Baby Monitors

A baby monitor is ideal for parents with a young child. They’re particularly useful if you live in a large house with the child's room on a different floor, or if you intend for your baby to sleep outside in their pram during nice weather. Some parents buy a baby monitor once the child has grown a little, often before a holiday or trip.

Range varies between different baby monitors. It’s not uncommon for the better models to have a range of several hundred metres outdoors, and up to 50 metres indoors. But range is also affected by the environment you’re in; factors such as thick stone walls or signals from other homes around can have a negative effect on the range. However, virtually all baby monitors warn you if contact between the two units is broken.

There’s no upper limit as to how long you should use a baby monitor. Even with older children, of preschool age, it can be useful to know if your child is awake in the evening or at night. In other words, baby monitors aren’t just for babies.

There’s no upper limit as to how long you should use a baby monitor. But a baby monitor starts to feel unnecessary when your child has become so big that they can get out of bed and come to you, or can call for you if they wake up during the night.

Made up of two units, a video baby monitor is just like a regular baby monitor. The baby unit consists of a camera, which must be mounted near the child's bed or in the room where the child usually sleeps.

The parent unit has a screen on which you can then see if your child is asleep or awake, and how they’re lying in their bed. Some video baby monitors have a camera that can be connected directly to a smartphone.

It’s important to place the monitor close enough to the baby so that it can alert you immediately if the baby wakes up or starts to make noises. However, in practice most baby monitors are sensitive enough to be placed next to the bed. Some baby monitors come with brackets so they can be mounted on the headboard or the edge of the cot.