Tag Archives: newborn

Itzbeen Baby Care Timer Review

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[xrr rating=4/5]

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From the Manufacturer

The Itzbeen Baby Care Timer is the first multi-purpose nursery tool designed to help new parents remember the basic details of baby-care. The Itzbeen has four timers that count up with the touch of a button. No more charts and journals. The Itzbeen also allows you to set an optional reminder alarm for each of the timers, for example: change the diaper every 2 hours, or give medication every 4 hours. If the time limit is reached, the appropriate button will light up, and an optional alarm will briefly beep. The Itzbeen has several other helpful features: Nursing Reminder Switch – easily reminds mom which side baby nursed from last, Soft-glow Nightlight – to help parents find their way in the dark without waking the baby (the nightlight automatically goes off after 7 minutes), Backlit Display – so parents can read the times and the clock in the dark, and a Back Clip – makes the Itzbeen Baby Care Timer totally portable and allows for hands-free use of the Nightlight.

Product Overview
Itzbeen Baby Care Timer is a multi-purpose tool that helps parents remember the essential details of baby care. It has four timers that count up with the touch of a button when its time to change diaper, feed or put the baby to sleep. Its soft-glow night light allows for use even at night. Designed for use from birth up to 24 months, this unique parent aid can also be used to help maintain baby’s schedule when he or she is with other caregivers.

EDITOR’S REVIEW
The Good
  • Clean design and simple timer concept.
  • Great way to help maintain sanity for new parents during those crazy first few weeks after birth.
  • Helps manage your baby’s schedule when getting help from grandparents, babysitters, and child care providers.
  • Built in flashlight.
  • Super portable, with a handy clip that allows you to attach it to a pocket, belt, diaper bag strap, car seat, etc.
The Bad
  • Limited functionality. If you require more detailed tracking of diaper changes and feedings, you may want to consider trying some of the mobile apps that are available on the Apple or Android app stores.
Why We Bought It
The Itzbeen Baby Care Timer is great for managing the feeding and sleeping schedules of your infant…especially with a cloudy mind in those first sleepless weeks and months with your newborn. We are firm believers that a fairly tight daily schedule is a primary reason that both of our daughters are such a great sleepers and eaters. Our first daughter started sleeping through the night (Midnight to 6am) periodically at about six weeks, and did so regularly by eight weeks. Our second daughter followed roughly the same track. Their schedules certainly vary somewhat day-to-day, but by using this timer, we always know how much sleep our daughter has had at any point in the day, and when she last fed. This greatly reduces the fussiness that is normal when a child is overtired or hungry.

We used this timer in conjunction with the full feeding concepts presented in Babywise, along with the sleep, eat, play progression. Thus, if she started fussing and it wasn’t quite her normal nap time, we could usually be fairly certain that she wasn’t hungry (due to her recent full feeding), and probably just needed a diaper change. This takes so much of the uncertainty out of the equation, and has really made our days and nights much more manageable.

One thing that we have shifted to recently is to just use the Itzbeen Timer to track our second daughter’s feeding schedule. Her feeding schedule has started to space out a bit more, and her napping schedule is completely synced up with her feeding, so in an effort to accommodate her evolving schedule, we set each timer to 30-minute increments (2:30, 3:00, 3:30, and 4:00). The first button will start to blink at two and a half hours, the second at three hours, and so on. This basically queues us up to get ready for a feeding at 2:30 or 3:00, but allows us to monitor the blinking lights a little more passively (i.e. can see them from across the room). So far so good.

Bottom Line
We used the Itzbeen Baby Care Timer pretty much everyday to manage the feeding schedule throughout the first year of our first daughter, and have used it everyday thus far with our second. We consider it a key piece of gear for our family, and never leave home without it. Hopefully, you and your family will find it just as useful.

Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor Review

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[xrr rating=5/5]
QUICK SPECS
From the Manufacturer
The Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor (AC300) is portable and can be used anywhere baby sleeps. The under-the-mattress sensor pad detects the slightest baby movements and alerts you if no movement is detected for 20 seconds. It is a great addition to the Movement Sensor with Sound Monitor from Angelcare if you have twins sleeping in different beds, in the same room. Can also be a great addition to the Angelcare sound monitor or any other sound monitor for that little extra reassurance.

Product Overview
Whether your baby is awake or sound asleep, the under-the-mattress Sensor Pad will detect all of your baby’s movements, even the slightest breathing movements. The Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor uses a sensor alarm which works in such a way that if movement is not detected after 20 seconds then an alarm will sound to alert you to the situation.

EDITOR’S REVIEW
The Good
  • Easy to set up and use.
  • Uses batteries, so no need to find an outlet, and one less cord to secure.
  • Portable and easy to use in a variety of situations, from bassinet to crib to pack-n-play.
  • Works very well for swaddled and/or wrapped newborns and infants that aren’t moving around too much.
The Bad
  • Manual switch requires you to remember to turn it on and off each time you pick up your baby.
  • Once baby starts to roll on their side, or moving to edges of crib, the sensitivity may not pick up their breathing properly, resulting in false alarms.
Why We Bought It
With our first daughter, we found ourselves always walking over to her bassinet and placing our hands on her chest to “make sure she was still breathing.” Like most new parents…especially first timers…on of our biggest fears was SIDs. After a few weeks, this paranoia got a little unhealthy, and right about that time, we discovered baby movement monitors. There are so many new pieces of gear for new parents to consider, but this was not something that was on our radar initially. Since we installed this movement monitor, we have recommended it to many of friends, and many have chosen to use it for their own babies. The Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor has really helped my wife and I sleep a little better at night. It provides an extra layer of monitoring that gives us a little extra piece of mind and comfort. It can be a little temperamental when getting it all set up, due to its sensitivity, and once a baby starts sleeping on their side, it may have trouble picking up their breathing, but all in all, we are very happy with its performance. If you already have a video/audio monitor, the basic model works just fine, as you can easily hear the alarm in your nursery through a regular video/audio monitoring system. Otherwise, they have integrated systems that may save you some money and keep your total number of gadgets down a bit.

Bottom Line
The Angelcare Baby Movement Monitor is definitely a worthy addition to your baby nursery, starting with the baby’s first day at home. It helped us sleep better at night, and we think you will too.

Expectant Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood Banking

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Prior to the birth of our first daughter, one of the things my wife and I decided to explore was cord blood banking. When having a child, especially your first, the whole experience can be pretty overwhelming. Most expecting parents are trying to figure out which baby gear to add to their baby registry, which names to add to their shortlist, how to decorate the nursery, and more importantly…how to afford everything. This was certainly the case for us, but after some careful research and multiple discussions between ourselves and with our obstetrician, we decided that it was something that we wanted to do for our family, and we selected Cord Blood Registry. Hopefully, this overview will help other expecting parents decide whether or not cord blood banking is right for you and your family.

What is Cord Blood Banking?

Cord blood banking allows families to store stem cells that are harvested from cord blood extracted from the placental end of a newborn baby’s umbilical cord. The cord blood is usually collected within 10 minutes of giving birth, and then sent to a cord blood storage facility where it is processed and placed into freezers. It is stored there indefinitely in a subzero cryogenic system that preserves the stem cells until a later time when they might be needed to treat medical conditions of the child from whom they originated, or possibly another family member. Hopefully, your child and family will remain healthy, and the stem cells will never be needed. However, many find it comforting to know that they are available should the potential need ever arise.

According to WedMD, cord blood stem cells are considered the building blocks of life. They have the ability to divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types, consistent with cells of various tissues such as muscles or nerves. Stem cells have been used for more than 20 years to treat more than 80 life-threatening diseases and disorders, including the treatment of leukemia, lymphoma, and anemia, along with a variety of other hematopoietic, immune system, and genetic disorders, and stem cells are considered a better alternative to bone marrow transplants. Additional treatments and uses are currently being developed all around the world, including the treatment of traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, Type 1 juvenile diabetes, and autism. While somewhat controversial, and with research and discoveries that are still fairly early-stage, many view this as a sort of insurance policy for their children and family.

