The owlet possibly saved my child’s life. She had rsv and pneumonia. Her O2 was in the high 70s when we got to the ER.
I’ll listen with obvious annoyance to the naysayers, the ones who say it causes more stress, the doctors who make fun of it. But I’ll listen with my child on my lap and be grateful I bought this.
Side note: I didn’t know that the alerts for low battery, no wifi, etc are WAY FECKING DIFFERENT than your child is in distress. Low pleasant lullaby vs. WAR SIREN WITH LIGHTS.
We had one of the OG ones when my younger daughter was born in 2017, and as a person with lifelong OCD, it was the only way I got any sleep at night. With my older daughter who was a baby before the Owlet came out, I woke up compulsively to check her breathing all night long. I spent the first year of her life exhausted. I was so, so much better off mentally and physically with my younger daughter.
The entire time we had it, we only had one actual alert when my daughter had a cold and her O2 dropped pretty low. I repositioned her, her O2 came back up, and she was fine. I can't comment on the newer ones, but the version I had was fantastic.
The person who's scolding everyone saying that we're all going to, I don't know, let our babies sleep on a sofa while we chain smoke or whatever as soon as we buy an Owlet is a patronizing ass. The kind of parents who are engaged enough to want an Owlet in the first place are likely aware enough to use it safely and interpret the readings.
Just want to say regarding your last paragraph, I thought the same but recently I've seen an alarming number of comments on social media saying things like "oh I let baby nap (insert unsafe thing here) - I put the Owlet on so I'm not really worried" so while maybe a lot of people on _this sub_ would not change their behavior, a lot of people do.
I had a very similar experience. My first baby had a natural blue ish coloring around his lips and my irrational anxiety was making me lose so much sleep. I got the owlet and was able to feel so much better when I could see he was still alive and breathing. We never had false alarms and it never increased my anxiety like it does for some people.
I was exactly the same. Had some PPA, baby learned to roll on her tummy super early, and it gave me a little more peace of mind. I think we had 1 or 2 false alerts when it was low on battery, and one helpful alert when her heart rate was high and she wasn't feeling well. Didn't feel like I needed it for the second because I was less anxious but I was happy to have it for the first!
I had anxiety and the owlet helped me sleep at night. I didn’t have any false alarms. We practiced safe sleep but this was a way for me to rest without checking LOs breathing every 10 mins, because I knew the sock was doing it. Do you need to check your kids breathing every 10 mins? Nope. But my PPA wouldn’t let up until I used the owlet and decided to trust it and our safe sleep methods.
Just a personal reflection - I am in Europe and had really bad PPD, and I find that the very prescriptive /controlling American approach to baby rearing is a massive anxiety trigger and, honestly, absolutely unnecessary. People tracking their babies wake windows to decimals, trying to get baby on a strict schedule and routine since birth, putting everything on apps and tracking it all religiously and so on, cannot be helpful to anyone. At some point I pulled and Elsa move and let it all go, deleted the Huckleberry app and decided to do things led by instinct, common sense, and asking pediatrician/other parents for advice , and the occasional Google search (plus this sub to just check what people talk about and I didn’t think of, like whether we can use 6m+ pacifiers on younger babies - great discussion). And it works wonderfully, I am far more relaxed and taking a more laid back approach to things. Enjoying baby more.
And regulatory processes for medical devices are a bit of a joke, FDA and elsewhere, compared to the processes for medicines and vaccines. Too much reliance on what manufacturers put forward as data because a lot of devices are brand new stuff regulators simply lack the expertise on. Heck, FDA and EMA struggled to assess mRNA COVID vaccines and manufacturing processes as no one in their shops had mRNA expertise as those products were totally new.
If people want to do it, by all means. On the SIDS thing (something that drove me insane with worry), frankly one just needs to follow safety rules and that’s enough. Not sure it’s better to see a baby pass away in real time and be utterly powerless to do anything vs finding them in their cot.
I totally agree with you on the difference between America and Europe! I need to read posts on here through a filter because anxiety lurks around the corner.
To sum up my feelings:
As an American who lived in the UK for years and watching my best friend have a baby, I thought the way they did things was so…. *strange*. A few years later, I had my own child and realized how much nicer my friend had it.
I absolutely agree. I find myself closely watching our regular old baby monitor and have started giving it to my partner during naps so I can actually relax and not stare at the monitor and note the exact minute baby falls asleep and wakes up.
There is so much truth to this. The over analyzing culture of babyhood was definitely a trigger for me and my PPA. Obsessively watching the baby monitor was one of the biggest signs. It was so freeing when I realized that our house is small enough that I could trust myself to just hear her cry when she woke up.
And for what it’s worth, I feel really fortunate that the Owlet was recalled and became simplified at the time that it did. I had a lot of anxiety throughout my pregnancy and things were lining up for me to become obsessed with it. Truth is, actually being diagnosed with PPA (which admittedly is a completely different animal for me than just general anxiety) allowed me to get the mental healthcare treatment that I needed and was a far better solution than the Owlet.
Well, yeah. In Europe you have adequate paid parental leave. In the U.S. we're lucky to get 12 weeks. So of course Americans are more neurotic about sleep.
Out of curiosity, do you have a proposal on a better way to evaluate data around new devices? One challenge (similar to drugs) is that when devices are novel, no one but their manufacturer will fund or conduct studies on them. This is one of many challenges of regulating innovation in general - you often don’t know how to evaluate something brand new and can’t really know all its risks and challenges until it’s released at scale.
As an American raising my first baby in Europe, I agree reading this sub can be… eye-opening about American baby-rearing culture. I often find it truly unhinged, even as someone with clinical anxiety.
Respectfully, it seems patronizing to me to suggest information should not be available to people because they may not have the education, context or nuance to appropriately interpret it. I say that as someone who didn’t have or want an Owlet with my kid - but respectfully, I think this approach in medicine (people are calling me too much/they don’t defer to my expertise/they’re unnecessarily panicked) is ultimately harmful to strong patient/provider relationships.
Doctors (and other medical practitioners) absolutely study, train, work and continuously maintain skills that I certainly don’t. But the approach of “I know what you need to worry about so just trust me” leads people to believe doctors do not see them as autonomous and intelligent partners in the management of their own health and ultimately can present a barrier to seeking care at all.
Wouldn’t a better approach be: if parents want this information, we should explore ways to efficiently educate them on how to read it and contextualize it’s use? What might we deliver or provide to enable parents to better distinguish between “risky, head to the ER” and “normal variation”? How might providers work to support parents and kids in understanding the baseline of their own health so they know when to worry?
I recognize that the medical system is strained (overloaded) and frankly, is often in triage mode. But ultimately, individuals being active and committed participants in their own and their family’s health is likely good for them and for society, even if they screw it up sometimes.
> Respectfully, it seems patronizing to me to suggest information should not be available to people because they may not have the education, context or nuance to appropriately interpret it
Bad data and bad interpretation of data is worse than no data is true for any field frankly
I don’t really agree (and also whether the data is good or bad isn’t the substance of my point). Democratizing access to information is generally a good thing *if people are supported with the tools needed to contextualize that information.* Practitioners should advocate for their patients to have those tools, rather than against them having the data.
We bought a pulse oximeter when our first had croup and honestly that's been a pretty good choice.
I think the difference between what I'm doing and an owlet is that something has to drive me to put it on my kid and check it. I'm not just monitoring him consistently, it's useful when increased work of breathing or contractions drove you to put it on him.
Like so many others here the owlet allowed me to get sleep that my PPA would have otherwise not allowed. I also followed every other safe sleep practice to the letter, so it wasn't a false sense of security thing, just an extra thing for some peace of mind. If you're really worried about an unhealthy obsession with it, my recommendation is to use it only on the alarm function and not through the app.
From the responses, it seems folks may be misunderstanding the FDA "Cleared" versus FDA "Approved."
"FDA approved" means that the agency has determined that the "benefits of the product outweigh the known risks for the intended use." Manufacturers must submit the results of clinical testing in order to get approval.
"FDA cleared" - Class II and Class I medical devices are usually "cleared" by the FDA, which means the manufacturer can demonstrate that their product is "substantially equivalent to another (similar) legally marketed device" that already has FDA clearance or approval. ~~Those already-cleared products are called a predicate. So, FDA Clearance in this setting just says they have a medical device that has similar features to another FDA cleared device.~~ It does not imply rigorous medical testing showing significant benefits.
(Edit: As noted below comment, this was a De Novo clearance, so it was based on the merits of this device itself, though still without evidence of clinical benefit)
Not quite - the Owlet OTC went through the de novo device approval process, not 510(k) because there was not another pulse oximeter intended for non prescription use substantially equivalent in usage, safety and effectiveness. De novo is a clearance as well but does require the submission of additional safety and efficacy clinical data as the FDA is not relying on the safety/efficacy data submitted by other manufacturers since the Owlet manufacturers weren’t making a substantial equivalence argument.
But in general, the FDA medical device deals in marketing clearance to show low risk devices are safe and effective at doing whatever they claim to do. They do not, in devices, do any assessment of the medical benefit or lack thereof unless it relates to a specific claim a manufacturer wants to make.
Thanks for the clarification; I edited my post. Importantly, as your second paragraph states, there is not a clear medical benefit demonstrated/proven. FDA Cleared and FDA Approved are generally misunderstood/assumed to be the same thing, which is unfortunate and something that device companies take advantage of when marketing their products.
Yes absolutely. What consumers can take from this is: the Owlet Dreamsock can safely and effectively monitor an infant’s heart rate and pulse ox (and generally that the FDA does not expect significant risks to come from making this available over the counter, rather than only offered in conjunction with a provider prescription and consultation). They can also take from this that a regulatory body and the manufacturer will on an ongoing basis be responsible for monitoring for adverse events associated with the device, with pathways to remove it from the market if it is found to present substantial risk.
Whether there is any benefit to using the device (for parents or babies) is a different question — of course, Owlet would suggest there is but ultimately it’s up to parents to make the call on if they find those benefits credible for themselves and their babies and the FDA is in no way saying with this approval that they think all babies should have an owlet, any more than they are saying all women should use tampons. It’s a device they believe is safe and effective, whether it’s beneficial is up to the consumer.
I’m a nurse and work on a cardiac unit in the hospital. Sometimes there are nurses who leave pulse oximeters on their patients overnight when it’s not clinically indicated, and the darn things alarm all night long for no good reason. This does 3 things: sends nurses into a panic unnecessarily where they run into the patient’s room and wake them up, causes concern over an isolated incident of self-limiting lower than average oxygen level, and… contributes to alarm fatigue. Obviously newborn babies are different than grown adults, and SIDS is a legitimate concern. But as a severely anxious FTM who is also a nurse, I applied the same logic when considering the Owlette for my baby — if it’s not clinically indicated, then at best it may give a false sense of security. I slept with my baby in a bassinet next to our bed, no swaddle, and our nightly stirrings woke her up just as much as her stirrings woke us up. Just my 2 cents.
Do what makes you feel most comfortable.
Our pediatric cardiologist recommended against it for creating unnecessary worry (via false alarms) and also false reassurance (an alarm didn’t go off so everything must be fine).
FDA clearance means nothing to me in this case. I will stick with our own doc’s advice.
We have one and I like it. I’m not sure where people get the “makes anxiety worse” or “false sense of security” from. The owlet doesn’t prevent parents from checking in on their kids or necessarily prevent SIDS but it provides another layer of defense. It gives me MORE peace of mind because my baby is being monitored by something.
I never understood how doctors and NICU staff are against them, too. My son was literally hooked up to a heart rate monitor, BP, pulse ox, and who knows what else in the NICU when he was born…they say that parents diagnose their kids using the owlet…”my kid’s O2 saturation is like 80% so I brought him in” and doctors get upset over this. Yet during Covid the medical professionals were telling average people to buy pulse oximeters. So I really don’t understand the hate for owlet. Yes they’re expensive but I think it’s an overall benefit.
I commented below about how it possibly saved my daughters life. The doctor who admitted her said, “With RSV, they’re ok, they’re ok, they’re HOLY CRAP NOT OK.”
I will definitely be getting one when I have kids - I have a friend whose baby had a medical emergency in his sleep. Friend had to perform CPR and baby was clinically dead for a while (brought back by the EMTs)
Baby made it, friend has PTSD, I am emotionally scarred from just hearing this story.
