syndrome. These are more commonly seen in babies that are between the ages of one and twelve months, and tend to occur within the hours of 10pm and 10am.
While there’s usually no known cause of SID and sometimes, no clear cause of the syndrome even during an autopsy, the truth is that parents can do everything possible to minimize the risk by placing monitoring gadgets on their budgets.
For example, a wearable gadget can monitor breathing and heart rate. So, when the child suddenly stops breathing while in the cot, you can quickly intervene and resuscitate the child’s breathing. Think of it as an alarm system for unforeseen events that could happen to your baby.
2. Offers Peace of Mind
Most SIDs happen in the cot, this is why it is often called cot or crib death. This means, when parents are usually asleep. Without a wearable device, it might be difficult to monitor when your child is breathing in the cot.
Outfitting your child with the device however, means that you’ll be alerted as soon as there’s something wrong. This way, you can rest peacefully at night without worrying about your child at night.
For example, it is possible for babies to sleep on their stomachs and stop breathing, or silently choke on their formula. Without a warning system, parents would most likely miss these symptoms, particularly if they happen at night when they are asleep or when they aren’t paying attention.
This is even more important when the child isn’t feeling too well and you need to monitor them at night. Bottom line, think of these baby wearable gadgets as an avenue to having even more peace of mind while raising your child.
With them, there’s no need to tiptoe into the child’s room or to their bed in the room to see if they are still breathing. Paranoia essentially becomes non-existent. To paraphrase an informative CNN article, “Connected babies = More sleep for you”.
3. Great for Tracking Baby Vitals
Being able to track your baby’s breathing, heart rate, temperature and bodily movements is great. These vitals are important in ensuring that your child is safe and is not in any trouble. The convenience of doing this too is an added advantage.
You can just pick up your phone to check the alerts and see that they’re doing fine. You can also connect from anywhere in the world. This is particularly important for new moms and dads who have to travel because of work and can’t go with their babies.
It’s bad enough that you have to be separated from your child. So, anything that makes it easier to stay in touch and monitor how they’re doing is always welcome. These wearable devices for babies can help parents check in on their babies while they away on business trips, conferences, workshops and trade show exhibitions.
Best Wearable Gadgets for Babies
Wearable gadgets for babies are one of those devices that leaves you wondering where it’s been all our lives. The following are some of the top wearable gadgets for babies with their unique functions and pricing.
1. Mimo Smart Baby Breathing and Activity Monitor
Imagine being able to know where your baby is and what’s happening to them in real time whilst doing other things. This is exactly what Mimo does for you.
So, it doesn’t matter where you are –room, kitchen, at work or yoga- you will be able to monitor your baby’s well-being without being physically present. The gadget transmits data wirelessly to your phone so you can monitor from anywhere.
If you’re worried about the risk of exposure to radiation, don’t. The proprietary tech behind the gadget runs on a very low Bluetooth power that’s lesser than the ones emitted by your smartphone or the conventional baby monitor.
The device comes attached to a onesie called a kimono, a charging station, two breathing sensors, a detachable movement sensor, and connects with your phone courtesy of an app.
Mimo itself is detachable, so you can use it with any of the available 100 percent soft organic cotton, hypoallergenic kimonos. This way, you can always swap the dirty ones out for the clean ones, whilst still monitoring your baby’s vitals.
The material also breathes well, making it easy to wear on multiple layers of clothing without the risk of suffocating the baby or making them uncomfortable.
These apps are only available on the Android and iOS platforms and are designed to run on Android devices and iPhones. Mimo is designed to help monitor vital activities such as breathing patterns, sleep quality and activity, temperature and sleeping positions in the baby.
It’ll also monitor and relay whether the baby is getting adequate REM sleep. Even more interesting is the fact that you can request updates on specific activities by setting up alerts to that effect.
So, if you want to know when your baby isn’t breathing well, or has turned over in the cot, you can set up an alert to handle all that. Parents of babies that are prone to illness and those who cannot help but check on their babies 20 times a night to see if their babies are breathing will find this very useful.
Mimo is currently priced from $179.99+. They are available in stores like Toys “R” Us and Target or online on Amazon.
2. Owlet Smart Sock Baby Monitoring Gadget
This comes in the form of a smart sock that baby wears on one leg, a base station and an app that monitors everything from their heart rate to their breathing.
