High Tech Baby Monitoring?

MrGibbage writes "I'm a long time geek and about to be a first time father. I'm setting up the baby room now, and I'm looking for a high-tech (and low cost of course) baby monitoring system. I'm already running a linux web server over DSL and I'd love to push the video to that in order to see the video on my cell phone when we are out and the babysitter is home....uhh....babysitting. How will I watch the video while in our house? What about on my iPaq? Laptop? Something else? What about audio? Any systems that integrate both? The Baby-R-Us systems are ridiculously low quality and not expandable at all and therefore not really an option. The last slashdot article about video surveillance is a few years old."

Comments

Don't

[troon]

If you start watching the baby on your video-phone, you'll get unhealthily paranoid. Select a baby-sitter you trust, and relax a bit. You'll have enough stress with a new kid as it is - you'll need to learn to let go when it's sleeping.

Human infants are quite good (admittedly not perfect) at not dying when left alone when sleeping.

Re:Don't

[Anonymous Coward]

> If you start watching the baby on your video-phone, you'll get unhealthily paranoid

And what is worse, is that you'll end up fullfilling every little need he have, and he'll get used to that.

This will make you life miserable later.

And, you are about to loose most of your friends. Having a brand-new dad bragging about his baby is already bad enough. Now, if you have the gut to piss everybody with a real time feed to its bed...

Re:Don't

[enbody]

I'll second that and add another piece of advice: pay your babysitters well (better than others do) and treat them with respect. If possible "adopt", them into your family. You'll find you get and retain the best babysitters.

We did that and they always found time to sit for our kids whereas others couldn't get them. When my daughter got older she ended up sitting for the two families which paid well, but more importantly, treated her with respect. Now in college, she corresponds with both her own babysitter and the kids she babysat for.

Re:Don't

[kiwimate]

Right. In the first few months the baby will get you up every couple of hours anyway to tell you he/she needs you. (We were extremely lucky; our daughter started sleeping through the night when she was a month old, but that's way unusual.)

Our daughter is now about to turn one year old, and I can still be standing right over the top of her and have to strain to see if she's moving when she's sound asleep. So you may find the video induces more panic than it relieves, unless you're just worried about her hopping over the side of the crib and escaping when she's three weeks old. We have a baby monitor from Babies 'R' us (audio only) and that's exactly what we needed. If we're at all worried over and above that audible reassurance, then one of us walks into the room to check on her. (This often has the reassuring effect of awaking her, at which point she makes it brutally clear she was quite all right, thank you very much, until some tactless git walked into her room and woke her up.)

The main thing you should probably be worried about is that her parents are not too casual and not too paranoid. Either one is bad. As far as the baby's concerned...go to the SIDS home page and read up, and follow up if you fit any of the high risk categories. Otherwise, enjoy -- it's a blast.

Re:Don't

[Vellmont]

I don't think anyone is talking about some kind of enforceable contract signed, notarized, and legally binding. Turn off the lawyer/MBA part of your brain and turn on the common sense/everday people interaction. This is just an agreement between two people. The enforcing body of the agreement would be the kids parents, not the court system.

The upfront payment has other problems with it, but not being legally enforceable in a court of law isn't one of them.

I have news for you

[Anonymous Coward]

You are about to have much, much less time for gadgetry than you have now. Also, your baby will be fine without a video feed. Just buy one of those cheap audio things.

Honestly, your biggest problem at this point will be getting enough sleep. everything else will be likely be lovely.

Re:I have news for you

[DGregory]

True, baby monitors make a ton of static noise when they're on. I'd always have mine up so loud I could hear the baby breathing. Then I got smart and just started cosleeping, and we slept so much better until she started crawling in her sleep. (She has her own toddler bed now and loves sleeping in it).

Unless your bedroom is on the other side of the house, just keep the baby's door open, your door open, and you'll hear the baby cry. The only time I use my baby monitor now is if my daughter's napping in her room (upstairs) and I'm in the basement, so I can hear her when she wakes up.

To effectively spy on the babysitter you'd have to have cameras all over the house. If you're that paranoid about the babysitter, then don't have a babysitter. Babies go to sleep at 8 (if you have a regular schedule), that's plenty of quiet time with the wife before you have to go to bed. Rent a movie and sit and snuggle on the couch.

No need

[frankthechicken]

As far as I'm concerned baby monitoring is pointless, it merely increases paranoia and stress.

Each time the baby isn't coughing/crying/breathing heavily, it induces fear there is something wrong.

Each time the baby is coughing/crying/breathing heavily, it induces fear there is something wrong.

Surprisingly, babies are fairly dependable to continue existing without constant monitoring. Rather unsurprisingly, it takes a huge amount of energy for constant monitoring by adults.

My advice...

[BrK]

First off I will preface this with the disclaimer that I don't have kids, nor do my wife (of many years) and I ever intend to have kids...

I say skip the geek-tools baby raising. Everyone I know who *has* had kids and taken some obsessive-compulsive child-rearing tactic has ended up in a near nervous breakdown with no life of their own.

If you can't find a reputale local babysitter with references, then leave the kid in the care of a familiy member when you go out. I don't think that staring at 2" square grainy image of the kid in a crib is going to make your evening out all that enjoyable.

If you must have video surveilance, go to http://www.supercircuits.com for the video cameras. Then go to http://www.worthdist.com and get a ChannelPlus channel modulator. This allows you to put the video camera feed(s) on TV channels, so for example you tune any TV to channel 84 and there is the crib (at my house channel 84 is the driveway camera, but I digress.)

