While many parents find some sort of baby monitoring system indispensable to their childcare routine, many have also wondered whether the extra feature of a video feed for their child is necessary or really beneficial over traditional sound baby monitors, so here we have the baby video monitor vs. baby sound monitor breakdown.
Is Baby Really Sleeping Sweetly? Checking in on sleeping children is a good practice, but that creak in the floor might wake them up, so many parents check-in with the use of a monitor.
- Audio: Checking in with an audio monitor might not give you the reassurance that you need. Can you hear baby breathing softly from the monitor or is everything simply quiet—is it too quiet? An audio monitor still allows room for some ambiguity or uncertainty.
- Video: With a video baby monitor, you can actually see baby sweetly, and check not only for sounds that baby is still breathing okay, but also watch baby’s chest rise and fall with each breath, which can help you to better know when to or when not to make those floor creaks near baby.
Catch Toddler Crocodile Tears in the Act: Toddlers are often seen as tricksters, who love nothing more than to test the limits and patience of parents as they try to learn how to assert their own identities. Therefore, naptime and bedtime may come with more tears and crying than actually warranted, but how can you know the difference?
- Audio: With an audio monitor, you will surely hear the crying and high-pitched shrills of a Toddler’s tantrum, but whether or not they are crying for real-due to an injury-or whether they are simply crying for attention and protesting bedtime often requires a bit of guesswork and relying on “gut-feelings.”
- Video: A video monitor takes some of the guess work out of those sounds coming through the monitor. With the accompaniment of video feed to sounds, parents can make strong decisions for whether or not going to a little one’s nap area is needed.
Two-Way Communication: Wouldn’t it be nice to gently reassure baby to go back to sleep without having to step foot out of bed? Or to more sternly tell toddler that playtime is over and bedtime has begun?
- Audio: With most sound baby monitors, there is no two-way communication. One monitor picks up the sound and transits it to another.
- Video: Send your baby much love and kisses while they quietly play in the other room, or give a stern direction to “go back to sleep” to a pouty toddler, who keeps getting out of a new, bigger bed. With some video monitors, two-way communication means that you can not only check-in on your little, but you can also allow your little one to see your face or hear your voice. Of course, you still have the option of stealthily checking-in on your little one without being heard or seen, if you prefer.
When it comes to checking-in on baby, many parents have found a baby monitor system indispensable, but for an increasing amount of parents, a video monitor provides more reassurance and peace of mind.