MODERN technology aids in many of life’s experiences, with one noticeable oversight: raising infants.
The Cleanoz nasal aspirator is a battery-powered replacement for the traditional rubber bulbs.
Why has no one yet invented that desperately needed diaper-changing robot? (Or nano-diapers that cleanse themselves?) Where is the smart swing that determines the precise rhythm for rocking a particular baby to sleep?
Such child-rearing technology miracles do not exist, at least not yet. But there is cause for hope. The determined technophile can now turn to a growing category of products, called babytronics, meant to help with the exhilarating and exhausting task of keeping infants happy and healthy, if not dry.
As such a parent — of awesomely cute 2-month-old twin girls — I resolved to try some of this cutting-edge daddy gear myself. If the girls minded being drafted as guinea pigs for the noble cause of technology journalism, they did not mention it.
First on our list was the Cleanoz nasal aspirator, sold by Ubimed, based in Beverly Hills, Calif. Typically, nasal aspirators — let’s just call them what they are, snot suckers — are bulb-shaped manual tools that you pump to clear out a baby’s nasal passage. Our hospital gave us a few of these bulbous rubbery devices, but in my book, they lacked one important thing: batteries.
The Cleanoz ($30), one of several electronic nasal aspirators on the market, addresses that deficiency and did a pretty good job in our tests. The device has a disposable balloon nozzle that you can easily replace, so you are not poking a germ-ridden knob into your baby’s nose. And it gets the messy work done quickly, before the baby reacts to the shock of having a handgun-shaped noisemaker stuffed up her nostril.
Still, when they are ready to blow their own noses, I will gladly give up the Cleanoz.
Next, I reveled in the large portfolio of products from BébéSounds, a babytronics brand introduced by a small New York company called Unisar and bought this year by Graco, a large manufacturer of infant products.
The BébéSounds line includes, among other things, another electronic nasal aspirator and the Prenatal Heart Listener ($20), which lets a parent record an unborn baby’s heartbeat.
BébéSounds’ coolest, though least tech-centric product, is the AlwaysClean Pacifier ($3). When the baby inevitably flings this pacifier to the ground, as part of her daddy-torture program, this pacifier reliably falls backward, onto its handle, which activates a plastic shield that snaps closed over the nipple, so parents do not have to clean the thing repeatedly.
I brought two other BébéSounds devices into our rigorous testing labs (also known as the nursery). The Portable Video and Sound Monitor ($180) replaced the trusty sound monitor we had bought at a consignment sale.
It comes with two cameras you aim at your sleeping beauties, and two portable 2.5-inch screens for watching. You can clip them to a belt, so you can use your hands when arguing over whose turn it is to change a diaper. BébéSounds’ Flat Panel LCD Video ($190) is similar, but with a crisper, though less portable, 5.5-inch color monitor.
The most elaborate BébéSounds product, though, is the Angel Care Movement Sensor ($130), delicately marketed for parents who can and do imagine the absolute worst.
Though it is not a medical device and does not claim to be, the product is meant to help prevent your baby from expiring in the crib. It comes with a pad, which you place under the crib mattress, with highly refined sensors that measure pressure and the slightest baby movements. If the sensors detect no movement for 20 seconds, an urgent alarm sounds on a receiver unit in the parent’s room.
Fortunately, I cannot vouch for the device’s efficacy in these life-threatening emergencies. However, I can testify that the alarm also sounds if you simply remove your baby from the crib and forget to turn it off, an error that is sure to test your spouse’s patience, especially at 3 in the morning.
The device also serves as a sound monitor and displays other data, like the temperature in the nursery.
Elsewhere in the babytronics basket is the Itzbeen Baby Care Timer, ($25) a hand-held device that serves as something of a personal digital assistant for sleepy parents.