Baby Monitor Query

AlanD

Hi,

you know those baby monitors that transmit baby noises from their room to you elsewhere in the house.

Well we just bought one and I'm wondering if we skimped on it. We bought the basic Tomy version, no temp, no lights, just sound. We've no baby yet so it won't be in use til about May.

So should we have bought the fancier version? Are the lights that go from green to red with sound turned down handy? Is the temp of the room upstairs that's displayed downstairs on your unit handy?

The price difference was significant, so I'm just wondering.

ST*

The one you bought is perfectly fine - I had one with lights but with the temp. When I was having my first I stupidly ran out and bought the best of everything. You kind of want to do that anyway, because its a first child- I knew better next time around though.

When you think about it really most of our parents done with the likes of these gadgets anyway, but they are reassuring to have.

By the way the lights is just another indicator to tell you when baby is crying, if hits the red someone has their nappy in a knot

Best of luck

Raiser

Hi,

Generally I would be of the opinion that you rarely need to buy the top of the range, all bells and whistles products - middle of range normally suits just fine.

With baby monitors I really, really recommend buying a digital model as opposed to the older static ridden ones as they are not comparable in terms of sound quality and also these are not overly expensive if you shop around - Argos stocks an excellent one by BT which we have been using at home for last 8 months - you could tell the difference between two different sized pins dropping....!

- Theres 2 - we got the basic one without temp. and its excellent - Is worth mentioning that we have since put one of those remote temp. sensor/digital clock things in their also - it does give extra peace of mind to keep an odd eye on temp. too if you can budget for it. Also recommended this to a friend recently and they threw their crappy Tomy one in the bin.....

Argos link was a mile long - do a Google search for BT baby monitor argos

And congratulations by the way,

Raiser

P.S. I'd be flattered if you'd name the child after me (or perhaps a middle name, such as Seamus Raiser O'Riordan for example?)

AlanD

Thanks for the advice!

Having all the bells and whistles isn't necessary for sure, but the couple of nice to haves would make life easier. The temp guage is something I am keen on and it seems that if it has a temp guage it has noise activated lights too.

I saw that BT monitor on eBay and it looks good. For a digital monitor it looks like very good value. The equivalent tomy is way more expensive.

Thanks again,

A

run_Forrest_run

we received a Tomy set as a gift. It has the lights on it but no temp display etc..I must say I find the lights to be very handy...but as everyone said, a good quality one with decent sound is fine...you don't need all the bells and whistles.

Dcully

I too have a tomy monitor with lights but no temp. Although I live in a detached house I can get interference on it and can sometimes hear talking and a baby crying.

crosstownk

AFAIK most cordless telephones have a baby monitor function - obviously you need 2 cordless phones.
I have the Tomy monitor with temp & lights and its perfect. A friend has the Tomy monitor without temp & lights and it too is perfect.

sharonlarkin

I have Tomy monitors, no lights or temp control, and I find it great. My monitors have gone through 2 kids (5 & 2 yrs) and it still works brilliantly.

I suggest you just plug it in and get your wife to go to the bedroom and test it out. If you are not happy with it, take it back.

Just make sure that you can hear everything going on in the babys room.I can even hear my little fella snoring, its that sensitive.

parsi

I don't really see the point of monitors.

When we had our first guy we bought a monitor but didn't use it as it picked up the neighbours. I find that if they cry or stir you generally hear them anyway and if you're asleep the monitor ain't going to be much good.

gubby

a good few years ago.. one sunday morning i was pottering around my kitchen and half listening to the radio.. thought it was some kids programme cos i could hear kids talking. after a while I relaized that i was listening to my neighbours.. it was coming through my raido crystal clear!!! they were shocked cos i seemed to hear from the parents room end.. we still have a laugh at it. dont know what make it was.. but they threw it out.

Tazz T

We find the temperature gauge invaluable. It's handy for setting the heating during the winter and checking when it's time to move her into a lighter growbag in the summer.

Also very handy when you're on holiday to keep an eye on temps. If there's a bar/restaurant downstairs from your room, it's easy to go and have a bite to eat or a drink and still feel like you're in the next room, listening and making sure she's not too warm.

pokerwidow

I would also strongly recommend buying a digital monitor. My nosy cow of a neighbour listened to us for months without telling us. We always left on the child's monitor and only turned off the adult one :mad: .
Best of luck, hope all goes well

AlanD

pokerwidow wrote:

I would also strongly recommend buying a digital monitor. My nosy cow of a neighbour listened to us for months without telling us. We always left on the child's monitor and only turned off the adult one :mad: .
Best of luck, hope all goes well

unbelieveable....how did ye find out?