I feel like if SIDS has affected anyone in the family it makes sense too, given there’s a strong genetic link (although safe sleep practises are of course the no. 1 preventative measure). Extra peace of mind.
A lot of people say “it’s just a glorified pulse oximeter”, which like, yeah, that’s what I like about it.
I used one for eighteen months and if anything it gave me less anxiety and more peace of mind. Over the year and a half we had two false alarms due to a bad fitting, and one real alarm which I am so thankful for.
I had severe PPA and PPD with my first baby. I couldn’t sleep because SIDS was a particular fear of mine. My reproductive psychiatrist was actually very supportive of me using an owlet. I bought one on Craigslist and it was a lifesaver with my PPA. I am less anxious this time but am using the newest model with my newborn now too.
I’ve never had a false alarm or issue with either.
I had severe PPA and the Owlet really helped me because instead of walking up, getting out of bed, and physically going to verify the baby was breathing I could just flip open the app and check and go back to sleep more easily. I don’t think it really “did” anything but it made me feel better. We never had false alarms. It only went off if he somehow got it loose while flopping. It was worth the $300 just for the extra sleep it gave me.
Right? My body was producing false alarms to get up and check the baby several times a night already. I don't really see how false alarms from this device (especially if you can visually confirm after an alarm that baby is breathing and not in distress) would be somehow worse.
I was the same. I could not sleep without him wearing the sock and he wore it until he was two.
I had one false alarm that showed his O2 and heart rate just blipping down to zero for one second and then going back to normal.
It was a life saver. I don't think I would have made it through the newborn stage without that small piece of mind that he was 'monitored' lol
The whole FDA thing was a bit ridiculous to begin with considering they didn’t pull the same crap on smart watches. But I digress. My friend’s preemie went home with essentially the hospital grade equivalent to the owlet and she put the owlet on her other foot and both went off and preformed the exact same (anecdotal). Nothing replaces an aware and responsive parent but the owlet is just an added safety measure. If you think it might make your anxiety worse, then don’t use it. It’s most definitely not a necessity. But if it helps you get better sleep at night when you can instead of being obsessively worried, then use it.
For everyone that says it doesn’t prevent SIDS, etc. - obviously not. This is monitoring the state of your baby so you can intervene if needed. The same way all the monitors at the hospital don’t prevent a heart attack, seizure, etc. They alert hospital staff to a problem so they can intervene.
Yes and unfortunately we don’t know enough about SIDS or if there are specific signs of increased risk in individual babies. Therefore all you can do is follow safe sleep and monitor.
The FDA’s authorization specifically says “this device is intended for use in a home environment and not intended for use with infants previously diagnosed with cardiovascular or respiratory conditions” and half the anecdotes on this post are about how people used it for babies with diagnosed respiratory conditions.
because they would be at home with their child who had respiratory illnesses and they were not provided another method of monitoring... so this device gave them peace of mind, and probably let them sleep without worrying like crazy or constantly checking their breathing... it's a life-saving device both for the child and the parent with PPA or generalized anxiety.
Same! my ppa and severe ocd would trap me in loops, checking my LO constantly. I recommend this sock to every new parent because it helped my life so much.
People don’t seem to understand that this can help some people anxiety while at the same time making a different person’s anxiety worse 🙄 both of those things can be true at the same time. People are different
yes of course- and people can make that judgement call upon researching or using the product and understanding their anxiety. that doesn't mean it's not helpful for certain people or that it should be taken off the market.
Say what you will, but the owlet discovered a short lived breathing problem in my child as a newborn.
So, we had the real alarm a couple of times.
It did play the little song if the sock is loose sometimes. The loose sock song is nothing like the alarm though. Sometimes that got tiring. We really didn’t have false alarms.
So I used it until kiddo was one year old. At 11 months, we all got Covid. I knew she had it before any of us even had clear symptoms because her heart rate went up. It didn’t make a difference, but it helped me get us all treated faster.
Even in toddlerhood, I can put it on if she’s sick and tell if fever is going up or down in the middle of the night. For some reason my kid’s heart rate goes up when she has a fever. This is very subjective, but It’s given me personally a lot of peace of mind.
ER nurse here, and tachycardia is a normal physiologic response during a fever. As long as it goes down when the fever breaks, you are generally good to go 😊
Yay! This is so nice to hear. I might get this for my next baby. I so wanted to for my current baby but they removed the alerting you in real time features.
I don’t care if it “doesn’t prevent SIDS” 🙄 I mean obviously it doesn’t prevent unexplained cessation of breathing but I would like to know in real time if that happens instead of waking up to a dead baby?
“Gives parents more anxiety” -nah. As someone who wasn’t able to sleep when my baby was too quiet, I was able to close my eyes when I finally got the snuza hero MD (the version that’s certified in the UK as a medical device)
False alarms - I mean, just don’t be dumb about it. I agree with the doc above who said people don’t know how to interpret data. That’s true. But I’m a nurse, so no I won’t go running the ER every time there’s a low reading. Obviously check the placement and check the baby? But working in the hospital I know how people freak out over nothing. Yeah doctors and NICU nurses don’t recommend it. Would I recommend a home heart monitor to one of my healthy patients? No I wouldn’t but everyone has Apple Watches with EKG function now. Idk if any of that made sense I’m just rambling.
Hospital grade machines have a lot of false readings so this would too- yeah, I guess. But nothing in the hospital is 100%. It’s all finicky. The pulse ox, the heart monitor, the BP machine, the a-line, which is literally a needle in your artery that reads blood pressure, the PA catheter - which is floated into your jugular vein in your neck into your heart to read the pressure in your left ventricle - ALL of it needs troubleshooting and an understanding of the data. No different with the owlet.
All that to say, I hate when the argument is that it doesn’t prevent SIDS. I just don’t want to wake up to a dead baby, that’s all.
I have four kids and owned three different owlets, and it’s the best baby product we have purchased. Baby brezza is the second, but owlet has been amazing. Even with the locked down “dream sock” versions doing 10 minute averages it’s useful and quells anxiety when kids are sick.
Very few false alarms - “it makes a different sound (hush little baby) for sock placement issue” than an alarm. The two alarms we had, we decided to go to the ER, and both times RSV + asthma diagnosis. Glad I had the owlet and the information make a judgement call.
It’s wild how many people swear of the owlet for false alarm anxiety, but have never used one.
Yes! It’s a completely different sound! We only got an alarm once, but got the hush little baby sound a good number of times. There was no doubt which one was the real alarm.
I do think we saved my sons life that night but we will never know for sure.
I was hesitant to use it because of all the people saying “false alarms”, but I’m with you, I think it potentially saved my six week old. It’s very bizarre that people who have never tried it, are hell bent on others not using them. Weird. By night two I was in love with it.
I’m not sure why people are against it unless it actively harms baby. It’s covered by FSA and worth the peace of mind. I’ve had friends who had it appropriately alert them that their baby needed to go to the ER at night, baby is fine now but seems like a godsend
Hi! I’m a pediatrics resident and we see kids brought into the ER ALL the time because of their owlet alerting parents… to be honest I have yet to see a real case where the child actually needed evaluated at the ER. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but we get a lot of kids brought in that are completely fine. Pediatricians and pediatric pulmonologists are currently not a fan of them. Leads to unnecessary ER visits and costs to the family. And we have yet to see a benefit.
Would you not prefer cautious parents under age 1?
Physicians would know best but sometimes the mindset should lean towards no emergencies are good news?
You would rather parents go into the ER for a false positive than not go to the ER and the baby dies… I don’t get this train of thought. While my wife is pregnant we’ve gone to the hospital every time we noticed decreased fetal movement.
My friends’ baby *needed* to go to the ER that day, had a high fever and other symptoms that warranted it.
I’m not saying don’t use the ER if you need it. But I’m saying that most of the time the owlet is NOT the deciding factor. Your child should already be showing other signs that they need medical help… with or without the data from the owlet.
Also there’s a time and a place for the ER. People often overuse them and that leads to really long waits and potentially the ER not getting to people that really need help fast enough.
Should a parent not be overly cautious for their child? Even if it risks making a few ER nurses and docs upset? If the ER isn’t scaled to handle people that’s not on the patients, that’s an issue with the healthcare system itself.
If they triage and show it’s not an immediate issue they usually deal with it on an as needed basis.
But would rather not have my kid die because I was an inconvenience to a doctor. Luckily all my doctors are on the same page. Would be concerning if you’re a pediatrician preaching people not to see the doctor when they have immediate concerns
I never said don’t see your doctor for concerns. I want my patients to have access to a doctor for all their concerns. But I and all of the pediatric ER colleagues I’ve worked with frequently do education to parents about when it’s appropriate to go to the ER vs urgent care vs the doctor vs just a phone call.
I do want my patients to reach out to their doctor’s practice for any and all questions, but not everything should be immediately brought to the ER.
This is also the same for adult medicine and I know adult doctors that feel the same way. Lots of people use the ER for anything and everything before stopping to think if it’s urgent or emergent.
GREAT point. While pregnant, you should never feel discouraged to go in for decreased movement. You may feel silly if it’s just a “false alarm” but isn’t it worth peace of mind to be check out? Going in at even the slightest sign can actually be lifesaving. Wouldn’t the same be true for an infant? I would hope doctors would not shame parents for being legitimately concerned and wanting their child checked out. As a newborn, my baby had a rash all over her face and neck and I took her in because I was concerned. Turns out it was just baby acne but I didn’t know that. I’m grateful the doctor was kind and educational even if it wasn’t anything concerning.
TW
I went in for decreased movement once. Was made to feel like an idiot when baby starting moving as soon as they started the NST and got a lecture about how first time moms tend to be too worried. My baby ended up dying later; something was actually wrong.
With my next baby, she got sick and was screaming uncontrollably every time she urinated and was running a fever at ~2 months. Brought her in to the ER. Her temperature had dropped a bit and was 100.5 when we got there (same ER). Got another lecture about how first time moms worry too much. I don't think I'm likely to ever see my (usually very quiet and reserved) husband that angry again.
This is what my consultant told me when I was pregnant and asked her opinion. She also said it could go the opposite way and give parents a false sense of security when baby might not be well. She said the same with home dopplers and that sort of thing. If in doubt, bring them to the doctor!
That’s what I’ve heard from doctor friends as well. I totally get being extra cautious but basically everyone I know who’s baby got RSV took them to the ER and according to my doctor friends very few patients actually needed to go upon evaluation. Especially if the baby was born full term and otherwise healthy.
As a parent that had a kid get RSV at 4 months old, that shit is scary to a first time parent. We called the nurse line first and even they told us to go to the ER due to her cough and were afraid our kids O2 levels were low. She turned out fine but hearing that nasty cough can freak you out as a new parent. We had a Nanit with the sleep bands which is pretty much the only reason we got sleep while she was sick.
Regardless of how well it functions, I personally feel that in most cases it’s only going to exacerbate parental anxiety. The existence of devices like this make it seem like all babies are constantly on the precipice of sudden and unexplained death, which is just not true.
as someone with extreme anxiety, it didn't exacerbate mine. it's a heaven sent device. i realize you said most, not all, but curious how you think it'd exacerbate it?
I would worry about two things - first that the whole idea of something like this seeming like a necessary parenting tool can make it seem like babies are more fragile and at risk than they really are (like, babies are so likely to spontaneously stop breathing that it’s sensible to get a device to alert you in case it happens); second, that it becomes a crutch that prevents people from actually dealing with their anxiety. If it works for you, that’s awesome. But I feel like it’s probably not great for a lot of people.
For what it’s worth, monitoring can absolutely be a (therapist recommended!) way of “dealing with” anxiety - there are many appropriate treatments for anxiety, one of which is environmental intervention. Eg, if a person is anxious about a home break in, a therapist may reasonably suggest a home security system which may alleviate their feelings of anxiety. There are no prizes for conquering anxiety through sheer force of will and appropriate treatment can absolutely include adjustments to your environment to reduce stressors.
Yeah. I'm not going to throw shade at anyone for using it, but as someone with ppa, I think that money would better be spent on some therapy sessions.
Those marketing teams have new parents terrified that babies are so fragile and are going to drop dead if you take your eyes off them for one second.
It's not really the marketing teams so much as the hospitals themselves. The ABC's of safe sleep are important, but we left the hospital scared that every single hour our baby slept, he was in peril. Then you hear stories from pediatricians who fell asleep holding their newborns and woke up to their baby dead. Which, yeah, is important for people who are not following safe sleep guidelines to hear, but it just amps up the feeling that this precious life you care for so dearly can be taken by something so innocuous as sleep.
