The Rise of FitBit – Driving Baby Smart Tech
When you consider that the majority of babies born today are to Gen Z and Millennial parents, it probably shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that baby smart tech is so hugely popular. Both Millennial and Gen Z parents are more tech-savvy and digitally connected than previous generations have ever been. They are accustomed to using apps and wearables to track everything from their own fitness, work habits, water consumption, heart rate, sleep cycles and diet, so investing in baby smart tech in a similar way is a natural extension of this daily behaviour. It might not be how our parents did things ‘in their day,’ but it’s an innovative and exciting market, with the ability to make a baby’s first year of life, easier and less stressful for the parents.
Whilst welcoming a new baby into the family is an incredibly joyful experience, the truth is, it can also be one of the most exhausting and overwhelming experiences too. Demographic trends show that not only are parents now having fewer children, they’re having them later in life, and live further away from their families. As a result, not only do many new parents have no previous experience of caring for a new baby when their child is born, often there is no familial support close by to help offer advice or care for baby. Having baby smart tech that monitors a new baby can feel like having an extra pair of eyes and ears, and can help anxious parents to spend less time worrying and more time enjoying their new baby.
Current Technology
Current baby smart tech is limited to:
Audio only baby monitors
An audio baby monitor lets you listen to your baby while they sleep in their bed and let you hear their noises like cries while minimising background noise. You can get these devices in analogue or digital versions. Some of these might even include the ability to play back white noise to soothe your baby.
Video Baby Monitors
You can add video to a baby monitoring device to hear and see what is happening. With a small camera mounted onto a wall or bedside furniture you can watch as well as listen to then. Some models will include the ability to zoom or move the camera to see around the room. Others will also include night vision to see your baby when the room is dim or completely dark.
Movement Monitors
There is quite a lot of debate amongst health professionals, parents and medical companies about the methods needed to prevent SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Literature shows that so called ‘SIDS’ devices, DO NOT reduce the incidence of SIDS. See Rednose’s article on it, here. Movement monitors have been designed to let parents know if the baby hasn’t moved for a certain period of time. Helping parents understand what is normal and abnormal motion for their baby.
Wireless Baby Monitors
Today there are quite a few monitors that will connect to your wireless network that lets you use your computer, smartphone or tablet to be used as the receiver. You can watch the video on screen or even get notifications so you know what is happening with your baby
A baby monitor that can work over an internet wireless network can let you view your baby while you are at work or out and about.
Smartphone as Baby Monitor
There have been quite a few apps created for iOS or Android that can turn your smartphone into a baby monitoring device. What some people will do is use an old smartphone and set it up as a camera and audio recording device that sends information to your new phone.
Read our explanation of the pro’s and con’s of smart phone baby monitors.
Goldilocks The Next Generation Baby Monitoring Technology
Parent the Way You Want with Goldilocks
‘We found as new parents that parenting wasn’t particularly complex but was incredibly stressful – especially for our first,” explains Shem, founder of Goldilocks Suits. “With our first we just didn’t know what to expect or how anything worked. We didn’t know what was normal and what wasn’t. You do get a lot of advice as parents, some of it unwanted and not all of it was reliable or best practice. We developed Goldilocks to help new parents understand what is normal and what isn’t.”
“One instance in our life where we wish we had Goldilocks was with Amali. We went to East Timor when she was 6 months old, and we came back to Australia several weeks later. But when we came back her sleep regressed considerably, and we were at the end of our wits trying to work out what the issues was. Eventually we went to a sleep consultant and got a sleep plan and the works, but one question the sleep consultant asked was “is she warm enough?” We had just come from East Timor to an Australian winter and hadn’t quite factored how many rugs she would need. We put an extra rug on her and that solved most of the issues, the expensive sleep plan was thrown out the window.”
“Goldilocks could have told us if she was too hot/cold, it could have told us if this was part of her normal sleep cycle and this would have allowed us to make the quick simple decision and continue to parent the way we wanted to parent.”
Not only does the Goldilocks smart suit allow parents to see in an instant whether the temperature is comfortable for their baby, it also allows them to gather data from their baby related to their sleeping, breathing and feeding. The app also has video tips and advice built into the app that has been created by clinicians like Wink and Mother Nature. So parents, who find themselves during the middle of the night wondering ‘are they too hot/cold,’ ‘is this part of their normal sleep cycle’ or ‘do they just need to be reassured and resettled or is this something else,’ can have the answers at their fingertips, which beats wading through a parenting book during the wee hours!
You can find out what Goldilocks can do for you by clicking the link.
