Baby monitors are a great investment to provide that extra reassurance that a baby is safe while sleeping at night. There are many different baby monitors on the market. They can vary between those intended to monitor breathing, while others are more effective at detecting cries and other sounds.

Here is an overview of the different types:

Sound monitor: This type of monitor is designed to transmit any noise the baby makes. It relies on a radio transmitter to pass the baby’s cries or other sounds to the receiver that is kept close to the parents. This makes it really easy to respond to any noise when the baby wakes up.

Video Monitor – This is an improvement on the stand-alone sound monitor and provides the option to clearly see your baby on a small screen while they sleep. If the baby makes a noise, it is possible to check the screen to see if there is a proper need to visit the nursery, or if the baby was just making noises in their sleep.

Smartphone app: This is one of the latest options for monitoring a baby’s sleep. They are designed to detect noise and will send an alert to the phone if the baby wakes up. In addition, there are also applications that can be combined with a video camera to give the visual aspect.

Breathing monitor: Most baby monitors created to detect breathing include a special mat that is placed under the baby and has the ability to recognize breaths. Alternatively, other monitors of this type are clip-on monitors designed to detect movement of the stomach with each breath.

What are the benefits?

There are several benefits that come from using baby monitors, including:

The parents or the babysitter have more flexibility to monitor the baby, and can do it even when they are quite far from the nursery.

In certain situations when a baby is sick, it may be necessary to control breathing, and this is much easier when a special mat or an alarm is placed. This also applies to babies suffering from sleep apnea.

In addition to the benefits, there are also some disadvantages. A common criticism is that parents start to get more anxious when constantly checking a monitor. This will surely cause stress if the respiration monitor continues to give false alarms. Also, this can mean that parents lose sleep and are likely to be more tired in the mornings.