Sample Collection Process

Let’s take a step back and talk a little bit about the setup and collection process. For us, the entire process was pretty seamless. After speaking with a company representative on the phone to answer a few questions, we completed the registration process online. They promptly sent us the collection kit in the mail, which provided detailed instructions for our upcoming birth day. We informed our obstetrician that we were collecting the cord blood, and provided the kit to the medical team upon our arrival and admittance to the maternity unit. After the birth of our child and the subsequent cord blood collection, the sealed sample was placed on our newborn daughter’s transport cart and brought with her back to our room. Shortly thereafter, we then called to schedule the sample pickup using a toll-free number provided by the cord blood banking company, and a courier came directly to our room within an hour or two to pickup the sample for preparation and shipment to the main storage facility. After it arrived at the storage facility, the sample went through final preparation steps and was banked in their freezer storage system.

Sample Options

One thing we discovered with our second child is that new technology now allows for additional options on the types of tissue and cells that you can choose to collect and store. For our first daughter, born in March 2010, I believe the only option was cord blood collection and storage. For our second daughter, born in October 2012, the same cord blood banking company now offers the option to also collect and store the cord blood tissue, in addition to or instead of just the cord blood. Of course, there are additional fees for both the upfront cost of collection and the ongoing annual storage cost. We decided to go with the same program as our first daughter, and opted to stick with just the cord blood collection.

Program Costs

Even if parents are interested in cord blood banking, the cost may force many parents to forego this option. To be completely honest, the cost of cord blood banking is rather high. Most cord blood banks have an up front collection and storage preparation fee that ranges from $1,500 to $2,200, and then charge an annual storage fee of $125 to $150. Additional charges apply if you choose to also preserve the cord tissue, in addition to the cord blood.

There is no doubt that this is a steep cost at an expensive time in the lives of young families. So if it comes down to choosing between diapers and formula, or cord blood banking, this decision is an easy choice. In order to help parents manage these upfront costs, most cord blood banks offer payment plans and gift registries that allow family and friends to contribute towards these services. Additionally, a variety of discounts may be available through your obstetrician office, referral programs such as the one offered here for friends of A Modern Dad, and some employers. In our case, my wife is a nurse, and we discovered that we were eligible for a pretty significant discount offered to medical workers by the cord blood bank that we selected. Discounts are also often available for public service providers (military/police/fire/EMT), active students, multiple birth situations, and repeat customers. These discounts greatly helped us to move forward in getting things all set up, so please keep this in mind and be sure to ask.

Banking Options

A variety of cord blood banking options exist across the United States. I suggest checking out the details of at least two or three companies so you can compare options and pricing, and get an overall feel. There are two types of cord blood banks available to expecting parents. The focus of this article is private cord blood banks, which store cord blood for personal use by your family. In various cities across the U.S., and countries around the world, public cord blood banks may also be available. With public banks, cord blood is donated for research or for use by anyone who may need it. In most cases, there is no charge for that service. Unfortunately, samples submitted to public banks are anonymous, and if a family member later requires a stem cell transplant for treatment, your donation is not retrievable.

Additionally, some public banks offer sibling-directed donation programs for families that have an older child who has cancer, a life-threatening inherited blood or immune system disorder, sickle cell anemia or thalassemia. These programs will collect and store umbilical cord blood for a biological sibling at no charge to eligible families, and then if/when a stored cord blood unit is used for transplant, a fee is charged to the patient’s insurance company. More information can be found on the National Marrow Donor Program website.

More Information

For additional information, here are a few other sites that provide good information on cord blood banks, and the cord blood industry as a whole: American Association of Blood Banks, Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood Foundation, National Marrow Donor Program, WebMD, and Wikipedia.

Image Credit: thesilhouettestudioblog.com