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United States Hardware Technology

Smart Baby-Trackers Mostly Unnecessary, Say US Doctors (bbc.com) 118

Posted by msmash from the calling-'em-out dept.
A group of pediatricians has called for smart health-trackers, designed to monitor babies while they sleep, to be regulated by the same US body that oversees other medical equipment. An anonymous reader shares a BBC report: The monitors, which often take the form of sensors fitted to clothing or nappies, measure signs such as heart rate and breathing during sleep. The data is shared with a phone app. The doctors spoke out after seeing babies being brought to A&E after smart-monitor false alarms. The team from the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia said the devices should be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One brand they mentioned was Owlet, which sells a $250 monitor that tracks sleeping babies' heart rates and oxygen levels via a sensor concealed inside his or her sock. It says on its website that it has already submitted a medical version to the FDA for approval. "For most healthy babies there is not a role for home monitoring at all," said neonatologist Dr Elizabeth Foglia, one of the authors of the opinion piece published by the American Medical Association journal Jamanet.
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Smart Baby-Trackers Mostly Unnecessary, Say US Doctors More

Smart Baby-Trackers Mostly Unnecessary, Say US Doctors

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  • buy it or you're a bad parent (Score:4, Funny)

    by known_coward_69 ( 4151743 ) on Friday January 27, 2017 @03:44PM (#53750989)

    and you kid will die without you knowing and you will feel guilty

    run out and buy it now before your baby dies

    • The monitor is not for the baby. It is for the mom. Mothers worry incessantly about their babies, and if this monitor helps them sleep without worrying as much, then it is worth the $250. Before I got married and had a kid, I never realized how much women care about their babies. It is like when you were a teenager, and you save and save and finally have enough to buy a brand new XBox. You take it home, and set it up, you worry about it overheating and check the vents every 10 minutes, you dust it twic

      • i have two kids too and my wife isn't as crazy as yours. in fact we didn't buy a lot of stuff on that idiotic babies r us list cause it was a waste to spend $300 on something for 6 months. and on the second kid we didn't even use that $300 diaper bag that everyone said to get for the first cause you don't need to pack like a soldier going on deployment just to take your kid outside

        • i have two kids too and my wife isn't as crazy as yours.

          My wife may be neurotic, but she would not buy this device since she is Asian, and in Asian culture babies are never left alone. They sleep with Mom, and if Mom moves from room to room, she takes the baby with her. Also, when you marry an Asian woman, you are basically marrying her whole family. As soon as she is pregnant, her parents move in. So when the kid is born, you have a built in babysitting service. Grandma didn't trust me to change a diaper until the kid was six months old.

      • If a mom is that obsessed w/ her baby, just lay down w/ him or her 24/7 during the maternity leave. If she's asleep and the baby's wailing doesn't wake her up, neither will the monitor - and if it can, it'll also scare the baby. Baby monitors are for large houses where baby is sleeping in one room while mom is busy in a far away spot in the house, like say the kitchen.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by cdrudge ( 68377 )

          If a mom is that obsessed w/ her baby, just lay down w/ him or her 24/7 during the maternity leave.

          GOOD LORD ARE YOU CRAZY!!?!? The mother will roll over and crush the baby, or smother it. /s

    • Re:buy it or you're a bad parent (Score:4, Funny)

      by PPH ( 736903 ) on Friday January 27, 2017 @04:01PM (#53751107)

      Bought one for my kid. He just said, "F* you, dad" and went back to wrenching on his Harley.

    • Our first son literally stopped breathing 10 minutes after he was born (~10 lbs and otherwise healthy) and spent a week in ICU. We used one of these monitors the first several months. There are actually legitimate uses for these things....

      • who takes their newborn home 10 minutes after birth? and how many kids does this happen to?

        • I'm not sure anyone take their baby home 10 minutes after birth! I think what he means is that the baby stopped breathing in the hospital, 10 min after birth.

          I'm not sure how often it happens but it happened to us. There was still fluid in the lungs that had to come out.

      • Ditto, our son stopped breathing for a short period after birth, it made us neurotic We have an Owlet and quite honestly, after the first 2 weeks or so of use I realized the Owlet is not so much for the baby, its so that WE can sleep better at night not worrying as much, by getting up every 10 minutes to check if he is in trouble.

        S.I.D.S.
        Sudden Infant Death Syndrome [mayoclinic.org]
        Cause mostly unknown.
        All babies are at risk during months 2-4 whether they are healthy or not.

        The Owlet works and has been worth every cent of

        • LoL that Owlet is cute. Back in late 90s the equivalent thing was the size of computer case and we had to wrap a strap around his chest.

      • Yes, apnea of the newborn is an issue. But it isn't an issue for the vast swath of kids. When you have a kid with the problem, a specific monitor with specific training on it's use and support from medical professionals is very useful.

        Selling them to every new parent on the planet is just a way to make money.

      • Re:buy it or you're a bad parent (Score:5, Insightful)

        by R3d M3rcury ( 871886 ) on Friday January 27, 2017 @06:48PM (#53752199) Journal

        Well, there are cases to be made for all of these sorts of monitors. For example, I see no problem with parents of mentally challenged children who give the kid a GPS to wear so that they can track the kid if he/she happens to wander off.