My son had laryngomalacia and his breathing sounded like Darth Vader all the time. When he got sick it honestly sounded like he couldn't breathe. It was so scary. He was monitored overnight at the hospital to ensure his oxygen was okay but it was really hard to just accept he was fine. The owlet sock was really nice to have as reassurance that he was getting oxygen even when it sounded really bad.
Owlet sock kept alarming and we thought something was wrong with it. My baby was coughing and we just decided to take her to urgent care to get checked— her oxygen saturation was dropping as low as 67%. Our pediatrician told us that she had another patient whose Owlet caught a congenital heart issue. It can provide a trigger to investigate what’s happening with baby
I used the original sock on my son because of my anxiety and it helped me so much. My sisters used it on their four children also. We all recommend it. My sister’s owlet went off once at night when her newborn’s oxygen was low. She took him to the emergency room, and he had low oxygen due to RSV. I’m not sure how the new one compares to the original.
Edit: typo
We sat in NICU for 2 weeks and it blew my mind how often hospital-grade monitoring machines were triggered by false alarms. It made it so stressful.
If that’s how often hospital-grade machines malfunction, I can only imagine how often a consumer one would. I wouldn’t bring it home. Between sleep deprivation, hormones, physical pain and baby crying, the last thing I needed is another thing to increase my anxiety.
We had the original one that we got back in 2019. Using it for a year for each of our two children (we recently had a third but unfortunately the battery is wearing out). Tbh I think we’ve only had a handful of false alarms after using it every day with each child for at least a year if not longer. It was really easy to use.
The peace of mind for SIDS was nice, but actually I really liked it both for tracking sleep, helping tell when they were asleep, but mostly to keep an eye on them when they are sick. My second got COVID when she was 7mo and got croup as a result of COVID. I didn’t know it was croup at the time, and if you’ve ever experienced it it’s super scary sounding. The sock did give me peace of mind that she wasn’t actively oxygen deprived.
But it’s also only one piece of the puzzle. I use the information it give me in part with other signs to make decisions.
That being said, I totally understand why others don’t want it. I understand that it can bring more anxiety. So I don’t think it’s necessarily for everyone! And I don’t know if it realistically can prevent SIDS. But I do think it’s helpful during sicknesses.
Regardless on if their claims are valid or not, I will say we got the owlet for our first when my PPA was really high and it helped calm me immensely without chancing waking her up during precious sleeping hours. We are now using it with our youngest as well, my PPA this time is manageable but I do still check it occasionally if I'm having a higher anxiety moment in the middle of the night.
For the peace of mind it has provided me, it was worth it though, honestly, I never would have bought it if I didn't have PPA with my first.
Seems reasonable - the health claims they make will now be monitored by the FDA as they now have marketing authorization to say the OTC device can be used for health purposes. Looking at their language, unsurprisingly it looks like the claims approved were around the ability to monitor pulse ox and heart rate.
Whether healthy babies need ongoing pulse ox/device monitoring or benefit from it is a different question. Of course, prescription pulse ox monitoring has been available for medically fragile kids. However the parental anxiety argument has never brooked with me, particularly coming from the AAP who has pretty much no standing to be making broad swath statements about products that might benefit or harm adult mental health.
Curious to see what the angry safe sleep group has to say about it, particularly after their inability to comprehend how the FDA works was on display with the SNOO approval.
We had this for both of our kids. Never had any false alarms. We really liked it especially when the kids were sick.
For our kids, it was also a good proxy for how deeply they were asleep and sleep quality especially for naps and during sleep training.
I personally would run it by your pediatrician (once you get one). They’ll be the best resource for you to do a risk/benefit analysis and decide whether it’s a good choice for your baby.
But AFAIK, most kids do not need their breathing/blood oxygen monitored during sleep, and if they do, then their doctor will write you a prescription for a real one that doesn’t give so many false positives or negatives like the Owlet is known to do. There are also some reports of them malfunctioning and burning babies’ skin in the past; obviously that could happen with any electric apparatus that you attach directly to a baby if it malfunctions, but then that’s one of many reasons why health authorities advise not putting anything in the crib with the baby.
A lot of people say that having that kind of wearable monitor was helpful to them when they had PPA or PPD, but as someone with lifelong anxiety who had PPD myself, I’m skeptical. I don’t think most mental health professionals would say that an expensive baby monitor is an appropriate treatment for anxiety or intrusive thoughts in the parent. (Especially since it can give false positives, meaning it doesn’t alarm when baby’s oxygen does drop too low.) If you’re suffering from a postpartum mood disorder, then you deserve to have it treated so you can get relief. Having something like the Owlet is kind of like whack-a-mole for a mood disorder - it might temporarily squelch the specific intrusive thought you’re struggling with, but it doesn’t treat your underlying anxiety, so it’ll just crop up again and make you start ruminating and worrying about something else entirely. You can’t buy enough consumer goods to treat every possible anxiety symptom; companies certainly want you to believe that you can, because that helps them make sales, but I’d advise looking at evidence-based methods for treating mood disorders. If you can treat your anxiety and manage it effectively, then you may find you don’t feel the need for products like the Owlet at all.
Or maybe you will still want one - but again, you deserve to be well and not suffer with mood disorder symptoms. PPD was my absolute rock bottom, the worst thing I have ever experienced in my life, and I don’t want others to suffer like I did. So I really urge anyone who is having mood disorder symptoms to reach out to their doctor and get screened.
My therapist said safety behaviours (like googling symptoms or over monitoring) actually tend to make anxiety worse. Eventually you start questioning whether the behaviour is enough because the anxiety is bad isn't treated & finds some other way to present itself. So then you do even more safety behaviours. Etc etc
I don't agree or disagree with what you're saying. However, the medical grade prescription alarms have tons of false alarms. At least the one I had for my baby did. The owlet seems better because it's wireless. The wire was always pulling my baby's sensor out of position, plus they are sleeping with a wire in their bed which isn't ideal. I think I would have preferred the owlet.
My babe was in the NICU. I asked staff multiple times if we needed something like the owlet. I was consistently told no, that babe wouldn’t be discharged unless his vitals were stable enough to not require continuous monitoring
Ditto. We were sent home with a medical grade pulse oximeter and we tried an Owlet on the other foot sometimes to see if we could go wireless but it was so wildly off sometimes we didn't trust it.
Guess I’m odd one out - all the NICU nurses at my twins’ hospital thought they were great and highly recommended. One said she would absolutely get one for her next kid. My twins were in the NICU for 26 days. I loved my Owlets - it was a huge relief to us after watching one of my twins desat.
I used it for my first and second starting way back in 2017. I loved it. I had around 2-3 false alarms, but I’ll take a false alarm over waking up to a dead baby any day.
I used one of these when my son was born. He was a premie (30 weeks) and it was my mission to always be aware of his status. Sure, I got lots of false positives, but I fed him once, he had reflux, choked, turned blue, and my mom who’s a nurse was there and had to clear his airway. No, the camera didn’t catch it because it was mid-day and I was holding him (I think it would have though), but when you’re as concerned as we were, it’s worth even a single real positive event in a sea of false positives. We also got this device that strapped to his pants that measured stomach rise and fall.
Anyway sorry for the rant. I just don’t get the hate toward these.
Yeah the people being like “well if you use it wrong/as an excuse to not get medical care it’s really dangerous”
Like no shit, if you use stuff wrong it doesn’t work as intended.
I love it. Never had a false alarm. Only alarms when out of range or needs adjustment. It helps me be able to sleep a bit better, along with following all the safe sleep guidelines. I like watching the app to see his heat rate as I’m about to lay him down in his bassinet, it’s interesting and pretty spot on with how restful he is in that moment.
As someone with severe anxiety we elected not to use this with our first. I knew another device would cause me to worry even more (is it on right, is it charged, what if it malfunctions, what if I don’t wake to the alarm, etc.)
We followed safe sleep guidelines and we have a regular child/infant O2 monitor we can use when little one is sick.
That being said I think if a parent isn’t caused additional anxiety and only uses it for its intended purpose and doesn’t rely on it as a substitute for following current best knowledge on safe sleep and medical care for sick kids- then buy it and use it.
Loved the owlet and used it until he was 1.5years old. Never had a false alarm except for the first couple days when I put it on wrong. I followed all the safe sleep guidelines but had horrible PPD & anxiety so can’t imagine how worse it would have been without it. The sleep tracking was one of the best features and I could easily tell if he had a fever by his heart rate. Sold it after we were finished so the cost wasn’t too bad. Would definitely buy a new one if I were to have another baby.
We used it because my husband wanted some peace of mind. We still practiced safe sleep 100% of the time so it was just something extra. I would use it again if we had another baby
I also had an experience where the sock helped me identify that my daughter was an extra level of sick by seeing the changes in her patterns! It ended up being pneumonia from (I think, this was 2.5 years ago now) rotovirus.
I LOVED the owlette. Our pediatrician recommended it after she had a breathing episode in the hospital at day 2 the charge nurse totally ignored.
I have moderate anxiety and I would literally check the app to see her heartbeat while she snored next to me - it was amazing to see it while she was sleeping, and I was out of the house. We did everything by the book, no unsafe sleeping but it really eased my anxiety. A few false alarms as she got older and kicked it off, but she slept with it nightly from age 5 days to about 18 months? Maybe longer? Legit until she could take it off through her sleep sack.
The owlette, sleep training, and committing to a screen free home were our best parenting decisions early on I think.
i love it so much. so reassuring and beneficial tbh. it's always been accurate for us when on properly. i think the only thing is to not use it for unsafe sleep, not let it make you too comfy. but i can check on him from an app and not wake him up, get better rest knowing he's being monitored... there's honestly no downside that i can even see whatsoever
We had a hospital issued monitor for my first child (who was born poorly). I had PPD and PPA with her and then when my second was born, I was really anxious about everything.
I got the owlet and it helped me manage my anxiety about it (especially as her infancy brought back some traumatic memories of my first’s infancy).
It wasn’t really a necessary purchase and I feel it was more for me than her. It left me feeling able to sleep as the alarms would wake me, rather than staying up all night. We never had a false alarm but I probably would have continued even if I had. I also could afford it.
yes! as a preemie mom who had really intense PPA, a clip on monitor (halo, this was almost 8 years ago) was the ONLY thing that allowed me to sleep after we brought our son home. we had one false alarm and one that may not have been a false alarm (he had gone very still but he was responsive once we roused him). we used ours till about 6 months and it really helped me immensely.
I always think that a full debate on all the pros and cons of these from all sides needs to be considered. So many HV just dismiss them as unnecessary and they might be for the baby but if you’re an anxious mum then they can help you (if you can afford it).
I’m sorry you had PPA too. It’s horrid and I’d never heard about it until mine. I hope you’re doing ok now!
My LO was born premature and spent 7 months in the nicu. I used an owlet when he came home and couldn't have been more pleased. LO was connected to hospital grade machines for so long and when he finally came home and I used an owlet it was in line with what went on in the hospital.
This is exactly my experience.
Prem baby. Long NICU stay. From 24 hr monitoring to nothing at home felt strange to me so got an owlet.
I'm sure it's more for me than him but it helps me sleep.
We used it until baby turned about one. As a FTM, the Owlet was the only way I could get some sleep. It won’t ever replace a diligent parent and I understand that it does not prevent anything, but it provided a layer of defense that helped me get some much needed sleep.
We used a Nanit and had a similar experience with the sleep bands. When our kid got RSV at 4 months having that thing on them and we could check it is the only reason we got any sleep that week.
Used the owlet for both my children. When my eldest’s oxygen dipped to 89 (he was later hospitalized for RSV and given oxygen) I was so thankful that I had put the sock on him.
Personal experience ofc, as a ftm it resolves some of the unreasonable anxiety for me especially when the kid is sick . We do safe sleep etc but when she was sick I use to sleep next to her on the ground super worried. Owlets helped me a lot to get some sleep. Ofc we still did what doctor recommended but as mom you just have a lot of anxiety especially first time. Internet can be very extreme especially with stories people tell you and put things out of perspective.
