Anxious breastfeeder alert: 3 new gadgets track your milk supply
by Joyce Slaton posted in Products & Prizes I don’t know about you, but my breasts don’t have ounce markers on them. Thus, I never knew how much milk my baby was getting at any feed — too much? Too little? Just enough? Was my supply going down? Was it steady? For God’s sake, are… Read more »
I don’t know about you, but my breasts don’t have ounce markers on them. Thus, I never knew how much milk my baby was getting at any feed — too much? Too little? Just enough? Was my supply going down? Was it steady? For God’s sake, are we normal and am I doing this right?
For me, it was fine, and not particularly fraught — my daughter was born healthy and full-term and grew typically. If your baby’s similar and you feel confident, these new toys probably aren’t for you.
But if you have breastfeeding issues — your baby’s smaller or not thriving or you’re worried about your supply or how she’s feeding — you may want a little more reassurance. The old-school ways of judging whether your baby’s getting enough milk (counting diapers, weighing, watching for breast/stool changes) still work. Use them if you want to save $.
All that said, some parents feel more comfortable if they have data and technology on their side. If that’s you, here are 3 new and interesting ways to capture that data stream.
MomSense
A pair of headphones that plugs into your smart phone, with an offshoot that sticks to the side of your baby’s face, MomSense listens for the sound of your baby swallowing and uses an algorithm to calculate how much milk he’s gotten at each feed, and from each breast. It reports it all to the MomSense tracking app.
As a MomSense spokesperson explained to BabyCenter, moms enter their baby’s weight, which prompts the algorithm to change as your baby grows: bigger baby = bigger swallows. Moms can also use the MomSense app to share a report on output with a co-parent, a physician, or a caregiver.
If you’re a pumping mom trying to increase or maintain your supply, you probably already know there are pumping schedules that can help with that — for instance, our blogger Sabrina Garibian explains the “pumping power hour” here.
But keeping track of when and how long you pumped quickly becomes a huge drag. You wrote it down…on the back of what envelope, again? Or you swear you’ll remember you did the routine Wednesday and…Saturday? No, it must have been Sunday. You see? The minute someone in the house gets sick, or a big project comes up at work, it all goes to hell even faster.
Lansinoh has come up with a clever solution — the brand new Lansinoh Smartpump syncs with the (free) Lansinoh Baby App, automatically records the date, time, and duration of each pumping session. If you want, you can also manually enter the amount of breastmilk pumped per session — you can tell by looking at the ounce markers on the bottles, my, do I feel stupid writing that out — to track that, too.
You can share info on your sessions and output with a partner or doctor, and keep track of diaper changes, and your baby’s growth.
Gina Cicatelli Ciagne, Global Vice President of Healthcare Relations at Lansinoh, demo’d the pump for us over FaceTime, showing me that the Smartpump keeps track even if you pump both sides at once, since it’s a double pump (an actual real question I had).
She also showed me that you can control speed and intensity separately, which is a great feature not every pump offers. “We’re trying to trick the body into believing there’s a baby there,” Ciagne pointed out, “so you want to set the pump to mimic the way your baby sucks as much as possible.”
Hold MilkSense to your breast before and after a feeding and it sends an electromagnetic signal that measures the volume of the breast alveoli and tells you how much your baby drank. The BScale, included, is a scale that you attach to your car seat to weigh your baby. It calibrates and verifies the MilkSense readings. You don’t have to use the BScale for every feeding — just the first 3 times, and then every now and again as your baby grows.
MilkSense comes with MilkSuite, a program that works with PCs or Mac computers only, not phones. It allows users to track growth, feeding sessions, sessions over time, breast productivity at various times of the day, and more nerdy and interesting stuff.
You’re probably wondering what it looks like and how it works, so here’s a look.
1. By day, Boon’s Glo looks like an ordinary groovy modern light fixture; by night, it looks like — well, an ordinary groovy modern light fixture, but one with a secret: each of its illuminated Glo balls can be removed and safely played with. Toss it around the house, put it under your pillow; each ball glows for up to 30 minutes before it needs charging on its tentacle-station. You can change the color the Glo emits with a simple sliding lever, or keep it changing from color to color; $85.
2. Don’t call the 4Moms mamaRoo a baby swing — this innovative little chair does way more than just swing back and forth. Designed to mimic the way parents move with their babies, the mamaRoo bounces, sways, hops, and dips. Best of all, instead of the horrible, cheap electronic lullabies to be found on most baby products, the mamaRoo allows parents to plug in their phone or MP3 player — let ’em move to St. Vincent or the Clash, and control your baby’s movements on your iOS or Android device; $200-$400.
3. How to enjoy your breastfed baby and a ribald social life too? Breastfeeding moms of the past were told to abstain from alcohol altogether; these days, experts advise moms to wait a couple of hours after having a drink to nurse, though the rate at which various people metabolize alcohol varies wildly. Want more certainty? Express a few drops of milk onto UpSpring’s Milkscreen test strips to reveal the presence of alcohol (or announce its absence!) in just 2 minutes; $10 for a 5-pack.
4. A car seat, a stroller — who really wants both when you could have the Doona, the kooky, crazy car seat that turns into a stroller. Just pop out the integrated wheels, pull up the handle and roll it away; $500.
