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
Ours is from 1992 so must be okay.
and they still sell the plug ins with low MHz on amazon.
thanks for sharing. we have a plug in video one and it’s bad according to the original article you sited. we haven’t used it much at all because we co-sleep. thankfully!!
Make sure that the plug isn’t just for the cradle where the monitor can go wireless as well. The plug should go directly into the monitor not a base.
I sleep like a rock so I need one. But ours has always been a cheap analog.
All the schools I am near have cell phone towers very close to them. Sometimes on the property. And no one cares at all. (Except me.) My son’s school also has wireless mikes for the teachers and soon they’re going to have every kid on an iPad. I’m considering homeschooling just to get him away from the EMF.
We home school because of the EMF’s Wi-Fi, and don’t forget about all the florescent lighting. Even if all these things were gone from the class room my kid couldn’t make it all day in a class with 20-25 kids who are covered head to toe with one fragrance or another. I can’t even go to a grocery store anymore without covering my nose. Yuck!
Thank you for sharing! Just dumped mine for an analog!
The baby moniters with cords are still sold at stores. I got mine from Target 8 months ago. Plus, you can’t beat the price of those. Although I never even use it because I can always hear her.
That’s why we should all be cosleeping with our babies. It is what nature intended 🙂
I cosleep AND have a monitor!!! One cannot go to sleep at 7:30pm every night and expect to be happy and/or have a clean house. Night time is the only time I get anything accomplished. I need the monitor to let me know when my little one wakes up because if I don’t catch it immediately, she will wake up her sister. PS – I wake up to every single sound and movement, too. I just got used to the lack of sleep…lol. It’s def not for everyone, but we’re content regardless.
Well said, Tricia! Fortunately my babies rooms are right across the hall from our bedroom, and my husband is a light sleeper. I could never co-sleep. When I go to bed, I crash out big time, and I sprawl. I get too little sleep as it is, but add a baby to my bed, and I wouldn’t be able to function. We used the old style plug in monitor, and we all slept just fine.
yup 80% of population does this and its in the Bible. image doing what God says.
so do I wake up at ever sound. that is the point. to kniow when your baby is awake. they can’t role over and sufficate if you know they are awake. in a crib in anouther room they can. or any # of things. If you roll over in your sleep then get a cosleeper crib so you don’t roll on them. and I do go to bed happy at 7:30 and get up with baby at 7. she eats alot at nite so it works great. and yes my house is clean
Megan – sounds to me like you have it all figured out and are Super Mom. Good for you. It also sounds to me like you have ONE child. I thought one kid was hard, and then I had a second. I can’t imagine trying to get something done with a third child or more, especially when they’re as young as mine are. Maybe one day you’ll find out what it’s like to have a clean house destroyed in under 15mins, maybe you won’t. Either way, maybe you shouldn’t criticize others for not being as fabulous a parent and homemaker as you are.
For the rest of us who couldn’t possibly hold a candle to Megan’s parenting, let’s all go get a beer and talk about what bad mothers we are and how filthy our houses are, and laugh at those who think they know better than we do… because as you all know, we’re all doing what’s right for us and just trying to make it through the day. At least we don’t pretend it’s easy.
Yes, I agree with you. I co-slept with my first child for a while and we were happy. I could sleep when he slept. House was never in order though, but I was not in bad shape. Well, second baby came and things got very different now. One child is up another is down. There are not naps for mom ever or just once in a while when they nap at the same time. Clean house?! Not after just 1-2 hours of interrupted sleep and maybe 4-5 hours a day in total here and there plus all the cooking. My house would be perfect if I just buy processed or take out food. But I care about health of my family more then about spotless house. I am trying to be happy mom. Kids will always remember happy mother not a clean house.
Co-sleeping is a nice thing if it does not make you stressed out and very tired. No one should judge others for not doing it. It bugs me to hear these smart first time moms advices about everything. They alway know it all.
No babies here, but I live within 150 meters of two cell towers. 🙁 One is disguised as a flag pole, the other is on a roof top. And we are right by a high school. Maybe those types of cell towers are less powerful?!?