A staticky baby monitor and the sound of crying no longer have to be the first clue for parents that something is wrong.
Technology has redefined millennial parenting – like everything else – with the development of iPhone apps, smart pacifiers and wearable bands that can track infants’ heartbeats, temperature and location (think fitness bands, but for babies), as well as car seat clips that alert parents if a child is left behind and bottle slip covers to track the time, quantity and length of a baby's feeding.
In other words, today’s parents have a nanny in their back pockets, as long as they don't misplace their phones.
Below are a few of the newest technology devices for parents of young children.
Infant Care Technology:
•TempTraq - a wearable thermometer and phone app.
TempTraq uses a flexible patch to monitor babies' temperature and send updates to parents' smartphones. If the child surpasses a pre-set fever level, the app will send an alert.
•Pacif-i - a smart pacifier to monitor infants' temperature and location.
The device graphs the child's temperature and sends it to a parent's smartphone app. The Pacif-i can also notify parents if their baby wanders past a pre-set distance from their phone.
• Baby Glgl - a smart baby bottle cover that keeps track of the time, quantity and length of a baby's feeding.
"Using three batteries and an inclinometer, it calculates the weight and angle of your baby bottle. Then, it figures out the optimal degree of inclination to prevent the baby from sipping air bubbles along with its milk — something that can cause gas and colic," according to The Verge, a technology news site.
• Intel's Smart Clip - the car seat clip would set off an alarm on the user’s smartphone warning parents that a child is still in the car once they walked a certain distance away.