What parents need to know about baby monitoring apps

Follow me on Twitter @drClaire If you want to know how your baby is doing, checking your smartphone app may not be your best bet. That’s the bottom line of an opinion piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association about the new apps that monitor the heart rate, oxygen level, and other vital signs of babies, using sensors that go in clothing or bedding, and sound alarms if something seems awry. I’ve been a new mom a few times, and I totally understand the appeal of these apps. I have gone in repeatedly to check my baby’s breathing, getting my face down to hear them, putting a hand on their back to feel its rise and fall. I’ve worried and fretted over little noises, and wondered if they were pale. Being able to do all that from my smartphone sounds like a dream come true. But here’s the problem — there is no evidence that these actually work These apps are not marketed as medical devices, and so aren’t subject to any testing or regulation. The developers can simply make any claim they want to make. Not that the developers are trying to fool people. I think that they genuinely do want to help parents monitor their babies, and keep babies safe. But we simply have no data to show that they keep babies safe at all — in fact, they may keep babies less safe. One way they could make babies less safe is by subjecting them to medical visits and tests for no good reason. The thing is, it’s not uncommon for a heart rate or breathing rate of a baby to go up ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Children's Health Parenting Source Type: blogs