Rigging Up Baby

theodp writes "Over at Fast Company, Rebecca Greenfield explores the rise of extreme baby monitoring. 'In the imminent future,' writes Greenfield, 'any curious parent with an iPhone will have access to helpful analytics, thanks to the rise of wearable gadgets for babies. Following the success of self-trackers for grown-ups, like Jawbone and Fitbit, companies like Sproutling, Owlet, and Mimo want to quantify your infants.' Devices connect to a baby via boot, anklet, or onesie, and record heart rate, breathing patterns, temperature, body position, and the ambient conditions of the room. While the breathing and sleeping alerts will calm a lot of parents, Greenfield reports the real holy grail is the data garnered from tracking, which some companies plan to share with researchers. 'We're creating the largest data set of infant health data,' says Owlet co-founder Jordan Monroe."

Re:Over-monitoring is problematic

[oodaloop]

That was my first thought as well. Babies make a lot of weird, though normal, noises. Just listening to them sleep can be anxiety-inducing. Was that gurgling normal, or a real problem? He stopped breathing agai...oh no, he's OK. What is that awful sound he's making?

Monitoring and interpreting even more data is going to be daunting and nail-biting. Unless they're sick and need the monitoring, I would not recommend monitoring healthy babies.

Re:Pretty incomplete

[viperidaenz]

Or plotting the fecal colour change that happens from new born, to breast fed, bottle fed, vegetables, meat...
Just don't try plotting the smell, because once you get meat in them you'll need to change the scale to log.

Re:Pretty incomplete

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

Ever find a bunch of re-hydrated raisins in a diaper? Talk about a "The FUCK???" moment...

Re:What happens when the App crashes?

[swamp_ig]

One can argue that these devices have little use other than helping parents sleep, knowing they'd be alarmed if something happens. Even if that's the case, trust me, it is money well spent. As a new parent, there are a ton of things that you'll be concerned about and this just helps easy your mind.

Paediatricians don't recommend the use of these devices. They haven't been shown to decrease the risk of anything. They tend to produce false alarms, causing a hell of a lot of parent anxiety, and which may contribute to post-natal depression (which has got a well established link to infant death).