Is your baby connected yet?
It’s easy for older parents to mock the new generation of wearable devices available to parents of infants. As described by Molly Wood in her latest Machine Learning column, these gadgets promise to “track your newborn’s sleeping habits, gathering data like whether babies are on their backs or stomachs, their breathing rates, skin temperature, room temperature and even, in some cases, blood-oxygen levels and heart rates.”
Thirteen years into life as a parent, I know that, absent some particular need, I wouldn’t want that information. But when I look back on the earlier self who tracked every feeding of baby No. 1 in a little notebook that is conspicuously absent from the history of babies Nos. 2 or 3, I can see why it would be tempting. After all, as a new parent, the only thing you really know is how much you don’t know. Especially for those of us who didn’t grow up surrounded by babies and younger children, it’s hard to understand that you don’t actually need to know all that much.
Read more about devices like Mimo, MonBaby and Sproutling (and Ms. Wood’s challenges getting them to work as promised) here and then tell us: Have you tried any of these out with more luck than she had, or less? What would a parent who isn’t a medical professional do with all that information, once it’s available? And — to steal a phrase from Ms. Wood — will they ever replace “a decent video monitor and an old-fashioned hand on the forehead?”