[XClayX]

We are expecting our first child come August of this year and I'd like to pick up (or register for) a video style baby monitor. Since I've never used one I'm not sure what to look for outside of the reviews from random sites.

Any must have features or brands to look at?

Features that are worth it vs a waste of time.


What we're thinking.

Long range
Decent video quality
Larger or overall decent screen.
Pan/Tilt
Decent rechargeable battery life would be good.

I don't "think" we care about.

Vitals Monitors (breathing, movement, heart)
Online App/internet based ones.


Thoughts? Otherwise I think we roll the dice on this.

 

[Tornado2dr]

We are expecting our first child come August of this year and I'd like to pick up (or register for) a video style baby monitor. Since I've never used one I'm not sure what to look for outside of the reviews from random sites.

Any must have features or brands to look at?

Features that are worth it vs a waste of time.


What we're thinking.

Long range
Decent video quality
Larger or overall decent screen.
Pan/Tilt
Decent rechargeable battery life would be good.

I don't "think" we care about.

Vitals Monitors (breathing, movement, heart)
Online App/internet based ones.


Thoughts? Otherwise I think we roll the dice on this.

Our last monitor for kid #3 was a motorola brand that allowed up to 4 cameras, i think. had a good range, basically the whole yardoutside and then some.

My thoughts on video are "meh"...not really necessary. The sound monitor can be useful, but can make for issues depending on the white noise level or how much noise the baby makes while sleeping in general.

I would recommend against "vitals" monitoring unless there is some health issue that actually makes that important. If there is an issue, you'll figure it out.:thumbup:

 

[DesertJets]

Unless things have changed a lot in 3 years I found that you would end up needing to spend a decent amount of money to get a video baby monitor that meets all of your criteria -- those were certainly things that I wanted as well. We looked at them, looked at the cheap ones (they were rubbish imo) and ended up with the $20 V-Tech audio only baby monitor. I mean the video seems nice and there are times it would have been nice to have (mostly when I wonder how kiddo ends up in some really odd positions in the crib), but I cannot really say that it would have been essential. If you hear something that is cause for concern you're going to get up and check on baby. As an expectant parent it is super easy to get sucked into thinking you need all this stuff. And it is hard to figure out what you need, what would be nice, and what is just kind of useless. In our case going audio-only was never really an issue for us.

In terms of trying to figure out what to get, just look at reviews on Amazon, Target, Walmart, etc.... Stuff that has a lot of consistently good reviews plus useful critical reviews is what you should get.

+1 on no vital monitoring. Unless a neonatologist or pediatrician prescribe a device for tracking it don't bother. We had one because of a slight cardiac issue identified after birth and that thing falsed a lot. I hated it with a passion and nothing was worse than having kiddo finally asleep and you being finally asleep for it to go off.

 

[XClayX]

Thanks for the suggestions. I get the vitals thing, while it might be nice, it might cause alot of anxiety too. I personally use medical devices that alert so its hard or sometimes impossible to get a decent night sleep sometimes. I don't mind spending a bit of money if it lasts a few kids although these can get expensive and honestly we're looking for functional not the Apple of baby monitors. I think after a certain price point there's probably diminishing returns. I'm not sure she will do an audio-only, I think she's set on video, but the price of them is appealing.

DesertJets is absolutely right. Alot of the stuff we've been looking at we're questioning if its really needed and do people actually use this. All of our close friends already have kids and we've been reaching out to them trying to get their take on some of the stuff. There's been a few items that have been dropped from the list as a few people said there not worth it. We're also trying to be mindful of costs, sure some items are on a gift registry but that doesn't mean the baby needs a 60 dollar bath tub that fits in a sink when a 10 dollar one or hand me down would work fine.

 

[EuroSport98]

This is an old thread but thought I'd bump it for any other new dad's looking. The best and simplest combo that has worked for my family is a Wyze Cam combined with a VTech DM221 audio monitor. Carry the audio monitor with you as you do whatever around the house and when you hear the baby cry then just open up the Wyze app and take a look at what's going on.