        The grouse I have is the idea that each and every one of us should be using these at all times with our children--just in case. Some of this comes from companies that take a few dollars worth of parts, put something together for a few hundred dollars, with little-to-no quality testing against a false positive. They then sell it to some parent who attaches it to their kid and then ends up rushing their kid to the ER once a month because the monitor said that they have an irregular heartbeat when it's actually just the monitor that is screwed up.

    • and you kid will die without you knowing and the government will arrest you for child abuse

      FTFY.

  • Yup, if my precious little infant has a blip in his data, I'm going to rush him to the Arts & Entertainment cable network immediately.

  • Or they just straight up dont work (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I had the MIMO baby monitor for my first child and that thing just straight up didnt work.
    Talked to the company and they replaced every part of the entire setup and still no luck. They had a rep come out to my house and try to set it up for me and still no luck. They would refund me though because it was a gift and the person that gave it to me didnt have the receipt...

    These things are in the hundreds of dollars range and to some people it is worth it, but it really is just a way to help mom calm her tits.

  • 1st World Non-Problems.

    Just do like the poor people do - pop em out and let em run amok.

  • > For most healthy babies there is not a role for home monitoring at all

    Even if the actual odds that there will be a problem for the monitor to catch are low, there is some value for an anxious new parent in being able to fall asleep easier, knowing that at least the new baby is breathing normally, etc.

    In other words, the value isn't only in the monitor alarming, the reassurance of the steady pulsing of the monitor showing that breathing and heart rate are fine has some value. I didn't *buy* something

    • Or, you could co-sleep like humans and pre-humans have done for literally millions of years right up to the advent of the split floorplan.

      On a serious note, there are some infants who need this - not many, but the old "back to sleep" campaign improved, but did not stop, SIDS.

      • You are of course welcome to parent your own way.

        > like humans and pre-humans have done for literally millions of years right

        Up through the 16th century, about half of all children died before reaching 16 years of age. You mentioned "pre-humans": gorillas have an infant mortality rate of about 50%. Today, developer nations have infant mortality rates well under 1%.

        Unless you're cool with a 50-50 chance of killing your kid, "the way it was done for millions of years" is a TERRIBLE argument.

        In fact, it'

        • Wtf phone, "anti-American argument"? I said anti-argument!

          Maybe I should use the Preview feature.

          Anyway, "people did it this way until modern times" is used to sell parents on a bunch of really bad ideas. Whenever you hear that, it's wise to remember the second half of the sentence, "people used to do it THIS way - and half of them died". Now most people do it this other way, and don't die.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Aereus ( 1042228 )

            That is a general statement that still isn't true for everything. Many "modern" people have babies by C-section and use formula instead of breastfeed, and both of those "modern" techniques have been found to be worse for a baby and should be avoided if at all possible.

            • A perfectly healthy mom, with a perfectly healthy, properly positioned baby, would be better off not having a C-section. Any of a number of complications make C-section safer than vaginal delivery.

              Countries with C-section rates below 7% have significantly higher mortality than countries with higher rates. This is probably because breech babies and other complications. Mortality rates continue to improve until C-sections account for about 19% of deliveries.

              Above 19% c-sections (here's looking at you, Calif

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      We have the Owlet and I think on the whole it's been a good purchase for us. At the price point of $250 it is definitely expensive, but the prices of these devices will come down.

      Owlet published their own survey with voluntary input about when the red alerts were triggered, note several cases where it may have saved a baby's life (granted it's their own report):

      http://www.owletcare.com/blog/red-notifications-report-for-2016/

      Some examples:
      * A mom who fell asleep while breastfeeding her baby and Owlet sounde

      • * One mom woke up to a red notification to find her baby’s hand over her face while sleeping.
        * One mom woke up to a red notification and found a blanket covering her baby’s face.

        Sounds like Owlet needs to dial it down. You aren't going to asphyxiate an infant with it's hand - ever. It would be hard to asphyxiate an infant with a blanket unless you are wrapping it around its face.

        False positives for the marketing win!

    • there is some value for an anxious new parent in being able to fall asleep easier

      The technology's got this. I don't need to pay attention. I'll get an alarm when the baby stops breathing, it's all good. Now back to the TV.

      A small amount of anxiety is healthy. It keeps us cautious.

      • You think when a little baby is finally asleep the parents are going to *watch tv*? You don't have kids, do you?

        Little ones have to be fed every couple hours, meaning the parents have to get up and feed them every couple hours. When the baby finally falls asleep, most parents want to do one thing - go to sleep, for a couple hours until they have to get up again.

        • When the baby finally falls asleep, most parents want to do one thing - go to sleep

          Wonderful thing a generalisation is. Do you also fall asleep at work? What about if the baby falls asleep in the back of a car, does the car suddenly swerve off the road and into a tree?

          • >> When the baby finally falls asleep, most parents *WANT TO* do one thing - go to sleep

            > Do you also fall asleep at work?

