Consumer Baby Monitors May Get Vital Signs Wrong

Consumer Baby Monitors May Get Vital Signs Wrong
A doctor was inspired to do a study comparing home monitors to those used in the hospital when a home monitor sent a family to the hospital unnecessarily. Shutterstock
Reuters
Updated:
Two popular monitors that promise to keep parents informed about their babies’ vital signs scored poorly in a test comparing them with actual hospital quality monitors, researchers say.

The commercially available monitors, which are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, promise to sound an alarm via parents’ cell phones if the baby’s heart rate or blood oxygen levels move into danger zones, according to the study in JAMA.