Sleep Training with a Video Baby Monitor
In our home, we love having a video baby monitor. It's great for keeping an eye on your children when they are sleeping, and really nice to be able to easily (and quietly!) look in on them to ensure all is okay. Did I mention how great it is to peek in on them without the possibility of waking them?!!?Another time when a baby video monitor can quite beneficial is when you're sleep training your little one. Being able to quickly peek in without having to crack open the door (and risk further frustrating your baby!) is important. What parent doesn’t want to pick up his baby when she is crying? But it isn’t that simple, babies need to learn to soothe themselves. And as parents, we need to help establish good sleep patterns for our children.When our children were about 16 weeks old, we started sleep training. We used the "cry it out method", where we let our babies cry it out (for a brief period of time) before offering comfort. And from my experience, it was much harder on mother than baby! When your baby was crying and frustrated, having the video baby monitor helped ease our fears on whether our baby was in need of attention, or simply didn't want to be alone.I can remember nights with my wife when we were staring at the monitor watching our baby “beg” for us to come get her out. Of course, it wasn't easy. But having the monitor helped. Not only could we hear our baby's cries, but we also had visual cues to help us better know when it was time to step in.Even today with a four year old and a two year old, the convenience of having a video monitor has definitely helped put me at ease. If I hear a strange noise at night, I can easily look in on the monitors to see what's going on. Not to mention, the ability of having night vision in the room via the video camera is better than if I were to walk into the room in person...I can’t see as well as the camera can!How have you found video monitors to be helpful with your baby?11/30/2017 ADDITIONAL RESOURCE UPDATE: Reviews.com sat down with parents to find out which baby monitor features really mattered and then personally tested seven top devices on the market. They looked for options that offer high-quality video and sound features, but most importantly gave parents the greatest peace of mind: https://www.reviews.com/
Image by Steve Evans via WikiMedia, licensed under CC BY