            Several times when she was small, yes. Sometimes drooling on the keyboard, sometimes on the floor, with the pillow I brought to the office. Sometimes I took a vacation day to sleep during work hours.

            > What about if the baby falls asleep in the back of a car, does the car suddenly swerve off the road and into a tree?

            Rumble strips saved us more than once. Twice we unexpectedl

  • Look, I agree that these devices are mostly unnecessary, but mostly is the key word. If you have an infant that died of SIDS*, you would find absolutely no comfort in the fact that the doctor told you that you'd probably not need this monitor.

    Some parents do need to calm down and not rush their kids to the ER for every hangnail, and if your monitor alarms but your baby is fine, then be grateful, but don't freak out. There will be some children saved by this device, and those parents will be more than happy

  • I purchased a Snuza Hero and used it on my two children. It's not connected to my network, it just sounds an alarm if it no longer detects breathing. My doctor warned me they are unnecessary, but I wanted the peace of mind. There were false alarms, but that was ok in my opinion.

    Network connectivity is a little extreme for something like this. All I want is something to tell me if my baby is alive or not. I'm not going to analyze blood oxygen levels or heart rate data.

    At the end of the day, I would

    • At the end of the day, I would do it again. I can live with a few false positives and it gave me some piece of mind.

      I should add, that I never brought any of my children to the emergency room due to one of these false alarms. I examined them myself. Basically, if they were breathing, they were fine.

    • you are a terrible person
      signed, all the wizened, yet paradoxically childless d-bags on slashdot

    • Years ago, I bought a rock that protected me from tiger attacks. Everyone told me this was a stupid thing to do, as there isn't a tiger within 1000 miles of where I live. But it gave me piece-of-mind, so I suppose it's okay.

  • Medical science has largely stagnated in this country over the last few decades, due to the enormous amount of red tape and expense needed to bring medical technology to the market.

    Seriously: think back to all the articles we see here at Slashdot: 3-d printing skin, growing human organs in pigs, curing diabetes in mice, and so on. We've been seeing these articles for about 20 years, but nothing high-tech or disruptive has entered into common practice.

    It's gotten so bad that many people in the hacker communi

    • So now a bunch of doctors are getting bothered by parents who take the trouble to monitor their infants, and their solution is to have the FDA regulate the devices. Because making less bother for doctors is totally what the FDA is for. Assuming the device doesn't itself cause a medical problem, there's no reason the FDA should regulate it. There's not even any reason to regulate the accuracy of such a device (let the market, or industry standards compliance handle that aspect).

      And here I thought that the main purpose of the FDA was keeping drug company profits healthy at the expense of the whole country ;-) The last thing we need is yet more stuff stuck in the limbo style hell that is FDA regulation. The FDA is at least party a scam, otherwise we would be able to import pharmacy prescriptions from Canada and such without them interfering.

      • Don't blame the FDA for something that is entirely the fault of Congress. Entirely the fault of Congress. The FDA could approve pharmaceuticals from a dozen countries by signing agreements with their pharmaceutical overwatch departments.

        Those spineless, brainless slime molds that can't stand up to a mutant toupee are the problem.

    • How about this line of reasoning - all of those articles, inventions and ideas just didn't pan out the way their originators hoped they would. It isn't the fault of the Democrats stuffing the FDA with red tape breathing zombies. It's not even Bush's fault.

      It is just the fact that we've pull off most of the low hanging fruit (clean water, sewers, vaccinations - sorry guys, but they work, basic surgery and some fairly sophisticated medicine). Making progress is harder these days.

      I bet you're still expectin

  • Buy it or get black listed in GOP care.

    And we will just them to black list people as well.

  • I thought half the point of putting the baby to sleep was to get a few minutes/hours to yourself to recuperate. Unless your kid is deathly ill, who would want to strap an beeping/blooping health monitor to it? (Have you ever tried to sleep in a hospital?)

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I have an Owlet, we use it on my newborn. The device itself makes:

      1) A single quiet tone when you turn on the base station and it connects to the electronics in the sock to begin monitoring, along with a soft green ring that lights up on the base station;
      2) A single quiet tone when you plug the sock back into a USB cable in the base station to charge the device, along with a soft white ring that lights up on the base station;
      3) A loud low-budget rendition of the "Hush Little Baby" lullaby that plays whe

    • I thought half the point of putting the baby to sleep was to get a few minutes/hours to yourself to recuperate

      You think that, and then you have your first kid.

      And you find instead of getting that recuperation, you're obsessively worrying about SIDS, blankets, crib slat spacing, meteor strikes, velociraptor attacks, and a million other things you can't stop your brain from worrying about.

      Then after a few months, you realize it'll be OK and you calm down.

  • Just a gimmick, (like adult health trackers) to get you into their profiling system as early as possible. We'll have those targeted ads ready for you the first day the child uses the net!

  • To listen and annoy the babies with the hacked trackers. ;)

  • "For most healthy babies there is not a role for home monitoring at all."

    Today's parents don't feel like they can ever take their eyes off of their children. The device gives these people a chance to sleep a little. And if catches that one-in-a-million Sudden Infant Death Syndrome case, so much the better. Plus, think of all the data being collected!

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