With the help of a baby monitor, you can hear and see your bub or even transmit soothing sounds to them from virtually anywhere.
Baby monitors give you the chance to get on with other activities, knowing you’ll be the first to hear when your baby calls. They come in handy if you have a large house, especially two-storey, or your baby’s room is some way from the kitchen or living areas of your home. Basic audio-only baby monitors are still effective, but you may be considering other features such as video, Wi-Fi connectivity or movement sensors. Find out which is the best baby moniter to suit your needs.
Best Overall
Infant Optics DXR-8 Baby Monitor
Parents everywhere breathed a sigh of relief when the video baby monitor was introduced, with a camera in baby’s room transmitting video to the receiver mom or dad kept by their side. After all, it’s a relief to see that silence means a sleeping baby rather than Sharpie on the walls.
This monitor has over 24000 Amazon reviews with a near five star rating. Parents rave about its crystal-clear picture in both light and darkness, and the interchangeable wide-angle lens for larger viewing areas (sold separately). Not only that, the DXR-8 has the ability to pan and zoom across baby’s room without parents having to enter the room and move or adjust the camera. This makes it a great overall video baby monitor.
Smartest Baby Monitor
Nanit Plus Smart Baby Monitor
Bleary-eyed parents who just want their baby to sleep soundly through the night will appreciate the insights that come from the Nanit Plus Baby Monitor. In addition to letting you check in on your sleeping child from the comfort of your smartphone, Nanit’s camera also monitors activities so that it can provide you with detailed analysis of your child’s sleeping patterns and quality of sleep.
Over time, the Nanit Plus recognizes your baby’s sleep habits and uses that information to summon up articles and advice for you on ways to improve your baby’s sleep.
Best Value Monitor
iBaby MS6 Digital Baby Monitor
iBaby’s camera offers the sort of capabilities you’d expect — push-to-talk features to soothe a crying child, motion-triggered photo and video capture, and a 720p HD camera.
The M6T streams to an app on your smartphone, and we found the Wi-Fi-enabled video streaming to be clear, even in low light. The two-way speaker offered above-average audio in all conditions, and we like how we could play lullabies preinstalled on the iBaby mobile app to lull a child to sleep.
Not only can you keep tabs on baby through your iPhone or tablet, the iBaby monitor also allows you to live-stream footage to as many as four people (Hello, Grandma!), take, store and share photos of baby, and speak or sing to baby via two-way communication. Parents can remotely control the camera so that it swivels, tilts and pans for a larger viewing area.
Best Wearable Monitor
Owlet Smart Sock
For some parents, particularly those whose babies may have had breathing issues or be on oxygen, keeping tabs on babies vital signs are a must.
The sock wraps comfortably around the babies foot and keeps track of oxygen levels, heart rate and sleep using clinically proven pulse oximetry.
It comes with a base station that glows green when everything is fine, and notifies you with lights and sounds if oxygen levels or heart rates leave preset zones. If you also like to peek in no matter where you are, it’s able to stream HD video and audio to an app.
This is not for everybody, some parents may find it too much information, especially with the potential of false alarms. It is also a fairly pricey option but if it is peace of mind that your baby is ok it is well worth it.
Best Monitor plus Sensor Pad Combo
Angel Care Baby Monitor With Movement Tracking
Angel Care is the only monitor on the market with a wireless movement sensor pad.
Anxious parents worried about SIDS will love this feature as it alerts you if the baby stops moving, tracking the most subtle changes such as breathing.
It offers the choice of being wall-mounted or used as a tabletop. It has a 5-inch LCD touchscreen, night vision capability and the room temperature display is easy to read turning blue if it’s too cold or red if it’s too hot.
It offers two-way talk, but unlike many of the other models we looked at doesn’t offer lullabies and white noise. Also, like the owlet, it may be too much for some parents given the chance of false alarms.