The Owlet, which sends an alert to parents’ smart phone when a baby’s breathing drops, fails to deliver satisfactory results. (via Owletcare)
This level of monitoring babies is a necessity.
The world of remote baby monitors is rapidly growing. From the basic monitors that transmit all sounds an infant makes, to the ones providing visuals as well, monitoring a baby’s every minute has never been so easy. To appeal to helicopter parents everywhere, a new pulse oximeter has been on the market, purportedly to alert worried parents early on to the signs of SIDS. SIDS- or sudden infant death syndrome, has no known cause, the only symptom is sudden cessation of breathing sometime during the night. Infants sleeping on their stomachs are believed to be at higher risk, but there is little parents can do to completely eliminate the possibility of stopped breathing in the first year of life, when infants are susceptible.
Enter the Owlet, a pulse oximeter designed to fit snugly on a baby’s foot. Pulse oximeters, which measure the degree of oxygen saturation in the blood, have been around since the 1930’s. The readings depend on differences in the absorption of light when the device is connected to translucent areas of the body, usually a fingertip or other extremity. Oxygen-saturated blood absorbs light of a different wavelength than oxygen-deficient blood.
The Owlet, connected to a base station, sends an alert when detected oxygen levels drop below acceptable limits. It should work nicely in theory, and the website boasts that “nothing beats a good night’s sleep”; however, several design issues stand in the way of the device actually delivering what it promises. The actual pulse oximeter is housed in a sock which babies can easily kick off, which parents complained of Syncing the device with the base monitor also proved tricky, and the glow from the monitor is so bright that it also keeps parents from sleeping that well.
Additionally, the sock is $250, a hefty sum for a device that doesn’t work very well. It’s worthy of noting, however, that there are other pulse oximeter socks on the market which look harder for babies to remove. The Owlet may not make the cut, but parents determined to monitor their baby’s breathing can do their own product research and likely find a sock that works for them.
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