Babies are most vulnerable after arriving in this world. Constant attention and vigilance is required from parents and caregivers to ensure our babies are safe and sound.
Many times, it is just not possible for us to be with our babies every single minute of the day. We have household chores, we need our rest and many many other small little things that takes our attention away from our precious ones.
But not to worry. If you can afford it, technology is here to help. The myriad variety of baby monitors in the market today offers parents and caregivers the means to keep a close watch on our babies, even when we are busy with something else.
Basic Types of Baby Monitors:
- Audio
- Operates by radio frequencies
- Transmit sounds of our babies to one or more receivers
- Easily portable
- Video
- Utilises a camera to send images to one or more video receivers
- Not as easily portable by nature
- Relatively more expensive
- Audio And Video
- Best of both worlds
- Most expensive
Factors Influencing Purchase Decision and Costs:
- One-way or Two-way systems
- Possibility of your baby hearing you as well, and is useful for soothing your baby with your voice when you are not able to reach him/her in time when in distress
- Range and Signal Strength
- Taking the size of the house into consideration, a device with limited range may not be able to reach every corner or go through thick concrete walls
- There is no scientific evidence yet that such signals can harm our babies, but we should carefully consider the signal strengths to ensure that we do not choose something too strong than what is required
- Portability
- If you move around a lot, choosing a device with belt clip-on receivers can result in huge convenience
- Interference with Other Household Devices
- A wide range of frequencies should be available for selection to minimize the possibility of interference from other household devices
- Battery or A/C Powered
- Battery powered devices are good for parents who move around a lot
- In general, parents should go for devices which can be powered by both batteries and A/C power to ensure maximum flexibility
Other Specialized Baby Monitors:
In most circumstances, an audio/video baby monitor should be more than sufficient for our baby monitoring needs.
However, there are cases whereby more sophisticated and specialized baby monitors will be required:
- Monitors breathing
- Monitors environment for harmful elements
- Monitors climate
- Monitors baby temperature
- Monitors baby heartrate
Summary:
Baby monitors used to be a good-to-have luxury items.
But with improving technology and lower costs, baby monitors have slowly but surely crawled into the list of must-have items for parents doing their shopping.
A not-too-big investment in baby monitors ensures peace of mind for parents and reduces the possibility of potential accidents by allowing parents to know and react quickly when something crops up.
