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 These apps linked to sensors in babies' socks, onesies, leg bands
and diaper clips are marketed as tools to help parents keep tabs on
things like breathing, pulse rate and oxygen levels in the blood and
sound alarms when infants are in distress. But they aren't tested or
approved for U.S. sale like medical devices and there's little
evidence to suggest these monitors are safe or effective, said Dr.
Christopher Bonafide, lead author of the opinion piece in JAMA.
"I’ve been there myself, peeking in the door of my son’s room late
at night, making sure I could hear him breathing," Bonafide, a
pediatrics researcher at the University of Pennsylvania and
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said by email.
"There is so much anxiety during those first few weeks with a new
baby at home, and anything that seems like it might help reduce that
anxiety seems incredibly appealing," Bonafide added. "The problem is
that a vital sign monitor is not the solution."
New smartphone-integrated monitors currently available in the U.S.
or expected to debut soon include Baby Vida, MonBaby, Owlet, Snuza
Pico and Sproutling.
While marketing for these products stops short of promising to
diagnose, treat or prevent disease, advertisements for the monitors
often promise parents peace of mind that comes from an early warning
system when something is wrong with babies' health, the study
authors write.
Often, marketing plays into parents’ fear of sudden infant death
syndrome, or SIDS, with suggestions that the apps and sensors can be
used when babies sleep.
SIDS has become much less common in recent decades as doctors have
urged parents to put infants to sleep on their backs without pillows
or other soft bedding and toys that could pose a suffocation risk.
But it still remains a leading cause of infant mortality, killing
about 3,500 babies a year in the U.S. alone, according to the
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
The AAP advises parents not to use monitors like the ones paired
with smartphone apps for home use because there's no evidence this
reduces the risk of SIDS.
Instead, parents should rely on prevention efforts proven to work,
like breastfeeding and sleeping in the same room with their babies,
the AAP recommends.
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Ideally, babies should sleep in the same bedroom as their parents -
but not in the same bed - for at least six months to minimize the
risk of sleep-related deaths. The safest spot for infant sleep is on
a firm surface such as a crib or bassinet without any soft bedding,
bumpers or pillows.
"Perhaps in the future there may be a technology that is in
development to lower the risk of SIDS," said Dr. Lori
Feldman-Winter, a co-author of the AAP guidelines and pediatrics
researcher at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden,
New Jersey.
"However, we are not there yet," Feldman-Winter, who wasn't involved
in the paper, added by email.
Too often, though, parents assume anything that's for sale must be
safe for their child, said Helen Ball, director of the Parent-Infant
Sleep Lab at Durham University in the UK.
"We have lost sight of what babies need in order to keep them safe,
and many parents and grandparents today do not realize that is it
the presence of a responsive and vigilant caregiver that keeps a
baby safe, but believe the job can be outsourced to a smartphone/video-monitor/technomattress
etc," Ball, who wasn't involved in the paper, said by email.
"Perhaps many of us believe we have better or other things to do
with our time than monitor the baby directly with our eyes, ears,
and touch," Ball added. "One way in which monitors could hurt kids
is by reducing the amount of care and attention they receive
directly from their parents."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2kpM40I JAMA, online January 24, 2017.
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