Smart devices for babies

For many years, hospitals have used smart baby devices to constantly measure a baby's oxygen saturation, temperature or heart rate. These devices, widely used in intensive care units, were transferred to the home when a premature child, who has just been discharged, was at risk of apnea and endangering his life.

• For pediatricians, these devices are becoming a nightmare as emergency departments are filled with false alarms.
• A healthy baby does not need the use of monitors at home. And after the latest efficacy studies, these monitors also do not reduce the risk of sudden infant death.
• These technological advances increase the anxiety of parents, since they can give them false alarms about the child's health status or misinterpret the data from the device.

From hospital use to home

Currently, the industry is designing monitoring devices for universal use, that is, to be used by any family with babies who do not have any apparent health problems. In the United States, socks that measure heart rate, sensors that measure oxygen levels in the blood or diapers that analyze the baby's pee, are already marketed. All this linked through an app to a Smartphone to monitor the baby's health status, 24 hours a day, wherever you are.

Apparently it seems like a good idea and you can even think that, with these inventions, anticipating a health problem is easy. Actually, this idyllic situation is not happening. For pediatricians, these devices are becoming a nightmare as emergency departments are filled with false alarms. Actually, a healthy baby does not need the use of monitors at home. It seems that, after the latest efficacy studies, these monitors also do not reduce the risk of the infant (which was primarily what they were designed for), one of the greatest fears of any family.

More anxiety in parents

These technological advances increase the anxiety of parents, since they can give them false alarms about the child's health status or misinterpret the data that is emitted by the device. The concern of many pediatricians is that they actually work, meaning there is no evidence that smart baby devices are accurate, so their usefulness is questionable.

Of interest

• For example, in a healthy baby, a drop in oxygen saturation during sleep to 80% may be normal and it recovers spontaneously without any maneuvering. In parents without medical knowledge, this data alarms them and refers them to an emergency service where the baby is exposed, without need, to an examination, laboratory tests or even hospital admission.
• It is an issue that must be regulated by the health authorities, controlling its sale and distribution in the population.