5. Having a sick baby is a real drag, particularly those moments when you have to wake up your fitfully sleeping sick baby to use a rectal thermometer — parental nightmares are made of this! But the TempTraq’s wearable thermometer can put a stop to all that. Adhere a bluetooth-enabled flexible patch to your baby and you can monitor his temperature from your smart device and receive alerts if it goes above a maximum you define — instead of sitting up nights, you rest! Track medicine and send your child’s medical history to the doctor, too; $25.
6. Harness the magical power of the sun’s rays to keep your baby safe from germs with the UviCube, the sterilizing appliance that uses high-intensity UV light. What’ll it sterilize? Whatever you need: because the light doesn’t damage electronics (like boiling water or steam) or melt plastics (like microwaves), not only can you dump in bottles and pacis, you can sterilize your filthy, filthy phone, your drooled-on iPad, your chew toy of a TV remote control and just about anything else; $260.
7. When your kids are afraid of the dark, putting them to sleep with a night light is fine. But if they wake up in the middle of the night, it’s dark again! LOU, the smart night light from Netherlands maker Zazu Kids, not only turns itself off after bedtime, it “hears” your child crying in the night and switches back on to show him everything’s fine, no monsters here; $40.
8. Been shopping for a crib mattress yet? Get ready to read a whole bunch of scary things about traditional mattresses and the horrible chemicals they off-gas. They want me to put my little delicate baby on that thing to SLEEP? Innovative Newton Crib Mattress is free of foam, latex, springs, and glue, though it feels super-soft. And GET THIS: If it gets dirty, you can toss it right in the washing machine!!! What’s the secret? Peek under the quilted fabric exterior and you’ll find what looks like Cup O’ Noodles — thin strips of food-grade polymer formed into a squishy, soft mat called Wovenaire by the company. Ahh, cushy. And safe! $300
9. Baby monitors are getting smarter, faster, and more innovative all the time. Case in point: the Mimo Smart Baby Monitor, which takes the form of a soft baby snapsuit with a docking station for a transmitter shaped like a turtle. Once it’s on, parents get a live feed of their baby’s position, breathing pattern, and skin temperature on their smart phone, allowing them to check in on their baby from work, during evenings out, or just from the next room; $200.
10. Why listen to music alone when you can invite your baby to join you? The inventor of Bellybuds designed pregnancy headphones for his wife to use with their first child: little adhesive speakers stick onto your belly while a splitter lets mom listen to the same music that she plays from her smart phone, tablet, or MP3 player. Research shows that babies respond after birth to music they heard in the womb — get going on an early bedtime routine by playing favorite lullabies, or help your baby develop an indie habit; $40-$50.
11. Worried your baby is gaining weight too slowly or too quickly? Put your fears to rest with the Withings Wireless Smart Kid Scale, which connects with your smart device to automatically track your baby’s growth and size. Share information with your physician with the press of a button; $180.
12. Old-school moms used to keep track of when their baby slept, nursed, and pooped by noting times on a piece of paper. The new generation of parent prefers the Itzbeen Pocket Nanny, an inexpensive electronic organizer that notes when baby slept, was fed, or was changed, and alerts parents it’s time for a feeding. Why not just use your smart phone? Did you want to lose your smart phone at the bottom of a pile of dirty diapers? $25
13. On average, 38 kids die each year from being trapped in hot cars, estimates KidsandCars.org, most of these tragedies caused by parents forgetting about sleeping rear-facing infants. Evenflo Advanced Embrace DLX with SensorSafe keeps its users from becoming statistics by sounding alarms when a car’s ignition is turned off to let parents know there’s still a baby in the seat, as well as emitting an alarm if the chest clip is unfastened during a ride. The Advanced Embrace DLX is sold exclusively at Walmart; $150.
14. You’re already dragging a smart phone around the house with you wherever you go. So why would you want a baby monitor with a separate parent unit? Is your other pocket lonely or something? The Evoz Smart Baby Monitor hooks up with your smart device, allowing you to keep an eye on your baby from work, from the basement, even on international trips; $200.
15. For optimal sleep, your baby’s room shouldn’t be too hot or too cold. How can you tell? The Gro Company’s Gro-Egg will let you know your baby’s room temperature with a quick hallway glance, glowing in a range of cool-to-hot shades depending on the ambient temperature. It also doubles as a night light; $35.
16. Most parents would like to let their kids play alone outside, even wander the neighborhood, but fears of predators or them getting lost tend to squelch those plans. The Amber Alert GPS Smart Locator goes in a pocket, backpack, or necklace, checks on your child’s location every five minutes, and sends an alert to parents’ phones if the child strays from a pre-determined space, or enters a particular area — say, if she arrives at school. You can even see a map of where your child wandered while she was out alone, and find her wherever she is; $125 plus $15-$18 monthly.
17. The Sleep Number bed for adults has been around a long time, no gee whiz there. But the SleepIQ Kids Smart Bed has a few new tricks: The mattress head tilts up for reading or stuffy noses, and a sensor tracks when kids get out of bed — an under-the-bed light comes on for easier dark-bedroom navigation, and parents can download an app to be alerted of unexpected risings. That app also contains a Monster Detector (pictured) for the nighttime elimination of bugaboos — run it before bedtime, your nervous little ones are reassured.
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