Re:An old standard

[GreyPoopon]

Have you thought about trying good old fashioned parenting? Perhaps "being there" is the best way to monitor your child...

You know what, I'm sick of this crap everytime somebody brings up this subject. Take a look at the whole question. He's talking about monitoring while a babysitter is there, not about ignoring the child while both parents are home. As a parent, I can attest to the fact that you need to get away every once in a while so that you aren't tempted to hand your child over to scientific research or something like that. The problem is that there are very few trustworthy babysitters, and those that we have been able to find are always in high demand. Personally, I share others' sentiments that it is much better to get someone you can trust than it is to monitor, but I also understand the frustration and anxiety of leaving your child with someone else.

"Old fashioned" parents also had to leave their children with babysitters, but you can bet that if the technology to monitor the baby (and babysitter) had been available, they'd have considered using it too.

The Safety Industry

[Retief65]

A lot of people are making a lot of money off parents with exaggerated fears for their children's safety. Bike helmets are a reasonable precaution, but stab-resistant jackets? As the father of a one-year old, I would suggest you spend your limited free time checking the batteries on the fire alarms and ensuring you and your wife still have fun now and then rather than tinkering around with baby monitors. Both will serve your child better in the long run.

What ever happened to parenting?

[Handbrewer]

Please, what happened? Whats this obsession with monitoring these days? When i was a baby, there were no baby alarms or no cameras (?!?). Please do not monitor your babies with cameras feeding a stream over the internet for the love of all that is sacred. The idea alone makes me sick. It will not make you more safe, it will make you more nervous. Get a good babysitter you can trust, and go out, relax. You need it from time to time, after having a baby. Dont keep yourself at a constant level of stress monitoring your child 24/7. Whats next? Giving your baby a GPS tag? RFID chip? Its all an excuse nowadays. Just bring up your child like you was. You turned out alright i suppose?

Re:An old standard

[ColdGrits]

"You know what, I'm sick of this crap everytime somebody brings up this subject. Take a look at the whole question. He's talking about monitoring while a babysitter is there, not about ignoring the child while both parents are home."

The clue is in your own words.

He has a babysitter babysitting.

He does NOT need to be watching the baby while the babysitter is there - that's WHY he has a babysitter.

What an excellent way to show the babysitter just how much they are appreciated - "Watch my baby, but I'll be watching you...".
Besides, if he and his wife are out for the evening to get a break, then watching the babty over the cellphone is not exactly having a break, is it?

Re:Ears (no, seriously - ears...)

[ghostlibrary]

> our own ears sufficed just as well

I have to second this-- you do _not_ want electronic monitoring. You _have_ to develop "parental radar". Which really means 'hearing'.

By the time your kids are age 2, you should be able to tell where your kids are in the house or yard, regardless of your own location, instantly and subconsciously. Developing 'eyes in the back of your head' is mostly just sensory awareness of the normal kid noise level and position.

If you go with electronic monitoring (sound or video), you'll have trouble later.

You'll have trouble telling where your toddler drifted to if you go to a house not rigged up like yours, since your own hearing won't be trained.

You'll never be able to handle nightmares at age 2 if you used a baby monitor and didn't develop good child-hearing.

You'll never be able to yell to your 4-year old, "stop doing that!" two rooms away (because you heard silence, and silence=mischief) if you're used to direct feeds.

Your six year old will rule your life once he/she realizes you lack the basic totally sensory awareness parents need to develop.

You'll have a harder time finding them when lost in shopping malls, parks, et cetera, if you didn't develop your parental hearing/radar.

Seriously, my hearing is incredibly sensitive, I feel like Daredevil when my kids are involved. Sure, I might still walk into a truck I didn't hear coming like anyone-- but if my kids are driving it, I'll know!

That said, I did run a video camera out the window so I could be in my study and be sure they were okay out back. It was sometimes handy, but you know, I still relied on my own hearing and parental spider-sense to know when trouble was happening.

If you do video, for $40 you can get a camera plus battery that's smaller than a pack of cards, wireless, color, and runs into a TV. So consider setting up a TV _when they are past age 3_ for outside, but really, don't do in-house monitoring, you'll just kill the natural development of your own senses and instincts.

And don't monitor the babysitter. If you can't trust her to watch the kids sans monitoring, you shouldn't hire her at all. If you trust her, enjoy the time you're paying her for by having a child-free excusion!

Re:Don't do it!

[LetterJ]

I am childless by choice and have always puzzled at statements that having a child is a selfless act (not to pick on you directly, but you did mention selfishness in your post). The reason is this. A few years ago, I started challenging those who insisted that I should have children (and they do. at great length.) to give me the reasons THEY had children. However, in those reasons, they need to avoid using the first person. No "I", "me", "us", etc. MANY parents have a really hard time coming up with any.

While taking care of the child once it arrives may be selfless, the reasons for choosing to have them in the first place are almost always centered around the parent rather than the child.

There is too much stupid joking lately.

[Futurepower(R)]

There is too much stupid joking lately. Look at the beginning of most stories. Maybe 5 or 10 people are making adolescent jokes. Not only do they join every story to act like adolescents, they act like socially-challenged adolescents.

High-tech security is a valuable subject, no matter what is being monitored. Someone asks an interesting question, and a few immature people attack the author of the question!

I came here hoping that someone else had already done the engineering, and I could learn from that, and a few people waste my time.

--
Bush: Borrowing money to give to the rich.