CCTV for babies

Product name: Luvion Platinum Digital Video Baby Monitor (www.luvion.nl)

What is it?A baby monitor with video that allows the parents or babysitter to follow baby’s activities (colour picture and sound) from a different room. It has automatic night vision (similar functionality as ‘night vision helmets’ used by the military) which allows the parents to have clear visibility of the baby without disturbing him with any light. There is an option that allows the monitor to be connected to a TV screen, but we have not yet tried this out

Why did it catch my attention?Both me and my husband are geeks who use videoconferencing for both business and private purposes – of course our baby has to have a video monitor!

How old was my baby when I bought it?This was the first baby item my husband bought, several months before our son was born…

What value does it add for us?The value of video compared to sound-only baby monitors is that we save several trips into the baby’s bedroom to check whether he is awake or only crying in his sleep. I find the picture quality to be very good and reliable, even in our flat that is full of gadgets transmitting signals at frequencies that could potentially interfere with the video signals. The first time he slept overnight alone with his grandparents my son had double protection with his grandmother sleeping in the same room and granddad monitoring him by video from another bedroom!! ;-)

What does it replace?Sound-only baby monitors or the good old method of taking regular trips to the baby’s room to check that everything is OK

How did my baby respond to it?He is not disturbed by it

How much does it cost?In the UK it trades for around £150-200 depending on store

Can I see any drawbacks?There are two
(a) with a very social baby who easily feels lonely, it would have been great to have a return channel to be able to talk to him from a different room to reassure him that mummy is close. I am being told that Motorola’s video monitor has this functionality
(b) unlike traditional sound-only monitors, the baby-end is dependent on being plugged into an electric socket, which limits the use to places with electricity and makes it impossible to use outdoors – a recent example where a more flexible product would have been great was when we recently went on holiday to Spain and stayed in the sun by the pool while our little one was sleeping in his buggy in the shadow 30 meters away from us – too far to keep an eye on him without having to walk over once in a while. I know that it is unthinkable in many countries, but my Scandinavian friends often let the little ones sleep in their buggy outside on the pavement with the monitor on while having a coffee in a coffee shop too noisy for a baby to sleep