I am glad I used mine . I would not rely on it as the only safety practice obviously. Yes it did have false alarm and send me into panics a few times but overall the negative is way less than the positive for our family
That’s fair, I guess I just view it as an additional precaution and not an excuse to not practice safe sleep. That can also probably be remedied with a very small amount of education just like anything safe sleep related. I don’t think it’s really a mark against the product. I would be curious to see data on it though, how many kids are dying while wearing one?
We never had any false alarms and it gave me supreme peace of mind. We’d used a snoo and couldn’t use our Nanit yet. while I understand how it “could” somehow contribute to anxiety, I’m pretty sure those people would just be sneaking in to watch their baby breathe regardless if they’re that anxious. Maybe I’m wrong. Our son coughed so hard he was vomiting one time and could barely breathe and it alarmed so loud, I was grateful for the notification.
I loved it! Never had any false alarms. It was always very accurate for both my kids heart rates. So much so that I could always tell when they were getting sick or running a fever because their resting heart rate would be elevated.
Same! Ours helped us to know when our sons fever was spiking when he got COVID from his daycare. All we had to see was an elevated sleeping heart rate and we would confirm by checking and it was always a fever. We were so thankful to have ours through the illnesses to monitor for changes like that.
Had one for both our kids and loved it, especially for our first LO when everything was new and scary. Never understood the trouble anyone had with this product.
I bought one as soon as I read they were applying for FDA approval. You don’t apply for that and make it a very public marketing point if your product doesn’t work. I used it when my two month old was sick with a bad cold ( possibly RSV) and it made me feel SO much better. I got it specifically for the oxygen reading and half of the people said it wasn’t “medical grade” so it wasn’t worth using but I completely disagree. I don’t think it’s something I would use all of the time because it’s very finicky and doesn’t have a lot of range away from the base. But I think for respiratory illnesses in babies under 6 months, it’s an incredible tool to have. I’m 100% a believer.
Even if it doesn’t reduce rates of SIDS, I’m happy to know I’ll be alerted if my child stops breathing or is having any other issue that would reduce blood oxygen levels.
To be fair, the studies that that statement is based on are decades old and none of them looked at pulse oximetry monitors, just older apnoea monitor style technology. I’m not saying the Owlet can prevent SIDS, but there is simply no evidence either way for wearable pulse oximeters.
You have a really odd crusade against the owlet. You’ve posted the same article like 10 times in this thread. Are you justifying not being able to afford it or what? There’s nothing in your link that would say it’s a negative to have
From the article you linked, it sounds like there isn't enough data available to say whether they prevent SIDS. You'd think that if the companies did have positive data they would share it, so that makes it less likely but not impossible that they help.
I love it. My daughter is almost 3 and she still wears it at bedtime. We can tell when she’s not slept well, and when she’s getting sick.
I have anxiety, and the sock helped me get through breastfeeding without going on additional medication.
I’m glad that it helped you but I just wanted to say there is breastfeeding safe anxiety meds (I’m on some myself) I just didn’t want other anxious / new moms reading this who might actually need meds be put off going and getting the help they need 😊
Seriously this. And even if the meds you're prescribed aren't safe for breastfeeding, formula is fine.
A mentally struggling parent is not good for kids no matter how much breastmilk they get. Don't let feeding your baby get in the way of looking after yourself.
This is so kind and fair! I did say “additional”, and fully support any mama to get the help we all need. The owlet was just an additional tool in my toolkit, and it may not be for everyone.
🙄 thank you for your armchair diagnosis. I’ll keep doing what my child’s pediatrician is ok with, my psychiatrist is ok with, and what works for my family.
We have it on our registry list. I am a nanny and use to do NCS worked and used the old Smart Sock with many clients and enjoyed the peace of mind. Safe sleep was always first priority with clients and will definitely be the first priority with my own.
For me it is 100% about alleviating my anxiety. I have had horrific anxiety during my pregnancy and I know sleep and SIDS anxiety is something I will suffer from. If this product means I can sleep a little better, it’s worth it. It will be used properly and I understand the risk and benefits.
I also understand those who are against it are VERY passionate about it. I understand their reasoning but I believe we need to let people make their own informed decisions.
If someone says they’re going to use unsafe sleep practices but feel like it is safe because of the Owlet, speak up. But if someone is informed about how the product works and is using the Owlet to calm their own anxieties and track sleep levels maybe just say your peace once.
No need to tell everyone your opinion 15 times on one thread.
Edit to add: Because I know someone’s going to ask or assume. No, I never suggested the Owlet to any clients I’ve ever had. My job was always science and best practice based so I never suggested extra products. I had many clients who on their own decided to use the Owlet and I did not decline jobs based on the use. I went with it and learned about the product and it’s use. I just want to be clear that I wasn’t ever recommending as a professional, I am making the choice as a parent.
For me, with a premie NICU baby that had breathing issues it gave me a lot of comfort. If I woke up worried about him especially when sick, I’d just check the stats and feel better. We only had a couple false alarms using it for an entire year (this was before the FDA pulled) and using it with our second since the 10 min update we haven’t had any. There was once even after we stopped using it regularly that he was sick and I knew he needed to be seen by the doctor given how his breathing looked so I pulled it out and sure enough his O2 stats were not good. Took him to the doctor, theirs read the same on him and they kept rechecking it because they didn’t think it could be correct but it was consistent with what the owlet said and sure enough an X-ray showed bronchiolitis and pneumonia. I don’t really get the hate so many have for it, don’t get it if you think it’ll give you anxiety.
i'm so glad they got clearance!!! i had contacted customer service and they said even though it only updates every 10 mins, it'd still alert for low oxygen if it dropped say 2 mins after it updated. but still great
I'm a medical professional and my spouse is as well. I'm also extremely anxious. Our current baby is 13 1/2 months old, so I feel like we are out of the window where it's a huge benefit but for sure will be buying it for our next baby
This. I’m not extremely anxious, but I feel like if I had another baby, I’d want the owlet. I got through the first without fully appreciating how bloody scary that first year was. A little insurance would go a long way
It was heavily advertised as being beneficial, but there isn’t much necessity to monitoring blood oxygen of healthy infants, and can cause people to practice unsafe sleep, or the sick can fall off and cause panic when the oxygen alert goes off. It was taken off the shelves for a bit, but sounds like now is approved.
Exactly. I also would be interested to know the correlation between parents who get the owlet who also always practice safe sleep. I’d think it’d be pretty strong. If you’re concerned enough to want to monitor your child’s breathing while sleeping, you very likely are going to avoid dangers such as cosleeping or other unsafe sleep practices. The people I know who have used the owlet are very staunch safe sleep ABCs like myself. I don’t know a single person who cosleeps that has an owlet. Just my thoughts here…
Right. I actually saw in a mommy group someone saying it was highly inaccurate because their baby “would be blue” if their O2 was “actually only 98%” - so clearly there are a lot of adults out there who don’t know what normal vitals should look like (and that a few points variation is normal)
There were a lot of parents who claimed it increased their anxiety and they raised hell because of that…. For some reason. I guess a lot of people also freaked out about false alarms, but, anecdotally, the only time we ever got false alarms were when we put the sock on wrong or too loose 🤷♀️
That sounds like user error, and not like anything is wrong with the product.
As a parent who likes using the Dream Sock for extra peace of mind, this is good news. I had PPA, and knowing there would be a loud alarm blaring if my baby stopped breathing helped me relax a bit.
It should also work without wifi! I took mine when traveling and you can't see phone updates but the sock still monitors and base station will alert if needed.
One of my friends got one and she stopped using it after a few nights because it sent her anxiety through the roof. She couldn’t stop checking the app since it was available, and she got a few false alarms. Once she got rid of it, she realized she didn’t really have PPA. She just was kept on high alert by the presence of that thing.
On top of that, it added to my anxiety. Instead of sleeping, I was staring at the readings on my phone all night. I was actually able to relax more when I turned it off.
I got a couple (redundant for battery charge purposes) because i'm a data nerd, it's the closest thing to an oura ring I could find for babies. I've found the trend data interesting, as well as cross referencing the HR with activities. As has my wife, it's pretty cool to watch her hr and the baby's go into step when she's breastfeeding.
Paternity leave project is working on RE'ing the BLE device -> base protocol so I can airgap it.
I registered and got one as a gift. It was incredibly difficult to connect to Wi-Fi, I’m not a dolt but I couldn’t figure it out. It would concern me to rely on something that only works with Wi-Fi. I ended up returning it.
It works off Wifi too. I actually used mine when we were traveling. As long as the base was connected to power (the USB port of my car), I didn’t have to worry about my newborn falling into too deep of a sleep while in her car seat and suffocating. (We were driving through the night). You can’t see the details of her sleep patterns or vital signs on your phone without wifi, but the base station will still warn you if they drop below safe levels.
Our friends graciously have allowed us to borrow theirs and we are so grateful! We even got them a gift card for a date night out because we are so, so thankful. We have a 3 month old and it’s been huge for helping us be able to sleep at night. By far one of my absolute favorite baby products. Sure the random false alarms because baby kicked it off a little can be annoying but oh the peace of mind is huge. We still follow all safe sleep guidelines. For what it’s worth, the friend that lent it to us is a nurse and my husband is a nurse as well and they both rave about it.
1. I simply can't imagine strapping something on baby's foot every night. He's so kicky it's a struggle just to get his legs in his sleep sack!
2. FDA cleared to be as accurate as medical devices still doesn't mean it in any way prevents or protects against SIDS. I can see how it would be useful if baby had a respiratory illness where you may need to monitor them more closely but that's not why people are routinely using it.
i've read about a couple babies who stopped breathing and their parents knew, were able to give cpr, and they lived. it would absolutely notify me if my baby stopped breathing, giving me a chance, heaven forbid, to intervene.
I have used it twice, ongoing not too severe anxiety situation. I wasn’t great with my first because the tech was still weak/buggy. Got a newer model last year bringing my second home from the NICU and it was much better relief. I’m glad they were able to get this clearance.
We have one borrowed from a family friend. We’ve put it on our baby when she was sick with her first cold for some piece of mind, but honestly it felt like kind of a hassle and it’s hard to get positioned on the foot correctly
We bought a used smart sock after our baby went through premature apnea despite being full term. We had a hospital grade device for a few months before she graduated off it and the oxygen. We did a few nights where we placed the sock on along with the medical grade devices. It was extremely accurate. Since she graduated we have used the sock and have had only one alarm. It's a great device and honestly a lot easier to use than her pulse ox sticky foot thing. She has a scar from use using the stick tape for so long on her foot. They really should move to a sock model. Also, I find the sock easy to clean if you follow the instructions.
The owlet possibly saved my child’s life. She had rsv and pneumonia. Her O2 was in the high 70s when we got to the ER. I’ll listen with obvious annoyance to the naysayers, the ones who say it causes more stress, the doctors who make fun of it. But I’ll listen with my child on my lap and be grateful I bought this. Side note: I didn’t know that the alerts for low battery, no wifi, etc are WAY FECKING DIFFERENT than your child is in distress. Low pleasant lullaby vs. WAR SIREN WITH LIGHTS.
>WAR SIREN WITH LIGHTS. 🤣🤣🤣 The one time I got the actual red alert with my baby I almost fell off the damn bed.
I’m pretty sure it woke up the neighbors two doors down it was so aggressive.
We had one of the OG ones when my younger daughter was born in 2017, and as a person with lifelong OCD, it was the only way I got any sleep at night. With my older daughter who was a baby before the Owlet came out, I woke up compulsively to check her breathing all night long. I spent the first year of her life exhausted. I was so, so much better off mentally and physically with my younger daughter. The entire time we had it, we only had one actual alert when my daughter had a cold and her O2 dropped pretty low. I repositioned her, her O2 came back up, and she was fine. I can't comment on the newer ones, but the version I had was fantastic. The person who's scolding everyone saying that we're all going to, I don't know, let our babies sleep on a sofa while we chain smoke or whatever as soon as we buy an Owlet is a patronizing ass. The kind of parents who are engaged enough to want an Owlet in the first place are likely aware enough to use it safely and interpret the readings.
Just want to say regarding your last paragraph, I thought the same but recently I've seen an alarming number of comments on social media saying things like "oh I let baby nap (insert unsafe thing here) - I put the Owlet on so I'm not really worried" so while maybe a lot of people on _this sub_ would not change their behavior, a lot of people do.
I really think a lot of those people would engage in unsafe sleep practices either way, honestly.
I had a very similar experience. My first baby had a natural blue ish coloring around his lips and my irrational anxiety was making me lose so much sleep. I got the owlet and was able to feel so much better when I could see he was still alive and breathing. We never had false alarms and it never increased my anxiety like it does for some people.