With Owlet, there’s no need to sneak into your baby’s room –at the risk of waking them up- to see if they’re sleeping okay, have turned on their stomachs, or are having issues breathing properly.
It can monitor the baby’s heart rate courtesy of the embedded tech that’s the exact same pulse oximetry tech commonly used in the Apple Watch and for the same purposes in hospitals.
So, while you’re sleeping at night, owlet acts as your second pair of eyes, monitoring all those parameters in your baby’s body and immediately alerting you to them if there’s any anomaly like sudden low or high pulse rate, or shallower/non-existent breathing. This way, you can get adequate sleep at night and rest properly without having to wake up intermittently to check on your baby’s health.
For parents worried about any allergy, the very comfy sock is free made from 100 percent pure cotton and is free of latex, lead, BPA as well as hypoallergenic. It’s available on Owletcare.com and priced from $249+.
3. Sproutling Wearable Baby Monitor
For parents with a newborn, sleep is often a luxury, and one that is sorely needed. What if there was a way to optimize your baby’s sleep as well as accurately determine their sleep pattern so that you can plan your time around that?
Do you think you would be able to adequate shuteye so that you can better tend to them and get more work done? Well, that’s what Sproutling promises. It is being promoted as the world’s “first sensing, learning and predicting monitor”.
Its unique angle lies in its ability to learn and predict your baby’s sleep patterns and habits as well identify the best sleep conditions for them. This way, you can learn where and when your baby will be able to sleep really well.
Even more interesting is the fact that Sproutling baby monitor claims to be able to tell what mood your baby is in when he/she wakes. How awesome is that?! It also monitors their heart rates and skin temperatures.
It doesn’t just stop there. It also does a wonderful job of helping you determine when your conversations/noise are in danger of waking your baby up. As new parents, this will come in handy when you’re hosting friends and family to a dinner or when you’re able to finally get some badly needed alone time with your significant other ;) and are getting carried away.
It’ll also notify you if there’s something wrong with your baby. For instance, if your baby’s temperature spikes or their heart rate suddenly beats faster… or anything out of the ordinary.
Sproutling charges wirelessly, comes in multiple sizes so that your baby can still wear the ankle gadget as they grow bigger. The elastic band is also firm, but not tight, so you don’t have to worry about circulation problems.
As of the time of writing this guide, a visit to the Sproutling website shows that they have been acquired by Mattel. But, you can join the waitlist to be informed of when they start producing new copies. When it was available, pricing for Sproutling was from $249+. We suspect that when it eventually becomes ready for sales again, it’ll be around that price.
4. Neebo Baby Monitor
The latest entrant into the wearables for babies market, Neebo is shaped like an egg with a band that goes on your baby’s wrist. It is effective at tracking blood oxygen, body temperature, heart rate, distress upon waking or at any other time, and functions as a two-way communication device that allows you communicate with your baby wherever you are.
The company even goes on to claim that it can detect early onset heart disease in infants, difficulty in breathing as well as a weakened immune system. The device also comes equipped with lullabies and songs that you can play using the accompanying app to lull your baby to sleep or soothe them.
Its 3-stage emergency notification system is also designed to ensure that you know when your baby needs urgent help. With Neebo baby monitor, the risk of false alarms are pretty much nonexistent. As amazing as this is, you’ll have to wait till the second quarter of 2017 to get your hands on the device.
For interested individuals, you can take advantage of the totally refundable down payment option of $49 now -available on all preorders, and pay $150 when it finally ships.
5. Monbaby Smart Breathing Movement Monitor for Babies
How would you like a wearable device for your baby that tells you when your baby rolls on their stomach, stops breathing and falls from their cot, all at an affordable price? This is exactly what Monbaby promises.
The Monbaby features an app and a device that is attached to the baby’s clothing. While it transmits the same information as the other wearable baby gadgets, its unique capabilities lies in your ability to customize the alerts that you want to receive.
So, unlike the rest that will provide a wide range of information, you can opt to monitor, say, just their breathing, sleeping positions and proximity. At $99+, this is one of the most affordable baby wearable gadgets that requires little or no upkeep.
Some of the other wearables require a special piece of clothing outfitted with sensors that you would have to change after a while. Monbaby doesn’t. So, if you’re looking for a cheaper, low maintenance wearable gadget for your baby, this is it.
