There’s only one way babies have to communicate with us: by crying.
A crying baby could mean anything from “I’m hungry!” to “I’m sleepy!” – or it could even mean it’s time for a diaper change or that they’re getting sick.
I recommend everyone has a baby monitor in their home; they make it easy to keep a watchful eye over your little one when you’re not around.
Unfortunately, most manufacturers fail to accommodate the deaf community when it comes to their baby monitors. Luckily, there are a few great options that should work for you.
MomTricks Picks: Summer Infant Babble Band
Thanks to MomTricks reader Marissa, we have a great recommendation for hearing-impaired parents: The Summer Infant Babble Band!
This is a wearable monitor that you put on your arm, and there’s a base unit that you put near your little one.
You can set up the band so that it either vibrates, lights up or both when your child cries or makes a sound. They claim that you get 8 hours of usage on the band between charges on the included rechargeable battery, and the base doubles as a charging unit too.
The downside of that is that if your child sleeps more than 8 hours, the band is going to run out of juice. At least they included modern wireless charging with this one; you can just set the band on the charging stand and it charges without having to plug it in.
How it works:
When your child cries, the base unit sends a signal to the wearable band. If you have it set in vibration mode, it will vibrate for 8 seconds. This is way more than enough time so that you’re always going to notice it.
Most people claim that the monitor is very sensitive, and should always pick up the noises your child makes. However, I did see one person say that it was too sensitive and alerted the parents to background noise. However, I think that unless you live in a particularly noisy home, it should be fine.
For those that are worried, it is securely paired, meaning that no one else will possibly be able to listen in on your monitor. I realize that has been a concern in the past, but modern baby monitors are meant to be secure.
The biggest complaint I’ve seen about this monitor is the battery life. 8 hours really isn’t a long time, and it would have been nice if they’d included a separate charging stand instead of requiring you to go to baby’s room to charge it.
All in all, however, this is a pretty good solution for deaf parents and I’d recommend it.
12 comments
Dear Sir / Madam,
Is the Graco Secure Coverage Digital Baby Monitor with 2 Parent Units safe for me as deaf parent? I cannot hear my baby crying during sleeping. How much price? How much days to delivery to Malaysia?
Deborah, it is safe, of course! Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell you about shipping to Malaysia; you’ll have to look around for that.
This monitor no longer shows that it vibrates. Only that it lights up. I’m not sure what changed. I just viewed it and it showed vibrating then sent the link to my husband and it no longer shows that it vibrates.
Hi Jennifer, I’m not sure why they changed the description on the site, but if you look at the image of the back of the box, it does say that it vibrates.
Hi,
This is no longer available on Amazon – I have had a look around, but cannot seem to find it anywhere else.
Please can you let me know how I can purchase the vibrating Graco Secure Coverage Digital Baby Monitor?
Thank you very much :)
Hi Amy, I’ll try to update this page as soon as possible.
The big thing now in the Deaf community is the Summer Infant Babble Band!!
Thanks for the heads up Marissa, I’m going to look into it!
Thank you Marissa! It looks like a great option!
thank you for this post! i was having a hard time finding an affordable monitor for when im asleep. I take of my cochlear implant at night! this is going to work ! im so relieved ! thank you thank you.. marissa too!
Hi Jennifer
This was the best one i could find and it’s great, and i hope this will become usefull one day even though im just 18years old and i’ve being “craving” as you can say,and can’t wait to have my own family.
Ps.i know its weird it just happend to be so.
Sincerely
Danica.
Thank you so much Marrisa too. I take both of my colahear implants at night as well
Thanks so much