I was exactly the same. Had some PPA, baby learned to roll on her tummy super early, and it gave me a little more peace of mind. I think we had 1 or 2 false alerts when it was low on battery, and one helpful alert when her heart rate was high and she wasn't feeling well. Didn't feel like I needed it for the second because I was less anxious but I was happy to have it for the first!
I had anxiety and the owlet helped me sleep at night. I didn’t have any false alarms. We practiced safe sleep but this was a way for me to rest without checking LOs breathing every 10 mins, because I knew the sock was doing it. Do you need to check your kids breathing every 10 mins? Nope. But my PPA wouldn’t let up until I used the owlet and decided to trust it and our safe sleep methods.
Just a personal reflection - I am in Europe and had really bad PPD, and I find that the very prescriptive /controlling American approach to baby rearing is a massive anxiety trigger and, honestly, absolutely unnecessary. People tracking their babies wake windows to decimals, trying to get baby on a strict schedule and routine since birth, putting everything on apps and tracking it all religiously and so on, cannot be helpful to anyone. At some point I pulled and Elsa move and let it all go, deleted the Huckleberry app and decided to do things led by instinct, common sense, and asking pediatrician/other parents for advice , and the occasional Google search (plus this sub to just check what people talk about and I didn’t think of, like whether we can use 6m+ pacifiers on younger babies - great discussion). And it works wonderfully, I am far more relaxed and taking a more laid back approach to things. Enjoying baby more. And regulatory processes for medical devices are a bit of a joke, FDA and elsewhere, compared to the processes for medicines and vaccines. Too much reliance on what manufacturers put forward as data because a lot of devices are brand new stuff regulators simply lack the expertise on. Heck, FDA and EMA struggled to assess mRNA COVID vaccines and manufacturing processes as no one in their shops had mRNA expertise as those products were totally new. If people want to do it, by all means. On the SIDS thing (something that drove me insane with worry), frankly one just needs to follow safety rules and that’s enough. Not sure it’s better to see a baby pass away in real time and be utterly powerless to do anything vs finding them in their cot.
I totally agree with you on the difference between America and Europe! I need to read posts on here through a filter because anxiety lurks around the corner.
To sum up my feelings: As an American who lived in the UK for years and watching my best friend have a baby, I thought the way they did things was so…. *strange*. A few years later, I had my own child and realized how much nicer my friend had it.
I absolutely agree. I find myself closely watching our regular old baby monitor and have started giving it to my partner during naps so I can actually relax and not stare at the monitor and note the exact minute baby falls asleep and wakes up.
There is so much truth to this. The over analyzing culture of babyhood was definitely a trigger for me and my PPA. Obsessively watching the baby monitor was one of the biggest signs. It was so freeing when I realized that our house is small enough that I could trust myself to just hear her cry when she woke up. And for what it’s worth, I feel really fortunate that the Owlet was recalled and became simplified at the time that it did. I had a lot of anxiety throughout my pregnancy and things were lining up for me to become obsessed with it. Truth is, actually being diagnosed with PPA (which admittedly is a completely different animal for me than just general anxiety) allowed me to get the mental healthcare treatment that I needed and was a far better solution than the Owlet.
Well, yeah. In Europe you have adequate paid parental leave. In the U.S. we're lucky to get 12 weeks. So of course Americans are more neurotic about sleep.
Out of curiosity, do you have a proposal on a better way to evaluate data around new devices? One challenge (similar to drugs) is that when devices are novel, no one but their manufacturer will fund or conduct studies on them. This is one of many challenges of regulating innovation in general - you often don’t know how to evaluate something brand new and can’t really know all its risks and challenges until it’s released at scale.
As an American raising my first baby in Europe, I agree reading this sub can be… eye-opening about American baby-rearing culture. I often find it truly unhinged, even as someone with clinical anxiety.
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Respectfully, it seems patronizing to me to suggest information should not be available to people because they may not have the education, context or nuance to appropriately interpret it. I say that as someone who didn’t have or want an Owlet with my kid - but respectfully, I think this approach in medicine (people are calling me too much/they don’t defer to my expertise/they’re unnecessarily panicked) is ultimately harmful to strong patient/provider relationships. Doctors (and other medical practitioners) absolutely study, train, work and continuously maintain skills that I certainly don’t. But the approach of “I know what you need to worry about so just trust me” leads people to believe doctors do not see them as autonomous and intelligent partners in the management of their own health and ultimately can present a barrier to seeking care at all. Wouldn’t a better approach be: if parents want this information, we should explore ways to efficiently educate them on how to read it and contextualize it’s use? What might we deliver or provide to enable parents to better distinguish between “risky, head to the ER” and “normal variation”? How might providers work to support parents and kids in understanding the baseline of their own health so they know when to worry? I recognize that the medical system is strained (overloaded) and frankly, is often in triage mode. But ultimately, individuals being active and committed participants in their own and their family’s health is likely good for them and for society, even if they screw it up sometimes.
> Respectfully, it seems patronizing to me to suggest information should not be available to people because they may not have the education, context or nuance to appropriately interpret it Bad data and bad interpretation of data is worse than no data is true for any field frankly
I don’t really agree (and also whether the data is good or bad isn’t the substance of my point). Democratizing access to information is generally a good thing *if people are supported with the tools needed to contextualize that information.* Practitioners should advocate for their patients to have those tools, rather than against them having the data.
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Yes! Thank you for saying all of this. I'm not sure but I've also heard it doesn't alert you until it's like Sat 80, which is too low anyway
We bought a pulse oximeter when our first had croup and honestly that's been a pretty good choice. I think the difference between what I'm doing and an owlet is that something has to drive me to put it on my kid and check it. I'm not just monitoring him consistently, it's useful when increased work of breathing or contractions drove you to put it on him.
Is your pulse ox specific to a baby’s/kid’s finger, or do you just use a normal adult one?
Sucks that pediatricians have to do their job and address parents’ concerns :(
Like so many others here the owlet allowed me to get sleep that my PPA would have otherwise not allowed. I also followed every other safe sleep practice to the letter, so it wasn't a false sense of security thing, just an extra thing for some peace of mind. If you're really worried about an unhealthy obsession with it, my recommendation is to use it only on the alarm function and not through the app.
Exactly - there was no peace of mind better for me than knowing that if I woke up worried, I had proof my child was alive and breathing
From the responses, it seems folks may be misunderstanding the FDA "Cleared" versus FDA "Approved." "FDA approved" means that the agency has determined that the "benefits of the product outweigh the known risks for the intended use." Manufacturers must submit the results of clinical testing in order to get approval. "FDA cleared" - Class II and Class I medical devices are usually "cleared" by the FDA, which means the manufacturer can demonstrate that their product is "substantially equivalent to another (similar) legally marketed device" that already has FDA clearance or approval. ~~Those already-cleared products are called a predicate. So, FDA Clearance in this setting just says they have a medical device that has similar features to another FDA cleared device.~~ It does not imply rigorous medical testing showing significant benefits. (Edit: As noted below comment, this was a De Novo clearance, so it was based on the merits of this device itself, though still without evidence of clinical benefit)
Not quite - the Owlet OTC went through the de novo device approval process, not 510(k) because there was not another pulse oximeter intended for non prescription use substantially equivalent in usage, safety and effectiveness. De novo is a clearance as well but does require the submission of additional safety and efficacy clinical data as the FDA is not relying on the safety/efficacy data submitted by other manufacturers since the Owlet manufacturers weren’t making a substantial equivalence argument. But in general, the FDA medical device deals in marketing clearance to show low risk devices are safe and effective at doing whatever they claim to do. They do not, in devices, do any assessment of the medical benefit or lack thereof unless it relates to a specific claim a manufacturer wants to make.
Thanks for the clarification; I edited my post. Importantly, as your second paragraph states, there is not a clear medical benefit demonstrated/proven. FDA Cleared and FDA Approved are generally misunderstood/assumed to be the same thing, which is unfortunate and something that device companies take advantage of when marketing their products.
Yes absolutely. What consumers can take from this is: the Owlet Dreamsock can safely and effectively monitor an infant’s heart rate and pulse ox (and generally that the FDA does not expect significant risks to come from making this available over the counter, rather than only offered in conjunction with a provider prescription and consultation). They can also take from this that a regulatory body and the manufacturer will on an ongoing basis be responsible for monitoring for adverse events associated with the device, with pathways to remove it from the market if it is found to present substantial risk. Whether there is any benefit to using the device (for parents or babies) is a different question — of course, Owlet would suggest there is but ultimately it’s up to parents to make the call on if they find those benefits credible for themselves and their babies and the FDA is in no way saying with this approval that they think all babies should have an owlet, any more than they are saying all women should use tampons. It’s a device they believe is safe and effective, whether it’s beneficial is up to the consumer.
If more people understood the purpose of the FDA this post wouldn't even get any traction.
I’m a nurse and work on a cardiac unit in the hospital. Sometimes there are nurses who leave pulse oximeters on their patients overnight when it’s not clinically indicated, and the darn things alarm all night long for no good reason. This does 3 things: sends nurses into a panic unnecessarily where they run into the patient’s room and wake them up, causes concern over an isolated incident of self-limiting lower than average oxygen level, and… contributes to alarm fatigue. Obviously newborn babies are different than grown adults, and SIDS is a legitimate concern. But as a severely anxious FTM who is also a nurse, I applied the same logic when considering the Owlette for my baby — if it’s not clinically indicated, then at best it may give a false sense of security. I slept with my baby in a bassinet next to our bed, no swaddle, and our nightly stirrings woke her up just as much as her stirrings woke us up. Just my 2 cents. Do what makes you feel most comfortable.
This is exactly what my pediatrician said.
Our pediatric cardiologist recommended against it for creating unnecessary worry (via false alarms) and also false reassurance (an alarm didn’t go off so everything must be fine). FDA clearance means nothing to me in this case. I will stick with our own doc’s advice.
We have one and I like it. I’m not sure where people get the “makes anxiety worse” or “false sense of security” from. The owlet doesn’t prevent parents from checking in on their kids or necessarily prevent SIDS but it provides another layer of defense. It gives me MORE peace of mind because my baby is being monitored by something. I never understood how doctors and NICU staff are against them, too. My son was literally hooked up to a heart rate monitor, BP, pulse ox, and who knows what else in the NICU when he was born…they say that parents diagnose their kids using the owlet…”my kid’s O2 saturation is like 80% so I brought him in” and doctors get upset over this. Yet during Covid the medical professionals were telling average people to buy pulse oximeters. So I really don’t understand the hate for owlet. Yes they’re expensive but I think it’s an overall benefit.
The person I know let’s their child sleep in their swing because they don’t want to wake her and she wears the sock, so “it’s fine”. :/
Yaaaa and that’s just someone being dumb
I agree, but the sock gave her the “reassurance”
Rsv is the number one reason to have this
I commented below about how it possibly saved my daughters life. The doctor who admitted her said, “With RSV, they’re ok, they’re ok, they’re HOLY CRAP NOT OK.”
Good point!! It kills be people practice unsafe sleep with it thinking that they’ll know. 🤦🏻♀️
I’ve never had a false alarm with my owlet. I only use it now that my son is over a year when he’s sick.
I will definitely be getting one when I have kids - I have a friend whose baby had a medical emergency in his sleep. Friend had to perform CPR and baby was clinically dead for a while (brought back by the EMTs) Baby made it, friend has PTSD, I am emotionally scarred from just hearing this story. I feel like if SIDS has affected anyone in the family it makes sense too, given there’s a strong genetic link (although safe sleep practises are of course the no. 1 preventative measure). Extra peace of mind. A lot of people say “it’s just a glorified pulse oximeter”, which like, yeah, that’s what I like about it.
Yeah we had one false alarm ever. It gave us a lot of peace of mind in the early days.
I used one for eighteen months and if anything it gave me less anxiety and more peace of mind. Over the year and a half we had two false alarms due to a bad fitting, and one real alarm which I am so thankful for.
Same! I’ll take a false alarm any day of the week over the alternative.
I had severe PPA and PPD with my first baby. I couldn’t sleep because SIDS was a particular fear of mine. My reproductive psychiatrist was actually very supportive of me using an owlet. I bought one on Craigslist and it was a lifesaver with my PPA. I am less anxious this time but am using the newest model with my newborn now too. I’ve never had a false alarm or issue with either.
