Caring for babies and toddlers - Summer Infant Baby Touch Digital Video Monitor

The Summer Infant Baby Touch Digital Video Monitor (model 02001U)

My niece has recently given birth to her first baby daughter. Thankfully the birth went very smoothly and the baby is very healthy, but like all parents my niece and her husband are overwhelmed by trying to cope with learning new skills whilst suffering from lack of sleep and above all trying to make sure that they give their daughter the very best start in life. In order to help out I volunteered to review some of the equipment that they’re going to need and to make some suggestions about what they should buy. I’ll post these reviews on-line so that they can help other parents in their decision making process.

One of the first things they decided they needed was a baby monitor. I thought this would be a fairly straight forward decision as I remember that we had a pretty basic Tomy listening device for my own children (my wife had been very concerned about cot deaths), but when I started looking at what’s available now I was quite overwhelmed. Things have really moved on and I was pleasantly surprised at how much all baby monitors seem to have improved. I eventually suggested that they should buy the Summer Infant Baby Touch Digital Video Monitor, which they did, and which I’m pleased to say they have been delighted with. It isn’t the cheapest video monitor available but it lets both parents keep an eye on their baby whilst getting on with over jobs, and for the peace of mind that it gives mother and father they think it’s great value for money.

What to look for when buying a baby monitor

The first thing you need to decide is whether you want a video monitor or if you’re happy with a more traditional baby listening device. As I said I had a Tomy listening device which worked well for us. The modern day equivalent is probably the Motorola MBP 10 Digital Baby Monitor which can be bought for around £27, but the disadvantage with all listening devices is that is all they do – let you hear what’s going on. That’s fine if the baby’s nursery is close to your bedroom, lounge or wherever you’re going to be listening from, but if you live in a big house it can become a bit time consuming to have to go to the nursery to see why your new-born son or daughter has been disturbed. Also most parents will want to take a look at their baby if they have started crying and once they’re standing by the crib or cot the natural re-action is to pick the baby up to comfort her – this may not be the best thing to do as getting attention can lead to more crying. Because of these two reasons I decided to recommend a video monitor so that my niece can see what has disturbed her baby without actually going to the baby’s bedroom. When her baby starts to cry she can look at the monitor and see if everything looks ok. Hopefully the baby has just disturbed herself by turning over and will settle again in a few minutes without any attention but if she looks more distressed my niece can make the decision to go to her immediately.

Having decided to go for a video monitor I drew up a list of what things I thought I should consider. These were

· Analogue or digital

· Baby Monitor range

· Number of transmitters

· Number of receivers

· Portability

· Size

· Battery

· Camera features

I’ll look at each of these features and comment on how I think the Summer Infant Baby Touch Digital Video Monitor shapes up.

Analogue or digital

It’s probably fair to say that most modern monitors are now digital. Analogue monitors are still available ( Tomy Classic Monitor TA100 Analogue Baby Monitor) and they tend to be less expensive, but because analogue signals are transmitted as radio waves it is more likely that other people, within range, can listen in. Digital models convert sound into data, which makes it more difficult for other people to eavesdrop. The Summer video monitor that my niece bought is digital.

Baby Monitor range

I tend to be a bit sceptical about manufacturers claims for the maximum range of portable listening devices. My phone is supposed to be capable of being used for up to 300m from the base set, but that certainly doesn’t work for me. I live in a stone house with thick walls and this dramatically reduces the distance over which I can use my phone. But back to the Summer Infant video monitor. The manufacturer says that they provide a secure and private connection of up to 120 m. My niece has had no problems in her three storey house.

Number of Transmitters

If you have more than one baby or young infant who sleep in separate rooms it can be very useful to buy a baby monitoring system that has more than one transmitter. The alternative option would be to buy more than one baby monitoring system

The Summer Touch Digital Monitor allows scanning of up to 4 rooms but additional cameras need to be purchased to make use of this facility.

Number of Receivers

Some Monitoring devices have two receivers, which can be useful if you want to leave one in your room and carry the other around the house. My nieces Summer baby touch only came with one monitor and I’m not aware that more can be purchased. This hasn’t been a problem because the monitoring device is fully portable and easy to carry around. It comes with a beltclip. The monitor looks like a smartphone and uses the same sort of touch-screen technology.

Size

The monitoring receiver has to be small enough to be easy to carry around but, because it’s a video monitor, large enough to view with clarity. The Summer Baby Video Monitor has a 9cm (3.5 inch) colour display which is quite superb.

Battery

Rechargeable batteries are included in the Summer Infant Baby Touch Digital Video Monitor. They can last for up to 10 hours before they need to be placed in the recharging base. There is a bar indicator on the monitor screen that shows how much life the batteries have left.

Camera features

It’s important that the camera is able to zoom in so that you can start off looking at the whole of the cot to make sure that the general environment is ok (no cats jumped onto the crib) but you may want to zoom in to, say, the face to see what sort of expression the baby has – does she look happy or is she frowning. The Summer Digital video monitor not only has digital zoom . operated from the touch screen monitor, but also a pan and tilt camera to give even more visual coverage. This works really well.

What should you expect to pay?

When we bought this baby video monitor The Recommended Retail Price was £159.99 but we bought from Amazon for £147.13, including free delivery.

What do other people think about the Summer Infant Baby Touch Digital Video Monitor

This baby video monitor has received great reviews from almost everybody who has bought it. 25 people have reviewed it on Amazon with 18 giving it 5 stars and 6 giving it 4 stars. Oone person only gave it three stars but even they said “this video monitor is fantastic. Period. Great picture quality, quiet operation for remote camera control, and Summer Infant customer services are also very good”

Other comments left on the Amazon website include

· Amazing piece of equipment. Must have

· I love this monitor and wouldn't be without it

· I can’t really fault this monitor it does everything I want/need it to.

· Excellent. Recommended

· The camera is fantastic on this and the picture quality and screen size is brilliant