The device collects the data you need and transmits it to its counterpart app on your android device or iPhone through a bluetooth connection. Monbaby retails from $99 at their online store or on Amazon.
5. BabySense Hisense 5s Baby Monitor
Some wearable gadgets for babies are not really wearables in the real sense of the word. Some of them can be proximity gadgets that still help you monitor the state of your child’s well being.
One of these is the Baby Sense Hisense Infant Monitor. A non-touch baby breathing monitor that comes with two ultra-sensitive sensor pads and a control unit, this is the first baby monitoring device that actually claims to help reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
In fact, its makers, Hisense Health Monitoring technologies, claim that it has helped save the lives of over 600,000 infants since the technology was first invented 20+ years ago.
Its sole function is to monitor the baby’s breathing through micro-movements on the bed, and notify the parents of a cessation in breathing or slower, ragged or shallower breathing in the child. This is a particularly important thing because this awareness can result in a timely intervention that can save the child’s life.
As the pioneer of the baby breathing movement monitor technology, the company has carried out multiple clinical trials where the device passed, has been tested in lots of hospitals across the globe –with new countries further adopting the tech in their clinics- and even the backing of the medical community as an effective breathing monitor that can help you tell whether your baby is breathing properly or not.
The award winning Babysense Infant Monitor retails at $129.95 on Amazon.
7. Starling
This is a wearable that’s different in its approach. Unlike the other wearables that are designed to help you keep tabs on your baby’s health, Starling is designed to help them reach their potential faster and quicker.
The company believes that this will help parents who feel they aren’t doing enough for their kids actually do a lot by simply talking to them. The result is that their babies will end up being happier and smarter courtesy of the daily exercise. How’s that for being effective and saving time too.
As you know, every parent is proud of a quick learner and one that does them proud. Startling is designed to do just that. Studies have shown that even when babies cannot talk, their brains processing words and whatever is being said to them.
In fact, these studies go on to show a remarkable link between the number of words the children hear before the age of four and their potential for success later in life.
So, using Starling, you can track the number of words said to the baby and how many they say in a day. The idea is to meet the target of a number of words every day.
Each Starling unit comes with a Starling, clip attachment, charging station and cables for charging the device. The Starling is priced at $199 on the company’s website.
8. Snuza Hero and Snuza Pico
Would you like to automate the process of monitoring your baby’s bowel movements? Snuza hero is a wearable gadget for babies that does this for you. So, you don’t have to spend a lot of time wondering if your baby is having or has had regular bowel movements.
It does this by tracking the rate of abdominal movements every minute. The idea is to be able to tell you when your baby’s abdominal movements are either poor or weaker than they should be. It uses a standard benchmark of 8 abdominal movements per minute. Anything less and it will notify you that there might be a possible problem with your baby’s bowel movements.
It also attempts to induce your baby to start his/her abdominal movements by vibrating after 15 seconds of no movement. This is usually strong enough to get babies doing their thing.
Snuza Pico on the other hand, is a smaller version of the Snuza Hero, and does just about the same thing, plus extras like monitoring your child’s temperature, breathing, their sleeping position and even inform you when they fall off their cot.
They are priced from $87.99 and are available on either Amazon or any Toy “R” Us outlets. They’re also available in many other stores. Please visit the website for a list of stores carrying the wearables.
9. Baby Gigl Smart Bottle Holder
While it’s not a wearable device, this is another unique addition to the list of tech devices that babies need. Baby Gigl is designed to help you measure and track your baby’s feeding. The smart baby bottle holder helps you determine the rate of formula consumption, so that you’ll be able to determine when to feed your baby.
This way, you’ll be able to tell if your baby is feeding well, are underfed, or not eating well for their age. With this information, you can approach your doctor if you feel they aren’t eating well, and ask them what the possible problem could be. It could also help you identify any possible health issues that you wouldn’t have spotted ordinarily.
This beats the traditional method of determining when a baby needs to be fed –usually when they’re crying or by mere sizing up- and takes the guesswork out of the whole process.
It also helps simplify the feeding process so you get to feed the baby right. This is important because the excessive tilting can cause the regurgitation, while laying it too flat will result in the baby merely sucking air which could cause them colic.