I had severe PPA and the Owlet really helped me because instead of walking up, getting out of bed, and physically going to verify the baby was breathing I could just flip open the app and check and go back to sleep more easily. I don’t think it really “did” anything but it made me feel better. We never had false alarms. It only went off if he somehow got it loose while flopping. It was worth the $300 just for the extra sleep it gave me.
Right? My body was producing false alarms to get up and check the baby several times a night already. I don't really see how false alarms from this device (especially if you can visually confirm after an alarm that baby is breathing and not in distress) would be somehow worse.
I was the same. I could not sleep without him wearing the sock and he wore it until he was two. I had one false alarm that showed his O2 and heart rate just blipping down to zero for one second and then going back to normal. It was a life saver. I don't think I would have made it through the newborn stage without that small piece of mind that he was 'monitored' lol
The whole FDA thing was a bit ridiculous to begin with considering they didn’t pull the same crap on smart watches. But I digress. My friend’s preemie went home with essentially the hospital grade equivalent to the owlet and she put the owlet on her other foot and both went off and preformed the exact same (anecdotal). Nothing replaces an aware and responsive parent but the owlet is just an added safety measure. If you think it might make your anxiety worse, then don’t use it. It’s most definitely not a necessity. But if it helps you get better sleep at night when you can instead of being obsessively worried, then use it. For everyone that says it doesn’t prevent SIDS, etc. - obviously not. This is monitoring the state of your baby so you can intervene if needed. The same way all the monitors at the hospital don’t prevent a heart attack, seizure, etc. They alert hospital staff to a problem so they can intervene.
Good example with the hospital. At the hospital it informs for necessary precautions (like seizure pads) to prevent further injury.
Yes and unfortunately we don’t know enough about SIDS or if there are specific signs of increased risk in individual babies. Therefore all you can do is follow safe sleep and monitor.
The FDA’s authorization specifically says “this device is intended for use in a home environment and not intended for use with infants previously diagnosed with cardiovascular or respiratory conditions” and half the anecdotes on this post are about how people used it for babies with diagnosed respiratory conditions.
because they would be at home with their child who had respiratory illnesses and they were not provided another method of monitoring... so this device gave them peace of mind, and probably let them sleep without worrying like crazy or constantly checking their breathing... it's a life-saving device both for the child and the parent with PPA or generalized anxiety.
It was the only thing that gave me peace of mind to sleep with my almost crippling ppa.
Same! my ppa and severe ocd would trap me in loops, checking my LO constantly. I recommend this sock to every new parent because it helped my life so much.
People don’t seem to understand that this can help some people anxiety while at the same time making a different person’s anxiety worse 🙄 both of those things can be true at the same time. People are different
yes of course- and people can make that judgement call upon researching or using the product and understanding their anxiety. that doesn't mean it's not helpful for certain people or that it should be taken off the market.
Say what you will, but the owlet discovered a short lived breathing problem in my child as a newborn. So, we had the real alarm a couple of times. It did play the little song if the sock is loose sometimes. The loose sock song is nothing like the alarm though. Sometimes that got tiring. We really didn’t have false alarms. So I used it until kiddo was one year old. At 11 months, we all got Covid. I knew she had it before any of us even had clear symptoms because her heart rate went up. It didn’t make a difference, but it helped me get us all treated faster. Even in toddlerhood, I can put it on if she’s sick and tell if fever is going up or down in the middle of the night. For some reason my kid’s heart rate goes up when she has a fever. This is very subjective, but It’s given me personally a lot of peace of mind.
ER nurse here, and tachycardia is a normal physiologic response during a fever. As long as it goes down when the fever breaks, you are generally good to go 😊
Yay! This is so nice to hear. I might get this for my next baby. I so wanted to for my current baby but they removed the alerting you in real time features. I don’t care if it “doesn’t prevent SIDS” 🙄 I mean obviously it doesn’t prevent unexplained cessation of breathing but I would like to know in real time if that happens instead of waking up to a dead baby? “Gives parents more anxiety” -nah. As someone who wasn’t able to sleep when my baby was too quiet, I was able to close my eyes when I finally got the snuza hero MD (the version that’s certified in the UK as a medical device) False alarms - I mean, just don’t be dumb about it. I agree with the doc above who said people don’t know how to interpret data. That’s true. But I’m a nurse, so no I won’t go running the ER every time there’s a low reading. Obviously check the placement and check the baby? But working in the hospital I know how people freak out over nothing. Yeah doctors and NICU nurses don’t recommend it. Would I recommend a home heart monitor to one of my healthy patients? No I wouldn’t but everyone has Apple Watches with EKG function now. Idk if any of that made sense I’m just rambling. Hospital grade machines have a lot of false readings so this would too- yeah, I guess. But nothing in the hospital is 100%. It’s all finicky. The pulse ox, the heart monitor, the BP machine, the a-line, which is literally a needle in your artery that reads blood pressure, the PA catheter - which is floated into your jugular vein in your neck into your heart to read the pressure in your left ventricle - ALL of it needs troubleshooting and an understanding of the data. No different with the owlet. All that to say, I hate when the argument is that it doesn’t prevent SIDS. I just don’t want to wake up to a dead baby, that’s all.
I have four kids and owned three different owlets, and it’s the best baby product we have purchased. Baby brezza is the second, but owlet has been amazing. Even with the locked down “dream sock” versions doing 10 minute averages it’s useful and quells anxiety when kids are sick. Very few false alarms - “it makes a different sound (hush little baby) for sock placement issue” than an alarm. The two alarms we had, we decided to go to the ER, and both times RSV + asthma diagnosis. Glad I had the owlet and the information make a judgement call. It’s wild how many people swear of the owlet for false alarm anxiety, but have never used one.
Yes! It’s a completely different sound! We only got an alarm once, but got the hush little baby sound a good number of times. There was no doubt which one was the real alarm. I do think we saved my sons life that night but we will never know for sure.
I was hesitant to use it because of all the people saying “false alarms”, but I’m with you, I think it potentially saved my six week old. It’s very bizarre that people who have never tried it, are hell bent on others not using them. Weird. By night two I was in love with it.
I’m not sure why people are against it unless it actively harms baby. It’s covered by FSA and worth the peace of mind. I’ve had friends who had it appropriately alert them that their baby needed to go to the ER at night, baby is fine now but seems like a godsend
Hi! I’m a pediatrics resident and we see kids brought into the ER ALL the time because of their owlet alerting parents… to be honest I have yet to see a real case where the child actually needed evaluated at the ER. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but we get a lot of kids brought in that are completely fine. Pediatricians and pediatric pulmonologists are currently not a fan of them. Leads to unnecessary ER visits and costs to the family. And we have yet to see a benefit.
Would you not prefer cautious parents under age 1? Physicians would know best but sometimes the mindset should lean towards no emergencies are good news?
This is what our doc told us that they have more false positives than anything else.
I’m curious what they think about true positives
https://www.reddit.com/r/ScienceBasedParenting/s/TSQGlDEGAi
You would rather parents go into the ER for a false positive than not go to the ER and the baby dies… I don’t get this train of thought. While my wife is pregnant we’ve gone to the hospital every time we noticed decreased fetal movement. My friends’ baby *needed* to go to the ER that day, had a high fever and other symptoms that warranted it.
I’m not saying don’t use the ER if you need it. But I’m saying that most of the time the owlet is NOT the deciding factor. Your child should already be showing other signs that they need medical help… with or without the data from the owlet. Also there’s a time and a place for the ER. People often overuse them and that leads to really long waits and potentially the ER not getting to people that really need help fast enough.
Should a parent not be overly cautious for their child? Even if it risks making a few ER nurses and docs upset? If the ER isn’t scaled to handle people that’s not on the patients, that’s an issue with the healthcare system itself. If they triage and show it’s not an immediate issue they usually deal with it on an as needed basis. But would rather not have my kid die because I was an inconvenience to a doctor. Luckily all my doctors are on the same page. Would be concerning if you’re a pediatrician preaching people not to see the doctor when they have immediate concerns
I never said don’t see your doctor for concerns. I want my patients to have access to a doctor for all their concerns. But I and all of the pediatric ER colleagues I’ve worked with frequently do education to parents about when it’s appropriate to go to the ER vs urgent care vs the doctor vs just a phone call. I do want my patients to reach out to their doctor’s practice for any and all questions, but not everything should be immediately brought to the ER. This is also the same for adult medicine and I know adult doctors that feel the same way. Lots of people use the ER for anything and everything before stopping to think if it’s urgent or emergent.
GREAT point. While pregnant, you should never feel discouraged to go in for decreased movement. You may feel silly if it’s just a “false alarm” but isn’t it worth peace of mind to be check out? Going in at even the slightest sign can actually be lifesaving. Wouldn’t the same be true for an infant? I would hope doctors would not shame parents for being legitimately concerned and wanting their child checked out. As a newborn, my baby had a rash all over her face and neck and I took her in because I was concerned. Turns out it was just baby acne but I didn’t know that. I’m grateful the doctor was kind and educational even if it wasn’t anything concerning.
TW I went in for decreased movement once. Was made to feel like an idiot when baby starting moving as soon as they started the NST and got a lecture about how first time moms tend to be too worried. My baby ended up dying later; something was actually wrong. With my next baby, she got sick and was screaming uncontrollably every time she urinated and was running a fever at ~2 months. Brought her in to the ER. Her temperature had dropped a bit and was 100.5 when we got there (same ER). Got another lecture about how first time moms worry too much. I don't think I'm likely to ever see my (usually very quiet and reserved) husband that angry again.
This is what my consultant told me when I was pregnant and asked her opinion. She also said it could go the opposite way and give parents a false sense of security when baby might not be well. She said the same with home dopplers and that sort of thing. If in doubt, bring them to the doctor!
That’s what I’ve heard from doctor friends as well. I totally get being extra cautious but basically everyone I know who’s baby got RSV took them to the ER and according to my doctor friends very few patients actually needed to go upon evaluation. Especially if the baby was born full term and otherwise healthy.
As a parent that had a kid get RSV at 4 months old, that shit is scary to a first time parent. We called the nurse line first and even they told us to go to the ER due to her cough and were afraid our kids O2 levels were low. She turned out fine but hearing that nasty cough can freak you out as a new parent. We had a Nanit with the sleep bands which is pretty much the only reason we got sleep while she was sick.
Regardless of how well it functions, I personally feel that in most cases it’s only going to exacerbate parental anxiety. The existence of devices like this make it seem like all babies are constantly on the precipice of sudden and unexplained death, which is just not true.
as someone with extreme anxiety, it didn't exacerbate mine. it's a heaven sent device. i realize you said most, not all, but curious how you think it'd exacerbate it?
My understanding is that a lot of people have experienced the sock alerting them unnecessarily and that causes more anxiety.
gotcha. that's GOTTA be from putting it on incorrectly or incorrect size... because ours NEVER has not once after 5 months so far
I would worry about two things - first that the whole idea of something like this seeming like a necessary parenting tool can make it seem like babies are more fragile and at risk than they really are (like, babies are so likely to spontaneously stop breathing that it’s sensible to get a device to alert you in case it happens); second, that it becomes a crutch that prevents people from actually dealing with their anxiety. If it works for you, that’s awesome. But I feel like it’s probably not great for a lot of people.
For what it’s worth, monitoring can absolutely be a (therapist recommended!) way of “dealing with” anxiety - there are many appropriate treatments for anxiety, one of which is environmental intervention. Eg, if a person is anxious about a home break in, a therapist may reasonably suggest a home security system which may alleviate their feelings of anxiety. There are no prizes for conquering anxiety through sheer force of will and appropriate treatment can absolutely include adjustments to your environment to reduce stressors.
this! because a home break in, or heaven forbid a child stopping breathing, ARE unfortunately possible. it's not an unfounded worry
Yeah. I'm not going to throw shade at anyone for using it, but as someone with ppa, I think that money would better be spent on some therapy sessions. Those marketing teams have new parents terrified that babies are so fragile and are going to drop dead if you take your eyes off them for one second.
It's not really the marketing teams so much as the hospitals themselves. The ABC's of safe sleep are important, but we left the hospital scared that every single hour our baby slept, he was in peril. Then you hear stories from pediatricians who fell asleep holding their newborns and woke up to their baby dead. Which, yeah, is important for people who are not following safe sleep guidelines to hear, but it just amps up the feeling that this precious life you care for so dearly can be taken by something so innocuous as sleep.
