Last spring, when my wife and I were preparing to welcome our first child, we launched a list of children’s facilities – the ceremony of passing for parents. The difference with our list, or I thought, was that it would only contain the best things, because it checked me, a technical journalist with 20 years of experience in product testing.
After our child arrived in the summer, I learned that I was wrong.
It turned out that there was no best children’s equipment, because what worked for other parents often did not work for us. Although I chose a top stroller, its bikes were insufficient for our neighborhood streets. The Electronic warmer bottles Many editors were mentioned as a necessity that was too slow when heating milk for our voice newborn. Snoo, a robotic bassinet with $ 1,700 with a cult follow, did nothing to fuck our little to sleep.
Now, around the sleepless nights of the newborn phase, my wife and I ended the defendant with a containing child. It partially helped turn to another approach with child equipment, analyze our specific problems of new parents and look for ways to solve them.
My maximum and minimum with child technology may not be the experience of every parent. However, the lessons I have learned from my ozerazing measures, from the night lights controlled by the Internet to the CAMS nanny, should be generally usable.
Here’s what to know.
Knowledge triumphes over fantastic gizmos, including snoo
When our daughter was born for the first time, she postponed effortlessly in Bassinet without frills, which I bought from another parent on the Facebook market. But when she turned for about 3 months, she began to protest loudly against a nap. As a result, I considered snoo, an elegantly designed white bassinet that automatically swung and plays sounds to calm the grim child.
Among the parents is a snoo polarizing product not only because of its price ($ 1,700 or $ 160 per month for rent). Several of my friends with the privilege of owning the one called the device, saved them from the verge of madness. Others said their child hated it. I read a book on the soothing newborn He wrote the creator of Snoo Harvey Karp, so I wanted to shoot it.
Fortunately, my friend lend me snoo. I downloaded an accompanying application and paid a $ 20 subscription for accessing some of its other benefits, including a rocking movement that imitated bumps and jostles in the car.
My child was at first unquestionable when we attached it. But when she started crying and Bassinet reacted by swaying and playing white noise, she cried even louder. After a few weeks of experimenting, we returned to her old school bassinet.
A spokesman for the happiest child, the Snoo company, said it was ideal to acclimatize children for the product as soon as they were born because it simulates movements and sounds the experience of the child inside the womb of the mother. However, the company advertises SNO as suitable for children under 6 months of age and my daughter suits this criterion.
The technology that eventually helped? E-books.
Once late night I downloaded $ 14 E-book of pediatrician On the psychology of infants and sleep. I began to understand why my 3 -month old is fighting with sleep and how to predict when it will need a nap. We tried the book methods and within a few weeks my child started to take a nap regularly and sleep overnight.
Knowledge is stronger – and cheaper for access – than fantastic bassinet.
The best technology helped parents with a broken brain
My wife and I have found that the most useful technology of the child are applications for smartphones that helped us to process information in our condition depressed sleep. Free application BlueberryThe parent tool to record bottles, diapers and sleep time for their children was essential for my wife and me to tell each other the needs of the child when we took turns. It also provided useful data for our pediatrician.
Also useful was Application Center for checking and preventing Centers for checking and preventionwhich shows the control list of the expected developmental milestones of the child at any age, such as learning to roll after 6 months.
When she was about 7 months old, our daughter began to crawl. We could no longer take our eyes from it, so we moved to consume more parental literature through another medium: audiobooks.
Technical technology with one task is unnecessary
Many favorite children’s technologies are gadgets that serve the only purpose.
60 $ The hatch of restNight light that plays white noise is the product on the lists of many parents who had to help children sleep. The $ 250 Nanite forThe webcam that can alert you to the movements and shouts of the child is another. The same is $ 50 Philips Avent Electronic Bottle Warmerwhich heats the bottle of chilled milk by pressing the button in a few minutes.
I received all these products as gifts through our register. Although I liked to use them, I finally realized that other products I have already owned could accomplish the same tasks.
The Webcam He had an impressive set of features for monitoring our child, including a tool that automatically detected how many hours I put it in bed and when it woke up. But this feature required the camera to be mounted on a high tripod against the wall to get a bird’s eye view cotsWhich was impossible with the layout of our bedroom.
As well as any webcam for regular control of the video of our child’s feed in her crib. This could also be done with any general security camera like indoor $ 100 Nest Cam.
Our child slept better in the dark, so Hatch Rest’s Night Lightwhose colors can be changed using the smartphone application, they turned out to be useless. (Maybe when our daughter is older, it will appreciate that the light can be set to the timer, so it is illuminated when it is time to wake up.) We only used a function for playing white noise. When we traveled, we used a tablet or smartphone to play white noise in the hotel room, creating a dedicated sound machine unnecessary.
The Philips Avent Bottle Warmer At first it seemed useful, but every caregiver for our daughter, including relatives, my wife, me and now our nanny, stopped using it. Each of us independently realized that a metal coffee mug, partially filled with hot water from the sink was faster.
This is not to say that none of the above products will work well for other parents. The problem with the assumption of the best children’s equipment, however, is that all two infants require that they are similar, which is rarely.
It is best to start getting to know your child before starting the list, rather than vice versa.
