Setting Up Angelcare

[New_Wife]

I've been playing around with our Angelcare monitor for a few days now.
Our crib has the springy mattress holder so I put a piece of cardboard of the suggested size underneath the sensor pad. Our crib mattress is a standard spring mattress.

I have it on the lowest setting and at that setting, it does not pick up any outside vibrations. It sounds the alarm as it should after 15 seconds.

My worry is this.. if I place my hand, even very lightly in the crib, and hold my breath and stand very still.. it ticks at what seems to be the rate of my heartbeat. I tried putting a heavy inanimate object in the crib to see if it was just the weight of my hand readjusting the mattress that the sensor was picking up but this doesn't seem to be the case. A heavy inanimate object will still set off the alarm after 15 seconds.

So my worry is this.. if it is picking up the slightest movement of a heartbeat, how is this going to help alert me if my baby just stops breathing and moving but still has a faint heartbeat (such as with sleep apnea)? It's on the lowest sensitivity (1) so I can't adjust it to be less sensitive than it already is. I'd rather be having false alarms than this..

Would a mattress size piece of plywood that rests on the solid edges of the mattress holder rather than the springy center solve this?

 

[Sparrow85]

Possibly.

We have plywood underneath the mattress and we've never had a problem with it. It's always worked perfectly and we have had no false alarms either.

I would try plywood.

 

[New_Wife]

If you just place your hand on the mattress while holding your breath, does it keep ticking for you?

 

[Leesy]

Not 100% about your actual question but I have been told it's better to have the sensitivity turned up not down? i get confused by this though. I thought the lower the sensitivity level the better but apparently not? Also something to keep in mind if you have air con or a fan, it can register that as movement. I picked Lo up one day (air con was on full) and the alarm didn't go off. i then spent 3 hours testing it with different fan levels and worked it out.

Sorry not meaning to give you more to be concerned about but thought i would let you know!

 

[New_Wife]

Oh you're fine! I have it set to the lowest (1) and at that setting it doesn't pick up the fan, humidifier, or us/our pets walking around. But it does pick up what seems to be the pulse in my hand, even if I am holding completely still, with my breathe held. It doesn't pick up anything with a heavy inanimate object in the same spot and the alarm sounds.

But my question was if that's what its supposed to do. If it was supposed to be so sensitive as to pick up a pulse? I want to know when baby stops moving/breathing such as with an episode of apnea. But if it's not going to go off unless the baby's heart rate stops.. that's scary.

 

[amotherslove]

I think chances are it's sensing small movements in your hand. It's hard for a human being to be completely still. Also remember, your pulse is much stronger than babys.