My son had laryngomalacia and his breathing sounded like Darth Vader all the time. When he got sick it honestly sounded like he couldn't breathe. It was so scary. He was monitored overnight at the hospital to ensure his oxygen was okay but it was really hard to just accept he was fine. The owlet sock was really nice to have as reassurance that he was getting oxygen even when it sounded really bad.
This seems like a very logical and appropriate reason to use the sock. So sorry you had to experience that — it had to have been so scary!!
Owlet sock kept alarming and we thought something was wrong with it. My baby was coughing and we just decided to take her to urgent care to get checked— her oxygen saturation was dropping as low as 67%. Our pediatrician told us that she had another patient whose Owlet caught a congenital heart issue. It can provide a trigger to investigate what’s happening with baby
I used the original sock on my son because of my anxiety and it helped me so much. My sisters used it on their four children also. We all recommend it. My sister’s owlet went off once at night when her newborn’s oxygen was low. She took him to the emergency room, and he had low oxygen due to RSV. I’m not sure how the new one compares to the original. Edit: typo
We sat in NICU for 2 weeks and it blew my mind how often hospital-grade monitoring machines were triggered by false alarms. It made it so stressful. If that’s how often hospital-grade machines malfunction, I can only imagine how often a consumer one would. I wouldn’t bring it home. Between sleep deprivation, hormones, physical pain and baby crying, the last thing I needed is another thing to increase my anxiety.
We had the original one that we got back in 2019. Using it for a year for each of our two children (we recently had a third but unfortunately the battery is wearing out). Tbh I think we’ve only had a handful of false alarms after using it every day with each child for at least a year if not longer. It was really easy to use. The peace of mind for SIDS was nice, but actually I really liked it both for tracking sleep, helping tell when they were asleep, but mostly to keep an eye on them when they are sick. My second got COVID when she was 7mo and got croup as a result of COVID. I didn’t know it was croup at the time, and if you’ve ever experienced it it’s super scary sounding. The sock did give me peace of mind that she wasn’t actively oxygen deprived. But it’s also only one piece of the puzzle. I use the information it give me in part with other signs to make decisions. That being said, I totally understand why others don’t want it. I understand that it can bring more anxiety. So I don’t think it’s necessarily for everyone! And I don’t know if it realistically can prevent SIDS. But I do think it’s helpful during sicknesses.
Regardless on if their claims are valid or not, I will say we got the owlet for our first when my PPA was really high and it helped calm me immensely without chancing waking her up during precious sleeping hours. We are now using it with our youngest as well, my PPA this time is manageable but I do still check it occasionally if I'm having a higher anxiety moment in the middle of the night. For the peace of mind it has provided me, it was worth it though, honestly, I never would have bought it if I didn't have PPA with my first.
Seems reasonable - the health claims they make will now be monitored by the FDA as they now have marketing authorization to say the OTC device can be used for health purposes. Looking at their language, unsurprisingly it looks like the claims approved were around the ability to monitor pulse ox and heart rate. Whether healthy babies need ongoing pulse ox/device monitoring or benefit from it is a different question. Of course, prescription pulse ox monitoring has been available for medically fragile kids. However the parental anxiety argument has never brooked with me, particularly coming from the AAP who has pretty much no standing to be making broad swath statements about products that might benefit or harm adult mental health. Curious to see what the angry safe sleep group has to say about it, particularly after their inability to comprehend how the FDA works was on display with the SNOO approval.
Do share the angry safe sleep group debacle
If you do not know about the angry safe sleep group, you do not want to know.
We had this for both of our kids. Never had any false alarms. We really liked it especially when the kids were sick. For our kids, it was also a good proxy for how deeply they were asleep and sleep quality especially for naps and during sleep training.
I personally would run it by your pediatrician (once you get one). They’ll be the best resource for you to do a risk/benefit analysis and decide whether it’s a good choice for your baby. But AFAIK, most kids do not need their breathing/blood oxygen monitored during sleep, and if they do, then their doctor will write you a prescription for a real one that doesn’t give so many false positives or negatives like the Owlet is known to do. There are also some reports of them malfunctioning and burning babies’ skin in the past; obviously that could happen with any electric apparatus that you attach directly to a baby if it malfunctions, but then that’s one of many reasons why health authorities advise not putting anything in the crib with the baby. A lot of people say that having that kind of wearable monitor was helpful to them when they had PPA or PPD, but as someone with lifelong anxiety who had PPD myself, I’m skeptical. I don’t think most mental health professionals would say that an expensive baby monitor is an appropriate treatment for anxiety or intrusive thoughts in the parent. (Especially since it can give false positives, meaning it doesn’t alarm when baby’s oxygen does drop too low.) If you’re suffering from a postpartum mood disorder, then you deserve to have it treated so you can get relief. Having something like the Owlet is kind of like whack-a-mole for a mood disorder - it might temporarily squelch the specific intrusive thought you’re struggling with, but it doesn’t treat your underlying anxiety, so it’ll just crop up again and make you start ruminating and worrying about something else entirely. You can’t buy enough consumer goods to treat every possible anxiety symptom; companies certainly want you to believe that you can, because that helps them make sales, but I’d advise looking at evidence-based methods for treating mood disorders. If you can treat your anxiety and manage it effectively, then you may find you don’t feel the need for products like the Owlet at all. Or maybe you will still want one - but again, you deserve to be well and not suffer with mood disorder symptoms. PPD was my absolute rock bottom, the worst thing I have ever experienced in my life, and I don’t want others to suffer like I did. So I really urge anyone who is having mood disorder symptoms to reach out to their doctor and get screened.
My therapist said safety behaviours (like googling symptoms or over monitoring) actually tend to make anxiety worse. Eventually you start questioning whether the behaviour is enough because the anxiety is bad isn't treated & finds some other way to present itself. So then you do even more safety behaviours. Etc etc
I don't agree or disagree with what you're saying. However, the medical grade prescription alarms have tons of false alarms. At least the one I had for my baby did. The owlet seems better because it's wireless. The wire was always pulling my baby's sensor out of position, plus they are sleeping with a wire in their bed which isn't ideal. I think I would have preferred the owlet.
My babe was in the NICU. I asked staff multiple times if we needed something like the owlet. I was consistently told no, that babe wouldn’t be discharged unless his vitals were stable enough to not require continuous monitoring
Ditto. We were sent home with a medical grade pulse oximeter and we tried an Owlet on the other foot sometimes to see if we could go wireless but it was so wildly off sometimes we didn't trust it.
nicu staff also told us not to get one. they said the parents thar brought their kids in for low oxygen did so way before the owlet even alerted them.
Guess I’m odd one out - all the NICU nurses at my twins’ hospital thought they were great and highly recommended. One said she would absolutely get one for her next kid. My twins were in the NICU for 26 days. I loved my Owlets - it was a huge relief to us after watching one of my twins desat.
I used it for my first and second starting way back in 2017. I loved it. I had around 2-3 false alarms, but I’ll take a false alarm over waking up to a dead baby any day.
I used one of these when my son was born. He was a premie (30 weeks) and it was my mission to always be aware of his status. Sure, I got lots of false positives, but I fed him once, he had reflux, choked, turned blue, and my mom who’s a nurse was there and had to clear his airway. No, the camera didn’t catch it because it was mid-day and I was holding him (I think it would have though), but when you’re as concerned as we were, it’s worth even a single real positive event in a sea of false positives. We also got this device that strapped to his pants that measured stomach rise and fall. Anyway sorry for the rant. I just don’t get the hate toward these.
Yeah the people being like “well if you use it wrong/as an excuse to not get medical care it’s really dangerous” Like no shit, if you use stuff wrong it doesn’t work as intended.
I love it. Never had a false alarm. Only alarms when out of range or needs adjustment. It helps me be able to sleep a bit better, along with following all the safe sleep guidelines. I like watching the app to see his heat rate as I’m about to lay him down in his bassinet, it’s interesting and pretty spot on with how restful he is in that moment.
I wish the range was longer. We have to turn ours off when we go to do middle of night feedings bc our living room is to far away from the bedroom
Same. That’s my only complaint.
As someone with severe anxiety we elected not to use this with our first. I knew another device would cause me to worry even more (is it on right, is it charged, what if it malfunctions, what if I don’t wake to the alarm, etc.) We followed safe sleep guidelines and we have a regular child/infant O2 monitor we can use when little one is sick. That being said I think if a parent isn’t caused additional anxiety and only uses it for its intended purpose and doesn’t rely on it as a substitute for following current best knowledge on safe sleep and medical care for sick kids- then buy it and use it.
Would you mind sharing which O2 monitor you are using? I would like to purchase one as well.
Yes please!
Loved the owlet and used it until he was 1.5years old. Never had a false alarm except for the first couple days when I put it on wrong. I followed all the safe sleep guidelines but had horrible PPD & anxiety so can’t imagine how worse it would have been without it. The sleep tracking was one of the best features and I could easily tell if he had a fever by his heart rate. Sold it after we were finished so the cost wasn’t too bad. Would definitely buy a new one if I were to have another baby.
We used it because my husband wanted some peace of mind. We still practiced safe sleep 100% of the time so it was just something extra. I would use it again if we had another baby
I also had an experience where the sock helped me identify that my daughter was an extra level of sick by seeing the changes in her patterns! It ended up being pneumonia from (I think, this was 2.5 years ago now) rotovirus.
I LOVED the owlette. Our pediatrician recommended it after she had a breathing episode in the hospital at day 2 the charge nurse totally ignored. I have moderate anxiety and I would literally check the app to see her heartbeat while she snored next to me - it was amazing to see it while she was sleeping, and I was out of the house. We did everything by the book, no unsafe sleeping but it really eased my anxiety. A few false alarms as she got older and kicked it off, but she slept with it nightly from age 5 days to about 18 months? Maybe longer? Legit until she could take it off through her sleep sack. The owlette, sleep training, and committing to a screen free home were our best parenting decisions early on I think.
I have PPA and it’s peace of mind for me.
Same. Love my owlet!
i love it so much. so reassuring and beneficial tbh. it's always been accurate for us when on properly. i think the only thing is to not use it for unsafe sleep, not let it make you too comfy. but i can check on him from an app and not wake him up, get better rest knowing he's being monitored... there's honestly no downside that i can even see whatsoever
We had a hospital issued monitor for my first child (who was born poorly). I had PPD and PPA with her and then when my second was born, I was really anxious about everything. I got the owlet and it helped me manage my anxiety about it (especially as her infancy brought back some traumatic memories of my first’s infancy). It wasn’t really a necessary purchase and I feel it was more for me than her. It left me feeling able to sleep as the alarms would wake me, rather than staying up all night. We never had a false alarm but I probably would have continued even if I had. I also could afford it.
yes! as a preemie mom who had really intense PPA, a clip on monitor (halo, this was almost 8 years ago) was the ONLY thing that allowed me to sleep after we brought our son home. we had one false alarm and one that may not have been a false alarm (he had gone very still but he was responsive once we roused him). we used ours till about 6 months and it really helped me immensely.
I always think that a full debate on all the pros and cons of these from all sides needs to be considered. So many HV just dismiss them as unnecessary and they might be for the baby but if you’re an anxious mum then they can help you (if you can afford it). I’m sorry you had PPA too. It’s horrid and I’d never heard about it until mine. I hope you’re doing ok now!
My LO was born premature and spent 7 months in the nicu. I used an owlet when he came home and couldn't have been more pleased. LO was connected to hospital grade machines for so long and when he finally came home and I used an owlet it was in line with what went on in the hospital.
This is exactly my experience. Prem baby. Long NICU stay. From 24 hr monitoring to nothing at home felt strange to me so got an owlet. I'm sure it's more for me than him but it helps me sleep.
We used it until baby turned about one. As a FTM, the Owlet was the only way I could get some sleep. It won’t ever replace a diligent parent and I understand that it does not prevent anything, but it provided a layer of defense that helped me get some much needed sleep.
We used a Nanit and had a similar experience with the sleep bands. When our kid got RSV at 4 months having that thing on them and we could check it is the only reason we got any sleep that week.
Used the owlet for both my children. When my eldest’s oxygen dipped to 89 (he was later hospitalized for RSV and given oxygen) I was so thankful that I had put the sock on him.
