Are wireless baby monitors a good choice to help keep your child safe while you are out of the room? What about digital or video-based monitors? Well, consider this…
If a mobile phone company applied for a permit to install a cell tower next to a school in your community, do you think there would be a large public outcry?
Most likely there would be very vocal outrage from the surrounding neighborhoods and the story would be featured prominently in the local news as many concerned and informed parents are increasingly taking precautions to minimize their children’s exposure to any sort of microwave technology.
The fact is that the long term effects of microwave radiation on children’s developing brains are completely unknown.
What is known is that a child’s brain is not fully developed until about age 20 and until that time, the skull is thinner to permit its continued growth and development. Hence, a child’s brain is extremely sensitive to the effects of any type of EMF radiation (1).
Wireless Baby Monitors: The Elephant in the Nursery
While most parents would agree that installing a cell phone tower next to a school would be dangerous and definitely not a good idea, many of these same parents are unaware of the very similar danger posed by baby monitors, devices ironically designed for child safety!
When my first child was born, like all the other mothers I knew, I had a baby monitor on my baby shower list.
At that time, baby monitors were corded and plugged into a wall outlet, so I was very careful to keep it away from the baby’s crib and on a bureau across the room out of concern for strangulation risk from the cord.
In recent years, however, corded baby monitors have all but disappeared in favor of the new wireless models which pose a very severe risk of continuous microwave radiation in your child’s room.
According to Wired Child, a wireless baby monitor at less than 1 meter away from the baby’s crib was roughly equivalent to the microwave radiation experienced from a cell phone tower only 150 meters away.
With most baby monitors now wireless and the risk of strangulation from the cords no longer an issue, many parents are putting them right in the crib so a distance of 1 meter or less is not so far fetched. Even a wireless monitor across the room would still pose a danger, albeit a reduced one.
How to Keep Tabs on Your Baby Without Wireless Baby Monitors
The best way to keep tabs on your baby is to have the child’s nursery next to the master bedroom and use your ears. It’s how Grandma did it after all!
If you absolutely must have a baby monitor for when your child is napping during the day and you are elsewhere in the house doing chores, then use one of the old-style corded (analog) monitors that you can probably find at a garage sale for next to nothing.
While all wireless baby monitors are a problem, the high-frequency digital models are the absolute worst. Analog monitors are a better choice than digital and if you can find one that is non-pulsing and low frequency in the 35-50 MHz range then that would be the only wireless option that should be considered. Typically, these analog monitors only have a few channels. Even analog monitors, however, should be kept at least 3 feet from the child’s bed and if possible, used sparingly.
According to PowerWatch, parents that switch out wireless baby monitors for an old-style plug-in monitor or none at all report the child crying less, having less irritability and sleeping better.
Taking care to get the microwave radiation out of your baby’s room to protect her developing brain may have the distinct advantage of a better night’s sleep – for everyone in the house!
References
Digital Cordless Baby Monitors (PowerWatch)
More Information
Reducing Exposure to Dirty Electricity
Are AMR Devices Safer than Smart Meters?
Harvard Medical Doctor Warns About the Dangers of Smart Meters
Fitbit Health Dangers
How to Protect Yourself from a Smart Meter
I see Owlet baby monitors with a smart sock are all the rage now. After seeing them recommended everywhere I decided to google it and found your article. It’s mind boggling to me why parents never even consider the dangers and happily invest in new costly and dangerous gadgets.
I agree. Most parents just assume because a product is on the market that it is safe … not true!
very disturbing. i didn’t think of this. thank you, i moved the baby monitor to the other side of the room, and will probably get rid of it. 🙁
I agree that the long-term effects of microwave radiation on the brain are unknown. But what evidence do you have for the claim that 35-50MHz analog radio waves are safer than microwave?
Same way vaccines get approved. Someone paid alot of money to allow it to happen.
Dave form the UK is all over it with his comments/facts. Google wi-fi photography and it resembles crazy looking spectres of several colours zooming throughout the house. Also I’ve just tonight watched an advert in Australia by a leading pain medicine company that’s made a “stick or clip on” wi-fi thermometer for babies, so you can ever so conveniently check baby’s temp from your mobile phone next to your bed. Seriously WTF! How did that get through FDA approval with so little studies done on this tech and it’s effects?
We’re all doomed people, and that’s the best outcome.
I thought I was improving by replacing my video monitor with a corded digital one. 🙁 Sounds like not. Can anyone tell me if 2.4 GZH is high? That’s what mine says it has. I use it across the room, but guessing it’s still not good. It’s the Willcare one on Amazon.
Any of the newer models are all digital unfortunately. You will have to find an old analog one at a garage sale or from a friend whose children are past crib stage.
The guidance not to use WIFI baby monitors is sound. Despite concerns regarding WIFI very little research into safety has ever been funded. It does not appear to be in the interests of either business or governments to do so. The current assumption is that because the RF signals are non-ionizing radiation as opposed to ionizing (which create heat e.g microwave oven). However dependent on strength
However, RF in this spectrum was used as a weapon during the cold war and is currently being invested to treat certain conditions such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and epilepsy. There are research papers that conclude that WIFI and RF stimulate parts of the brain leading leading to disturbed sleep, behavioural problems and who knows what else.
A small percentage of the population suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity and more worryingly the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified wireless radiation as Group 2B – possibly carcinogenic.
Whether it is practical to escape WIFI/RF in a world full of mobile phones, tablets, wireless printers etc is increasingly difficult. You can use carbon based paint, EMF curtain material etc) to reduce signal strength but these are expensive so for most of us we simply need to reduce exposure to our children if we can (below 0.06 Mw/M2 GREEN). Baby monitors are a particular issue because for babies and small children their skulls are in early development.
Typically, baby monitors consist of a web cam/microphone connected via WIFI to a display device. To meet the price/profit criteria the cheapest components are used in the camera. Using an RF meter I have measured such cameras transmitting above 58Mw/m2 (well into the RED) which is higher than a WIFI router.
So
1) Don’t use WIFI/RF if you don’t need to; use wired devices where possible
2) If cables are impractical then consider Powerline connections to wired devices (camera, printers, Laptops etc.). Powerline devices still generate RF signals in the mains wiring but it is a lot less powerful and is behind wallboards.
3) If you must allow babies to handle mobile phones or tablets ensure they are in airplane mode while they do so. Do not allow a baby or small child nearer than one metre from a transmitting device. Do not wonder around holding a young child while on your mobile phone or tablet !!.
4) When buying WIFI devices consider ones that you can be turned off. If a mains disconnection will cause technical issues, then purchase a device with a WIFI on/off switch (software based switches are impractical for most).
5) Related to (4) use WIFI extenders rather than using ever more powerful routers or the newer mesh devices to provide a ubiquitous WIFI coverage around your property. If you use a WIFI extender to increase signal in your children’s bedrooms then you can switch it on or off as required (or use a timed switch), particularly at night minimizing their exposure.
6) If you do not live in a detached house don’t just think your own equipment but also about WIFI/RF generated by neighbours Microwave ovens, Electric/Gas Smart Meters, WIFI speakers such as SONOS, Sky Q boxes or heavy machinery that may be just on the other side of the wall. I live in a detached house and currently have 7 routers and 2 printers not belonging to me transmitting inside my house.
7) Sorry magic stones etc may make you feel better but they will not screen you from the WIFI/RF signals
Any other sources on this claim besides PowerWatch?
So, where can I get a safe monitor? I can’t seem to find one. Or what can I search for to find the correct monitor? Is there a brand that is making them??
Garage sales or ebay are a good place to find the old fashioned analog monitors. I wish I still had mine!