It can also help you tell when there are lumps in the bottle, preventing the baby from sucking their foods. This is all possible courtesy of the inclinometer which helps determine the best angle for tilting the bottle. The green light on the inclinometer comes on when you’re feeding him correctly and the red when you’re not.
Parents can also measure other data such as the babies food consumption over a span of time, their medical records, their weight and temperature too.
This intelligent bottle holder is great for parents who love tracking all things including their baby’s rate of feeding as well those looking to feed their babies optimally. For more information, check out their website at www.slowcontrol.com/en/baby-gigl.
10. Temptraq
Babies can and do experience temperature spikes. When these temperature spikes happen when you’re not around, it can be quite dangerous seeing as prolonged temperature spikes can indicate a myriad of conditions.
Whether it’s caused by teething or a fever, you need to be able to tell how your baby is doing temperature-wise. This is even more important if you cannot be with your baby all day.
Temptraq is an effective wearable gadget that helps you monitor the degree to which your baby is hot or cold. It takes those temperature readings and coveys the information directly to your phone, alerting you if your baby’s temperature is too high or too low.
Parents can set temperature alerts to inform you when they get that hot or cold. The intelligent, 24 hour temperature monitoring system can play a significant role in saving your baby’s life. It can also help you save time. With this on your baby, it completely eliminates the need to check on your baby every so often just to be sure that they are fine. This is can be particularly beneficial to the working mom or dad who is very busy and doesn’t have the time to check on their baby all the time.
Each unit comes with multiple credit card sized adhesive patch containing electronics designed to read the baby’s temperature and relay the information directly to the parents or guardians of the child’s smartphone through a bluetooth connection.
Temptraq retails at $16.99 and is available at major stores like Amazon, Target, CVS, Walgreens and a few others. Visit Temptraq’s website to get the full list of vendors.
11. Infanttech Smarttemp
Do you want to know how to track your baby’s temperature all day without having to physically check them? This is what the Infanttech Smarttemp does.
Unlike your standard thermometer which requires frequently checking in with your baby –as if you don’t have enough on your plate already- and disturbing them, this just sends realtime updates to your smartphones through a bluetooth connection while monitoring your baby’s temperature.
Parents can also set alerts for when the baby needs their next dose if they have a fever, as well as show their baby’s doctor the temperature graph –it’s capable of storing medical history for up to 7 days.
Also, unlike some other temperature taking patches or pads that can only be used once before they are disposed, it can be used over and over again. Each unit comes with 10 non-sticky pads, a thermometer, its carrying case, batteries that will last for three years with no charge.
For parents who might be worried about bruising when removing the pads or the possibility of the child removing it, please note that the pads leave no bruising marks, but are firm enough to stick even when the child tries to pull it off.
Infanttech Smarttemp has FDA approval and has won multiple awards. Each Smarttemp case is priced at $69.99 on their website and Amazon.
12. Pacif-I Smart Dummy
This is one of the world’s smartest thermometers in the form of a pacifier. With this device, parents can put the pacifier in their baby’s mouth and get periodic information about their child’s temperature. Pretty nifty and fun, ain’t it?
So, if you have been looking for a nearly hands free way to take your baby’s temperature without disturbing them –you know parents need their breaks too to recover and rejuvenate- the Pacif-I Smart Thermometer pacifier might be what you need.
Not just that, you can also easily locate the pacifier –you know in case, Junior decides to throw it someplace- and record medications you have administered and watch their effect on your baby’s temp.
It comes with an app that can be deployed on the iOS or Android platforms. It is currently the world’s first smart thermometer, uses Bluetooth Smart technology –the safest bluetooth tech available- that relays the information to your app from 30 to 60 feet away.
The Pacif-I Smart pacifier retails at £33 or approximately $42 at their store and on Amazon.
With the advent of these wearable technologies for babies, you can now better take care of your infant as they offer incredible peace of mind, less hands on monitoring and effective vitals tracking.
However, this will never replace the parental instinct or take the place of parental attention. They help enhance and improve your instincts so that you can take notice of abnormalities quicker.
Ultimately, you still need to pay attention to your infant, so that you can spot even the things that these devices miss. Always pay attention to your instincts and your baby’s overall wellbeing. It will protect your baby and save you from heartbreak.
