What's the point of a baby monitor?

I had a small house and sensitive hearing, so I never bought one.

My kid survived.

If you live in a house where you can’t here the baby cry from all rooms the monitor is helpful in knowing the baby is crying.

If you are talking about a monitor that measures breathing or heart rate, usually the only people who have that are people who have babies that have an elevated health risk of dying while sleeping. I had one girlfriend who had to use one with her first born. I guess some parents might use them even on healthy babies if they are paranoid. SIDS does sometimes happen with no warning.

Three kids, decent sized house, no baby monitor, all are well past their toddler years and alive and well. The truth of the matter is that you will hear your kid crying, that is simply the way parents are wired. I also managed to do without baby wipes or a baby wipe warmer, disposable bibs, a Diaper Genie, a boppy pillow and myriad other things I was told I would not be able to live without. Heck, I didn’t even have a swing. Put your money into a top of the line car seat and forget the rest of the baby gear fads.

My mom just had an audio-only monitor. I grew up in a big, spacey farmhouse and no, you really couldn’t hear someone crying if they were upstairs and you were downstairs.

I don’t see anything wrong with an audio-only monitor. Any more is sort of overkill.

@LilCosmo – I completely agree with you, except about the Boppy pillow. That thing was a lifesaver.

Back in the stone age I used a set of plug-in intercoms. I was able to be at a different part of the house and not worry that I missed the little guy’s call. It was very handy.

We got a baby monitor as a shower gift, used it a few times and then we realized that it was picking up conversations from remote phones, so we turned it off. We really didn’t need it at all, since our house was small.

@Seek_Kolinahr and @LilCosmo We had a diaper genie given to us, which was so convenient and was so good at not having to worry about odors.

I knew someone that had an infant sleeping in its crib one night and it spit up and was choking. If the mom didn’t have that monitor sitting on her nightstand, there’s no way she would’ve heard the baby and it may have died.

I’ll be using monitors when I have children. Call me paranoid, but I’d prefer that to walking into my baby’s room only to find it dead.

@zenvelo I used cloth, so it wouldn’t have helped me at all. ^_^

My house was large, so an audio monitor was a necessity. Also great for if you’re sitting outside while the baby’s sleeping.

I had the baby monitor, I actually found it more annoying because at the time I had mine they were kind of newer on the market and I would pick up the neighbors babies crying and other conversations. Annoying.

So I stopped using it. And honestly my daughter slept in the 400$ fancy stroller for the first almost 3 months of her life, next to me wherever I was so. Bad mistake. Lol. What can I say I was only 17 and doing the whole parenting thing by myself.

Anyway when I put her in her own room for the first time it was a nightmare so being 17 I went to the doctor and asked his advise. He advised me that it was OK to ‘let her cry’ so that’s what I did and she basically cried until she was 9. :/

At about 3 the crying turned into nightly temper tantrums that I put up with until one day she just finally went to bed 6yrs later without crying.

Yikes! Maybe I should of just used the monitor. Lol.

Break the connection as early as you can! I might be sending mixed signals here so I’ll just stop now.

Two things the monitor has helped for

1) When I’m up after the baby goes to bed, and on the other side of the house or wearing headphones I can put the receiver right in my field of vision. I notice as soon as it starts to light up. (get one with volume lights) Our house is small, so I can hear her, but that means she can also hear anything you’re doing and headphones are a big help.

2) If I’m awake and alert, I can hear her fine. If I’m asleep, especially if I’m really tired, it’s a lot easier for me to miss things or work them into my dreams. Having it amplified and right next to my bed has made sure I know when she’s up. It’s a pain occasionally but better than the alternatives.

Initially I thought I’d like having one with video so I could see what’s up. Turns out after a few weeks you can almost always hear what’s up. If she’s upset, standing, just babbling, really up or just “kind of up”, and just about everything else you need to know. So I’d skip the video and the cost there unless it’s comforting to see them sleep.

I never felt the need for any kind of monitor.I used to co-sleep with my child.The best way to keep tabs on your baby would be to listen and check on the babies.That’s how our Mom and Grandma did it after all! But in some cases it is necessary, like my friend’s son had autism and required 24/7 monitoring.

Unless you live in a 20 room house or keep your baby in the garage I think baby monitors are silly. I never had a problem hearing my daughter cry when she was an infant.
I was born in the era of no baby monitors, no car seats, no seal belt laws and no helmets for bike riding or horseback riding of which I did lots of as a kid.
I’m alive and well at almost 54 now.

My daughter is 26 next month, she survived as I did.
I’m pretty sure helmets are required for riding rocking horses these days too. lol

You just need a standard baby monitor, nothing fancy is necessary. The exception is if your doctor says the child is at-risk for SIDS, then maybe consider one that measures vitals, but that is almost always unnecessary.

So just get regular baby monitors, try to get one with two receiving units. Also definitely get one that has a wireless battery-powered option for the receiving units so you can move them easily, it comes in handy big time. Other than that, it’s a pretty easy choice.

I was given a baby monitor at my shower, but I never used it. I never even plugged it in and charged it. I can see a use for them, in houses where the bedroom is upstairs or when the parent wants to be outside with the baby in the crib far away.

Baby monitors allow you to hear the baby start getting fussy and address his/her issues before they get really upset.