Baby Safety Month:  Monitoring Your Child

For a very long time Bubbles wouldn’t sleep unless one of us were holding her, lying next to her, or within arm’s reach.  While it made for some long nights, it did make that parental urge to check your baby’s breathing much easier.  We didn’t have to keep getting up and checking another room; we just looked down.

Now that Bubbles is older and has her own toddler bed, she enjoys having her own special sleep place.  She still likes to fall asleep within sight of us (and still fights bedtime sleep like a professional boxer) but once asleep we move her to her bed and she’s content.  While it’s good to see her independence grow – and also to be able to actually do the dishes while she sleeps now – it did put us in need of a monitor.  The audio ones are nice and have been helpful for decades; I remember playing with the one my Mom had for my younger brothers.  But I really wanted to try one of the new video and audio combo ones.

I was provided the opportunity to do just that with the VTech Safe & Sound Full Color Video and Audio Monitor.  As soon as the box arrived in the mail, my husband started setting it up.  Ours came with one parent unit and one camera unit.  You can also purchase packages that have additional cameras, or you can purchase individual cameras separately.  Each parent unit will support up to four of the cameras and show them on a split screen.  If you have multiple kids you want to keep an eye on, or if you wanted to watch the playroom and bedroom at the same time, that could be a very handy feature.  We actually are considering purchasing a second camera for just that purpose.

Hubby is not a big manual reader (anyone else know one of those?) and still had our units set up in about five or ten minutes.  As soon as I saw Bubbles’ bed come into view – in full color nonetheless – I knew I was going to love the monitor system.  (Ours is placed on a table just behind her bed, but it can also be mounted on the wall if you prefer.)  The image on the screen is extremely clear.  We didn’t experience any fuzziness at all.  And for nighttime monitoring the infrared LEDs kick in so you don’t miss a movement.  The camera also adjusts quite a bit to give you the best viewing angle.

Something I noticed as soon as the screen loaded was that the temperature was displayed on the bar across the top of the screen.  Because the weather can change here suddenly, I always worry that it’s going to randomly get cold in the middle of the night and if Bubbles is still warm enough.  Now I can see and will know if she needs an extra blanket.

There are a number of features on the VTech Safe & Sound Full Color Video and Audio Monitor that I love but in addition to the video and temperature display I would say that my other favorite is the two-way communication.  Not only can we hear her when she makes a sound, but we can press a button on the parent unit and actually speak to her.  You could sooth your child back to sleep with the sound of your voice or even put a halt to that crayon masterpiece about to go up on the wall.

Do you use a monitor to watch over your kiddos?  Ever catch something really cute or funny – like them singing to themselves or making their little brother be their maid?

I received the monitor and camera pictured above in order to facilitate my review.  No additional compensation was received and all opinions, as always, are 100% that of myself and my family.