Love It or Leave It: High Tech Baby Gear

Love It or Leave It: High Tech Baby Gear

I’m always excited about new innovations that can give moms and dads—especially newbies!—a bit more confidence in the parenting department. Safety ratings are paramount in my world, as are simple tools that can help make all the tiny milestones of raising a child a bit easier and stress-free. (Those rubber animals that go over your bathtub spout to prevent head bumps are genius!)

Still, I sometimes when I see the ways new technologies are being used in baby gear, I’m left a bit flabbergasted. Earlier this week, I was reading an article online about the latest products for our littlest ones and came across something I have mixed feelings about. It’s a high-tech onesie called Mimo that at first glance, sounds kind of magical. It’s outfitted with a special sensor (in the shape of an adorable turtle) that gathers data on your baby in real-time and delivers it to your phone via an app. That means you’ll know at a moment’s notice if your tiny one’s breathing has changed, if she’s gotten too hot or cold, or if she’s turned over onto her tummy during the night.  While all this information might give some parents peace of mind, I think it might just freak me out, honestly! I mean, everyone’s breathing changes slightly here and there—how much is too much? I’d be glued to my phone even more than I usually am, staring at the data coming in from the onesie even when I was sitting in the nursery with my babe. And that to me is a very sad idea, indeed.

My point is that bells and whistles like these might be great for certain parents whose children are more at risk for health issues, but I think in general, having this kind of data pushed at me constantly would make me even more paranoid that something was wrong.