After all the good advice here, we're definitely bringing back the bog standard Tomy monitor and we're going to buy the BT Digital Plus Monitor. It's dear, but some good deals can be had on eBay.

Nevyn

I never bothered with one for either of mine.
It was just a case of having the baby in what ever room I was in until they were about 4/5 months old and even then they napped in what ever room I was in.

MyBaby

The one we have, we only use it for the sound, we dont use thelights or anything extra. Thats even when we do use it which is very rarely/

The one u got shud do you just perfect.:)

Neverends

I'm on #2 baby and I'd say you deffo need a good monitor. All babies are so different and you can't predict how they'll behave or go on anyone elses experiences. E.g. the other night we were downstairs after my 8mth old was gone to bed and heard her crying for a minute. We didn't pay much attention as she settled herself back down quickly. However, when I went in to check on her two hours later I found her lying surrounded by vomit. I promptly took her into the bed with me for the night and throughout the night she continued to puke occasionally and all she ever did was whimper and go back to sleep. My other daughter would have screamed the house down if she was vomiting so you just don't know what could be going on up there while they are alone and its scary to think of what can happen if a baby is getting sick on herself. With the noise in our house she'd have to be screaming to be heard downstairs.

I also like the monitor for during the night as I rather hear them before they get to the screaming stage which is what it takes to wake us up!

Also, some babies might be so hard to get to sleep you might not want to have to go into their room to check on them all the time in case they wake up!

Lights are handy cos you can turn the sound off and just watch for the lights to start up, not sure I'd bother with temp.

AlanD

In the end we bought the BT Digital Monitor Plus which has all the bells and whistles. It wasn't too much dearer from eBay but a lot cheaper than it is in the shops here!!

Although there's no baby yet, 5 weeks and counting, we've set it up to try it out and find the sound quality absolutely superb. It plays lullaby's and other tunes which are ok, it has a night light and a talk back function, but it also has a temp guage. We are so glad we got the temp guage!

You know how the recommended temp for a baby's room is to be no more than 18/20 degrees celsius? Well we would have thought our rooms were way colder than that and would have turned on the heating or wrapped the baby up, but no, without heating on in this weather all our rooms are 20 degrees. So at least we know now! Plus if the rooms ever get too hot, we'll know too. Too much heat is dangerous.

Gillo

I used to use a monitor with lights and found it handy if there was soem background noise coming through and you were on the phone or watching TV, as you could keep the volume low but the lights would let you know if anything was happening.

As for tempature, assuming you know how to control the tempature in a room anyway (radiator on / off, windows opened / closed etc), you really don't need to worry about tempature.

This is your first baby, you're gonna worry about everything, thats natural but don't over do it.

oh and Congrats & welcome to the club!!

Debracd

We got the Angelcare monitor last time round, spent €100 on it because it has a sensor pad for under the mattress and lights and bells etc. It was 3months before we realised the sound part didn't work and then the sensor pad stopped working! We returned it and went and bought a Tomy digital one anyway which was half the price and does the job for us.

pokerwidow

Alan, sorry I never checked back again. The neighbour let it slip and turned bright red. Our jaws dropped to the floor.

Best of luck with the new arrival in what, 3 weeks now. Leave us now how you and your significant other are getting on. And dont worry too much, you have the rest of your life for that.:)

6th

Debracd wrote:

We got the Angelcare monitor last time round, spent €100 on it because it has a sensor pad for under the mattress and lights and bells etc. It was 3months before we realised the sound part didn't work and then the sensor pad stopped working! We returned it and went and bought a Tomy digital one anyway which was half the price and does the job for us.

I got the Angelcare one too and it was great, as Gillo said its handy to have lights so you can turn the sound down and watch TV (getting time for ourselves was very important to me). The motion pad gave me great peace of mind coz it picks up the movement of them breathing and if there's no movement for 20 seconds (i think) the alarm goes off. I tested it now and then and it was fine. Stopped with a monitor after 1 year.

Debracd

I should have mentioned that the sensor pad stopped working because the cot base was slatted. I've seen a few people post about putting a piece of Plywood underneath it to stableize it! We may have just gotten one from a bad batch or something. I've only heard of 2 other people who have the same problem.

6th

Yeah could have just been a faulty one as our base was latted. Still i'd stick with the motion pad as it gave me peace of mind with regards to her breathing.

gonker

My friends had a monitor and they could hear their next door neighbour doing the bold thing on it...."pete, pete, pete, pete, pete" said in ever louder shouts not nice:D

it went in the bin soon after