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: Â 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
Im thankful for the article.Thanks Again. Keep writing.
Really? A microwave from your cell phone, cordless phones, and monitors are not ionized. A cell phone tower produces more amps than a monitor does. People are so scared of the most ridiculous things anymore. The most dangerous thing to your baby is YOU babying it!
The long term effects of wireless radiation on human physiology is completely unknown. What’s wrong with some caution?
Nothing is wrong with caution. Just make sure that you don’t live within 40nm of an airport for their navigational radios such as VOR’s or NDB’s also ensure that there is not a cell phone in the house and especially do not have wifi running throughout the house. Then to be a little extra safe families with newborn’s should actually move to a remote house in the country.
Where do we draw the line? We don’t have facts and living in this paranoid world because someone with a computer can sit and type up hypothetical situations just get’s on my nerves. Do you remember growing up? Is there anything wrong with you? I hope there is not; for me, I am as healthy as I can be. I remember riding without seat belts and playing with lawn darts. I also remember getting a spanking when I messed up but that is a whole different argument that I don’t want to get into.
It just seems now a days that people are just trying to place blame on something that happened to their kid. Maybe it’s the parent’s fault for whatever happened.
Why are you so angry, Matt. Do you have a child? You have a problem that people implement caution? Then go and read about the history of asbestos, thalidamide, DDT, agent orange, BPA, vioxx, tobacco, X-ray and other harmful substances that were once deemed completely SAFE by health authorities.
You think the danger of electromagnetic radiation is “hypothetical situations ” typed up by someone who has too much time? Please, educate yourself, go do some reading – of the non-industry-funded science – and you would find that medical doctors and scientists (from establishments such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Columbia etc) are warning parents to be cautious on wireless radiation, as there is valid evidence showing the possibility of harm, especially for the young ones. Many doctors’ associations around the world have already spoken out on this issue: http://www.safeinschool.org/2013/02/medical-advisory-wifi-radiation-and.html
Pam; In case you haven’t noticed, cancer is the #1 disease of our civilization. In fact, because of the rapid increase in the rate of childhood cancer, lukemia, the World Health Organization(more than 10 years ago) began to study and watch the rise of this cancer in children as the rate of radiaton emissions increased from wireless devices. As a result of that 10 year + study, the World Health Organization issued a precautionary warning in the use of wireless technology putting it in the 2b classification of a possible carcinogen.
there is cancerogen threat in food – KFC – Mac everywhere
Wow. Just wow. Who the heck has time to worry about these kinds of things??? Don’t we have bigger things to worry about? Let’s see… clothed, fed, bills paid, roof over our heads, work, school, play time, LIFE. And then there a societal isssues like smoking cessation, ilicit drug abuse, domestic violence, child abuse, homeless people, etc. Get a grip people. Most of us have bigger things on our plates than some EMFs to worry about. Is it necessary to have a cell phone connected to your ear all day? No. Probably don’t need any baby monitors either. Babies cry, we will hear them most of the time. And even if we step outside to get the mail, put out the trash, or (GASP) find a few minutes to get some yard work done, guess what? The baby will be just fine and no one needs to get their panties in a wad. Why must we helicopter 24/7?
EMFs are essential for many of our JOBS and livelihood. And don’t forget that some of this “harmful” technology actually helps SAVE lives each and every day. Ever had to call EMS from a cell phone while on the highway? How about all the wifi used in hospitals to improve patient care? Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors? Home CPAP machines? Ultrasounds?
It is apparent to me that some folks have waaayyyyy to much time on their hands to be so obsessed with these things!
When my parents were kids, cancer was rare. Now it is an epidemic. So, yes, we have to find time to be concerned about the microwaves bombarding us. Remember this: Cancer always has a cause. It doesn’t just happen. Most of the time the cause is something human beings have done to the environment. Did you know that carcinogens have lobbyists to make sure our government does not protect citizens?
when your parents were young there was cancer – cancer is not a new thing – its been around for a long time – the name cancer is new.
In the olden days it was just a mysterious illness with no name.
anyway – evolution – if you google it will tell you that our bodies adapt to new environment
perhaps wi-fi EMF is our new environment and our babies will have to need to adapt to it too.
I don’t have a baby monitor, and I avoid wireless as much as possible in my home. I have a cell phone but rarely use it.
BUT towers like the one pictured in with this post are all over the place in our city and neighboring cities, and less than a block from our house. No one asked my permission to put it there. What kind of world are we creating?
Healthy Home Economist, your post says there would be an outcry if cell phone towers were placed near schools. But around here they are everywhere, and no one makes a peep. What part of the country are you in where people would rally against cell phone towers, or have any power in decided where they are put?
I am asking for help because I don’t want to expose my son to microwave radiation from these towers, or from wifi transmitters. Yet in Minneapolis they are all over the place and my friends tell me there is nothing that can be done about it. Minneapolis is proud of the fact that there are wifi transmitters every 5 blocks, and cell phone towers all over the place.
What can I do? What can we do?
Definitley fear mongering at its best. This article is ridiculous and those who believe it are even more ridiculous. The so called “source” used in this article is even less reliable then the information they distort.
Every single person who posted a response or likely read this article owns and uses their own cell phone and I don’t think everyone’s heads are exploding. Why not post some informative info rather then this second rate FoxNews crap.
the World Health Organization has classified electromagnetic frequencies(emfs) as a possible carcinogen(2b) and has issued a precautionary warning in the use of emfs.
That is not a ridiculous source, Jeff. I don’t own a cell phone, I don’t need wireless devices, wired is just fine and that should be my choice.
It’s good to see other groups like the Healthy Home Economist are aware of the dangers of wireless technology in the home. Kudos to you for raising awareness.You have well researched this and I hope that you will suceed in warning parents about this very dangerous technology.
How do we get the cell phone and wifi towers away from homes, playgrounds, and schools? Because around here, in Minnesota, they seem to be everywhere. Few people in power are concerned about it. Most parents seem blind to the risk.