For about $200, parents can link up their infants with a bluetooth onesie or slipper to a monitor which notifies the parents of any changes in regulation. The purpose of the apparatus is to check breathing patterns, sleep patterns, and body movements keeping parents aware and in better contact with their infants, even while sleeping or in the room next door. Many new and stressed-out parents found reassurance in the directness and better response time. The appeal of always being connected, effortlessly, gave parents a peace of mind to carry on with their daily tasks, never more than a baby’s cry away. Others, however, are confused as to the essential benefits of having high-tech methods for infant-to-parent communication, viewing the piece as an unnecessary addition to a relatively uncomplicated process.
A little bit of science goes a long way to show no significant changes in the preventative care of a baby hooked up to bluetooth. While parents have a wider radius of distance they can travel away from the baby without feeling urgently needed, the technology fails to prove itself a deserving commodity. Much more likely, it is a slight scam for new parents worrying day in, day out about the health of their baby.
Dr. David King, writing for the British Medical Journal, retold a similar story with parents buying sleep apnea monitors for their babies. The investment in medical technology, per se, proved to be no protectant against the major concern for parents which is sudden infant death syndrome (which makes up about 80% of deaths in infants up to one year old.). The very nature of SIDS is that its etiology is unknown. Neonatologist Dr Retajczyk explains that the uneducated attempt to be more in tune with one’s baby can make parents worry obsessively over things they do not understand. He asks, “There’s a huge variation [in heart rate] in newborns…so if parents see these trends, does that become worrisome when in reality it’s quite normal?”
At this stage, only one leading company has pledged to conduct clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of its product. Parents and doctors alike should encourage companies with experimental products to further engage in scientific research that lends evidential support to their usage.
