I recently spoke with a couple of friends who swear by their Owlet Smart Sock for their babies. I’m quite intrigued, especially with flu season approaching. Being a new mom, I feel monitoring my baby’s oxygen levels would be reassuring, especially if he falls ill. He also deals with bad reflux and has had a few close calls during sleep. The concept of the Owlet, with its phone alarms that require you to physically check on the baby, appeals to me a lot.
Does anyone here own one and recommend it? Or perhaps something similar? I’ve looked into other options, but I’m hesitant about the accuracy of diaper clip monitors and the lack of reviews on alternative products.
I believe it varies based on the parent. As a nurse with a paramedic husband, we got the Owlet when our child (now 2 years old) was 3 months old. It significantly reduced my anxiety and allowed us to treat his childhood asthma earlier. We only had one false alarm due to a poorly fitted sock, but no other issues. I’m expecting my second baby any day now, and we will definitely use it again.
Many people told me it would worsen my anxiety, but it had the opposite effect. I slept much better knowing he was wearing it. Do whatever helps you feel more at ease.
We have a BabySense monitor (two plates under the mattress), with nothing attached to the baby, and no WiFi or other signals. It’s highly sensitive and has never given a false alarm. One night, the alarm went off, and our baby wasn’t breathing; it saved our child’s life.
We absolutely loved our Owlet during the first year. We used it for two main reasons: to monitor our daughter’s breathing and to track her sleep patterns.
It saved her life at three months. She started rolling over around that time, and one night, while swaddled, the Owlet alerted us that her breathing had slowed. She had rolled onto her stomach with her mouth pressed into the swaddle. She was completely silent, and we wouldn’t have known she couldn’t breathe without the Owlet. It literally saved her life.
We also used it as a heart monitor, but not to actually track her heart rate. Instead, we used it to determine when she was truly asleep. If we waited for her heart rate to drop into a specific range (which changed every few months but became clear after a few weeks), we knew she was deeply asleep enough to be put in her crib without waking up. We used it until she could take it off herself, which happened around a year. She’d wake up in the middle of the night and take it off, so it would alert us at 2 am, but by then, she had already fallen back asleep with it loose in her footies. We would just turn it off.
Honestly, between the first few months of monitoring her breathing and the 6-12 months of helping us understand her deep sleep cues, it was worth every penny.
We have been using the Owlet since my daughter was born, and now she’s 18 months old. Despite often being downvoted on New Parent Talk for saying this, we absolutely LOVE it and still use it. We’ve only had two false alarms, both within her first two weeks when she was very tiny. Otherwise, it has worked wonderfully. I don’t mind if it’s not perfectly accurate; it gives me peace of mind knowing my baby is still alive. It has greatly alleviated my anxiety, especially when she transitioned to her crib in her own room, started sleeping face down, or was ill. I’m fully aware it’s not a medical device, and I’m not using it as one. I use it for reassurance, so I can stay calm and be a composed mom for my daughter.