Review: Snuza Baby Monitor

BABY-STALKING 

As the traditional Hainanese recital, passed down from my 97 year-old grandma, goes – Three, Coo. Six, flip. Seven, sit. Eight, crawl. So, Aryn finally flipped a week before she hit the six month mark. The husband and I were casually comparing her to her big sister, Rhea, about how she was already flipping back and forth in her fourth month and almost sitting independently at six. It took a little patience getting used to her pace and accepting that she’s definitely taking it easy, as compared to Rhea who aced her developmental milestones.

With Rhea (the active one), I never had to worry about SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Her neck was supporting her head well at two months, and she was rolling all over the place as an infant, which kept her awake most of the time. She was extremely alert as a baby and would cry out loud, announcing to the entire household when she woke.

Aryn, on the other hand, has a more laid-back character. She will sometimes lie quietly in her crib upon waking and wait for someone to go in and pick her. Whenever Aryn naps, my mom will worry that she may flip and get stuck in a potentially dangerous position without making a sound. It crossed my mind to get a decent baby monitor, so my mom can have a field day stalking her while baby Aryn napped but I already have an audio monitor from when Rhea was a year and a half, so I procrastinated.

It was around the same time when I was approached by a friend at Bubbamama, to give my honest opinion on Snuza. I have never heard of this brand, or maybe I have not done enough research on such baby gadgets to discover it.

When I first received and opened it, I was greeted by the expected – a monitor, a camera, the chargers, the manual. But there was this tiny little gear with a soft rubbery tip, called Hero. It is actually an innovative device that monitors the baby’s movement – Interesting, but more about it later.

So I went on to set up the camera and monitor. It was a breeze for a tech-idiot like me. The devices were already ingeniously paired (Yay!) and I just had to plug them in and turn them on.

Aryn is sleep-trained so she goes to bed at 8pm every evening and sleeps with the fan on for the earlier part of the night. On the first night I experimented with the Snuza, it alerted me that the room’s temperature was too warm. Even with recent temperatures rising in Singapore, it didn’t occur to me that she could be uncomfortable because the fan is always blowing directly at her. I went into the room after the alarm went off and it was indeed too warm. The camera also has an infra-red function which provides a clear night vision for me to ensure Aryn was always in a safe position.

One can purchase and install up to 4 cameras using 1 monitor, this will be good for a larger house where baby may be in different rooms at different times of the day, so mommy need not shift one camera around the house. It will also be useful for when toddlers are roaming around the house with the helper perhaps, and mommy can keep a watchful eye on just 1 gadget.

For mommies with newborns, there is also a function where you can set a reminder for feeds. This will be especially useful if baby is sleeping in a separate room at night. Newborns should not go more than 4-5 hours without a feed, hence this alert will wake tired mommy up when it’s time to feed baby.

There are also options to select the sensitivity of the monitor to cater for the panicky or chill mom. The speaker function on the monitor allows you to calm baby down with your voice without having to barge into the room and arouse her.

Now, moving on to that interesting innovation I mentioned earlier. It’s a little device that would alert you should there be no movement or breathing for more than 15 seconds. That’s probably why it’s called the Hero 🙂 As a sleep-training Nazi, I was hesitant to trial the Hero on my baby when she’s napping as I didn’t want to wake her unnecessarily, should the device vibrate because of its sensitivity. And of course I do not wish baby Aryn would stop breathing for a period of 15 seconds/don’t’ know how to make Aryn hold her breath for 15 seconds, to test the Hero. So I decided to try it on myself.

I rested the device on my tummy, watched the green light flicker to indicate that it is monitoring my movement, and I held my breath and froze. In approximately 10 seconds or so, I felt a very light vibration. It was mild but just enough for one to feel. This first vibration is supposed to rouse a sleeping baby when the device detects no breathing or movement. The light indicator turned red and continued flickering until I exhaled. I repeated the same test and received another wave of vibration. On the 3^rd time, the device sounded off with a loud alarm. It was so loud that it will set any parent off on a shock and react immediately. I thought, this is a great invention for parents caring for a baby with respiratory problems and drift off in deep sleep, especially those who with children with special needs.

In conclusion, the Snuza Trio Plus is definitely a helpful tool to set my mind at ease while I leave Aryn to sleep and get on to relax and unwind in the evening. Even my husband, who is very particular about video clarity, commented that the LCD display is very clear. It even allows him to pan and tilt the camera to ensure we get a clear view of Aryn as she wriggles around her crib.

After using the Snuza Trio Plus for two weeks, its now time to migrate it over to granny’s day-care and let my mother stalk her grandbaby over the Snuza. I suspect she may end up having her eye glued to the screen.

DETAILS:
For more information on Snuza, please visit www.snuza.com. 
To purchase Snuza products in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, please visit tadgets.com or authorised retailer Pupsik Studios. 
**Snuza Trio Plus is IDA approved. The Snuza Hero does not emit radiation and is safe for babies. 
All Snuza Baby Movement Monitors are manufactured according to FCC, CE and ROHS standards.**