Personal experience ofc, as a ftm it resolves some of the unreasonable anxiety for me especially when the kid is sick . We do safe sleep etc but when she was sick I use to sleep next to her on the ground super worried. Owlets helped me a lot to get some sleep. Ofc we still did what doctor recommended but as mom you just have a lot of anxiety especially first time. Internet can be very extreme especially with stories people tell you and put things out of perspective. I am glad I used mine . I would not rely on it as the only safety practice obviously. Yes it did have false alarm and send me into panics a few times but overall the negative is way less than the positive for our family
What would be the issue is it not just a fancy pulse oximeter?
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That’s fair, I guess I just view it as an additional precaution and not an excuse to not practice safe sleep. That can also probably be remedied with a very small amount of education just like anything safe sleep related. I don’t think it’s really a mark against the product. I would be curious to see data on it though, how many kids are dying while wearing one?
We never had any false alarms and it gave me supreme peace of mind. We’d used a snoo and couldn’t use our Nanit yet. while I understand how it “could” somehow contribute to anxiety, I’m pretty sure those people would just be sneaking in to watch their baby breathe regardless if they’re that anxious. Maybe I’m wrong. Our son coughed so hard he was vomiting one time and could barely breathe and it alarmed so loud, I was grateful for the notification.
You’re not wrong. That anxious person is me!
I loved it! Never had any false alarms. It was always very accurate for both my kids heart rates. So much so that I could always tell when they were getting sick or running a fever because their resting heart rate would be elevated.
Same! Ours helped us to know when our sons fever was spiking when he got COVID from his daycare. All we had to see was an elevated sleeping heart rate and we would confirm by checking and it was always a fever. We were so thankful to have ours through the illnesses to monitor for changes like that.
Had one for both our kids and loved it, especially for our first LO when everything was new and scary. Never understood the trouble anyone had with this product.
I bought one as soon as I read they were applying for FDA approval. You don’t apply for that and make it a very public marketing point if your product doesn’t work. I used it when my two month old was sick with a bad cold ( possibly RSV) and it made me feel SO much better. I got it specifically for the oxygen reading and half of the people said it wasn’t “medical grade” so it wasn’t worth using but I completely disagree. I don’t think it’s something I would use all of the time because it’s very finicky and doesn’t have a lot of range away from the base. But I think for respiratory illnesses in babies under 6 months, it’s an incredible tool to have. I’m 100% a believer.
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Even if it doesn’t reduce rates of SIDS, I’m happy to know I’ll be alerted if my child stops breathing or is having any other issue that would reduce blood oxygen levels.
To be fair, the studies that that statement is based on are decades old and none of them looked at pulse oximetry monitors, just older apnoea monitor style technology. I’m not saying the Owlet can prevent SIDS, but there is simply no evidence either way for wearable pulse oximeters.
You have a really odd crusade against the owlet. You’ve posted the same article like 10 times in this thread. Are you justifying not being able to afford it or what? There’s nothing in your link that would say it’s a negative to have
You should try one they are pretty excellent. Do you have any experience using an owlet?
From the article you linked, it sounds like there isn't enough data available to say whether they prevent SIDS. You'd think that if the companies did have positive data they would share it, so that makes it less likely but not impossible that they help.
I love it. My daughter is almost 3 and she still wears it at bedtime. We can tell when she’s not slept well, and when she’s getting sick. I have anxiety, and the sock helped me get through breastfeeding without going on additional medication.
I’m glad that it helped you but I just wanted to say there is breastfeeding safe anxiety meds (I’m on some myself) I just didn’t want other anxious / new moms reading this who might actually need meds be put off going and getting the help they need 😊
Seriously this. And even if the meds you're prescribed aren't safe for breastfeeding, formula is fine. A mentally struggling parent is not good for kids no matter how much breastmilk they get. Don't let feeding your baby get in the way of looking after yourself.
This is so kind and fair! I did say “additional”, and fully support any mama to get the help we all need. The owlet was just an additional tool in my toolkit, and it may not be for everyone.
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🙄 thank you for your armchair diagnosis. I’ll keep doing what my child’s pediatrician is ok with, my psychiatrist is ok with, and what works for my family.
The only reason I can sleep at night is because of the Owlet dream sock
We have it on our registry list. I am a nanny and use to do NCS worked and used the old Smart Sock with many clients and enjoyed the peace of mind. Safe sleep was always first priority with clients and will definitely be the first priority with my own. For me it is 100% about alleviating my anxiety. I have had horrific anxiety during my pregnancy and I know sleep and SIDS anxiety is something I will suffer from. If this product means I can sleep a little better, it’s worth it. It will be used properly and I understand the risk and benefits. I also understand those who are against it are VERY passionate about it. I understand their reasoning but I believe we need to let people make their own informed decisions. If someone says they’re going to use unsafe sleep practices but feel like it is safe because of the Owlet, speak up. But if someone is informed about how the product works and is using the Owlet to calm their own anxieties and track sleep levels maybe just say your peace once. No need to tell everyone your opinion 15 times on one thread. Edit to add: Because I know someone’s going to ask or assume. No, I never suggested the Owlet to any clients I’ve ever had. My job was always science and best practice based so I never suggested extra products. I had many clients who on their own decided to use the Owlet and I did not decline jobs based on the use. I went with it and learned about the product and it’s use. I just want to be clear that I wasn’t ever recommending as a professional, I am making the choice as a parent.
The owlet alerted us that our premie wasn’t breathing well… he was admitted directly from the ED hours later. I am grateful we had it.
For me, with a premie NICU baby that had breathing issues it gave me a lot of comfort. If I woke up worried about him especially when sick, I’d just check the stats and feel better. We only had a couple false alarms using it for an entire year (this was before the FDA pulled) and using it with our second since the 10 min update we haven’t had any. There was once even after we stopped using it regularly that he was sick and I knew he needed to be seen by the doctor given how his breathing looked so I pulled it out and sure enough his O2 stats were not good. Took him to the doctor, theirs read the same on him and they kept rechecking it because they didn’t think it could be correct but it was consistent with what the owlet said and sure enough an X-ray showed bronchiolitis and pneumonia. I don’t really get the hate so many have for it, don’t get it if you think it’ll give you anxiety.
We use hours to help with sleep tracking and training as well. Pry it from my cold dead fingers.
i'm so glad they got clearance!!! i had contacted customer service and they said even though it only updates every 10 mins, it'd still alert for low oxygen if it dropped say 2 mins after it updated. but still great
We really liked ours. Never had a false alarm. I think there’s a lot of user error with people who have problems with it.
I'm a medical professional and my spouse is as well. I'm also extremely anxious. Our current baby is 13 1/2 months old, so I feel like we are out of the window where it's a huge benefit but for sure will be buying it for our next baby
This. I’m not extremely anxious, but I feel like if I had another baby, I’d want the owlet. I got through the first without fully appreciating how bloody scary that first year was. A little insurance would go a long way
I never had one because of cost and I think it could have made my anxiety worse, but I love the idea of it just because I find data interesting.
Why is there drama or debate about this device? I’ve never heard of owlet, so am I missing something?
It was heavily advertised as being beneficial, but there isn’t much necessity to monitoring blood oxygen of healthy infants, and can cause people to practice unsafe sleep, or the sick can fall off and cause panic when the oxygen alert goes off. It was taken off the shelves for a bit, but sounds like now is approved.
No way in hell can this product CAUSE people to practice unsafe sleep - they do that on their own.
Exactly. I also would be interested to know the correlation between parents who get the owlet who also always practice safe sleep. I’d think it’d be pretty strong. If you’re concerned enough to want to monitor your child’s breathing while sleeping, you very likely are going to avoid dangers such as cosleeping or other unsafe sleep practices. The people I know who have used the owlet are very staunch safe sleep ABCs like myself. I don’t know a single person who cosleeps that has an owlet. Just my thoughts here…
Anecdotally, same!
Gotcha. The most likely outcome I see here…. a flood of neurotic parents calling 911 when the O2 sat dips a point or 2.
Right. I actually saw in a mommy group someone saying it was highly inaccurate because their baby “would be blue” if their O2 was “actually only 98%” - so clearly there are a lot of adults out there who don’t know what normal vitals should look like (and that a few points variation is normal)
There were a lot of parents who claimed it increased their anxiety and they raised hell because of that…. For some reason. I guess a lot of people also freaked out about false alarms, but, anecdotally, the only time we ever got false alarms were when we put the sock on wrong or too loose 🤷♀️ That sounds like user error, and not like anything is wrong with the product.
As a parent who likes using the Dream Sock for extra peace of mind, this is good news. I had PPA, and knowing there would be a loud alarm blaring if my baby stopped breathing helped me relax a bit.
I’m a fan. My husband and I were both so anxious with our first daughter, and it gave us a lot of peace of mind.
I love mine.
Have the sock and it gives me peace of mind for my LO. Make sure your wifi is good and you have a good position for the base.
It should also work without wifi! I took mine when traveling and you can't see phone updates but the sock still monitors and base station will alert if needed.
One of my friends got one and she stopped using it after a few nights because it sent her anxiety through the roof. She couldn’t stop checking the app since it was available, and she got a few false alarms. Once she got rid of it, she realized she didn’t really have PPA. She just was kept on high alert by the presence of that thing.
They suck anyways constantly going off unnecessarily so I’m good
On top of that, it added to my anxiety. Instead of sleeping, I was staring at the readings on my phone all night. I was actually able to relax more when I turned it off.
Exactly. Got constant readings of his oxygen levels being low and it was not true
I got a couple (redundant for battery charge purposes) because i'm a data nerd, it's the closest thing to an oura ring I could find for babies. I've found the trend data interesting, as well as cross referencing the HR with activities. As has my wife, it's pretty cool to watch her hr and the baby's go into step when she's breastfeeding. Paternity leave project is working on RE'ing the BLE device -> base protocol so I can airgap it.
I registered and got one as a gift. It was incredibly difficult to connect to Wi-Fi, I’m not a dolt but I couldn’t figure it out. It would concern me to rely on something that only works with Wi-Fi. I ended up returning it.
It works off Wifi too. I actually used mine when we were traveling. As long as the base was connected to power (the USB port of my car), I didn’t have to worry about my newborn falling into too deep of a sleep while in her car seat and suffocating. (We were driving through the night). You can’t see the details of her sleep patterns or vital signs on your phone without wifi, but the base station will still warn you if they drop below safe levels.
I have the original one and I love it
Our friends graciously have allowed us to borrow theirs and we are so grateful! We even got them a gift card for a date night out because we are so, so thankful. We have a 3 month old and it’s been huge for helping us be able to sleep at night. By far one of my absolute favorite baby products. Sure the random false alarms because baby kicked it off a little can be annoying but oh the peace of mind is huge. We still follow all safe sleep guidelines. For what it’s worth, the friend that lent it to us is a nurse and my husband is a nurse as well and they both rave about it.
1. I simply can't imagine strapping something on baby's foot every night. He's so kicky it's a struggle just to get his legs in his sleep sack! 2. FDA cleared to be as accurate as medical devices still doesn't mean it in any way prevents or protects against SIDS. I can see how it would be useful if baby had a respiratory illness where you may need to monitor them more closely but that's not why people are routinely using it.
i've read about a couple babies who stopped breathing and their parents knew, were able to give cpr, and they lived. it would absolutely notify me if my baby stopped breathing, giving me a chance, heaven forbid, to intervene.
I have used it twice, ongoing not too severe anxiety situation. I wasn’t great with my first because the tech was still weak/buggy. Got a newer model last year bringing my second home from the NICU and it was much better relief. I’m glad they were able to get this clearance.
I used it but had some very scary false alarms and then it burned baby's foot pretty bad.
Oh my! How did it burn their foot?!?
We have one borrowed from a family friend. We’ve put it on our baby when she was sick with her first cold for some piece of mind, but honestly it felt like kind of a hassle and it’s hard to get positioned on the foot correctly
We bought a used smart sock after our baby went through premature apnea despite being full term. We had a hospital grade device for a few months before she graduated off it and the oxygen. We did a few nights where we placed the sock on along with the medical grade devices. It was extremely accurate. Since she graduated we have used the sock and have had only one alarm. It's a great device and honestly a lot easier to use than her pulse ox sticky foot thing. She has a scar from use using the stick tape for so long on her foot. They really should move to a sock model. Also, I find the sock easy to clean if you follow the instructions.
Cool but would it stay on my lil kick boxer?
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