angelcare breathing monitor - when did you stop using yours? and any false alarms???

Hi All
DS is 9 months and we have been using an angelcare breathing monitor... I am wondering when it is time to stop using this?
When did you stop and why?
DS does move around the cot, but not to the degree some babies seem to - we have now moved the plates and turned up the sensitivity and it still seems to pick him up on his nightly cot manouveres...
Last night the monitor went off twice - not the major alarm but the first 'beep' - we ran in there and he was fine... but you can imagine the fear factor! he was on his back in the middle of the cot, so i would think on the sensors... so we do not know was the alarm not working (was he off the sense pads) or had he stopped breathing??? you can imagine the night we had (it also happened a couple of other times in the past). we went to the dr today and they cannot find anything wrong lung wise etc. we have also put a sheepskin under his sheet so wonder if this would have an impact (though this went under about 6 weeks ago so i dont know why the prob would start now??)
Anyway opinions/thoughts etc etc welcome - for reassurance and also for any 'warnings'. YOu can imagine it has been an anxious time for us here...
TIA

We had lots of false alarms. Usually DS was right in the corner of the cot, but not always. Check all the connections to make sure they are in properly.

With DS1 we stopped when he went into a bed at about 16 or 17 months. With DS2 it was around 12 months.

We stopped using ours when we moved Nina into her big bed at 15 months. We had a few false alarms. These would happen when she was in a deep sleep and her breathing had really slowed down.

Hey Pregpan,
I was wondering the same thing as I have just bought my sis one for her new bub and was considering giving her mine. I guess my only hesitancy was that I like being able to listen to him in bed at night. Especially now he has a cold, I like to hear him breathing and to know that all is well. I think you can turn the sensor to make it alot more sensitive, then you don't get the false alarms. This is on the part that goes in their bed.

As for the sensor pad component, I belive Sids is mainly a risk prior to 6 months. I guess it is up to you then how comfortable you feel being without the extra "protection". As bub gets bigger he might move around alot more and stand up in teh cot, thus maybe making it more of a hassle.

Good luck with your decision.

PS I heard Caden chatting to himself oneday in the cot and thought I would take a peek to make sure he was ok. He had unplugged the monitor and was happily wrapped in the cord! What dark irony that would have been...I now have it safely on the floor out of harms way ;)

My first thought is that he may have been in a very deep sleep and breating very lightly.. We have had that once or twice with Ds3 but he was fine.. just in a very deep sleep..

We stopped using the monitor when Ds2 and 3 went into thier big beds. now using it for DD...

Thanks for the reassurance - we will def keep it on til he goes into a bed I guess.
I dont know how we will sleep without it - was kind of asking about when ppl turned it off as i was worried we were going to become too dependant on it and perhaps most people already would not be using!
We turned up the sensitivity and moved the sensors a little last night and no alarms.. so a better night here. thanks again for the info/advice.

it went off again last night - also the 1 beep and he was fine...
anyway he has been in a thicker sleepingbag and we also have a sheepskin under sheet so i wondered if too much 'padding' tp pick up shallow breaths - so we took off the sheepskin... hmm i hope this works - it is meaning many sleepless nights...

It might be too much padding between him and the pads.. hope taking that extra layer out helps

so far so good... no alarm last night!

yay :) heres to many more good nights sleeps

just a quick update - no alarms since we took out the sheepskin...

Hi pregpan

We are also having false alarms with our angelcare monitor. It scares you when you hear the alarm but DD3 has been fine.

I took your advise and took out her underlay tonight, so hoping it will reduce the false alarms. Wondering if you could tell me what you have the sensitivity set on now.

Thanks

hi jen-b
sure happy to tell you what we have the sensitivity at - but i have no idea where to look (DH away atm) - so let me know and I will check.
We havent had one alarm since i took out the underlay... it is so awful to have the alarm go off isnt it...

Hi

Taking out the underlay didn't make any difference :(. So today I took my Angelcare monitor to a local baby shop today and they tested it for me. One of the sensor pads was faulty, so that should explain the false alarms (hopefully - I will see what happens tonight!).

On my nursery monitor there is a dial which adjusts the sensitivity. The guy today at the baby shop said to try it on the most sensitive which is 5. If it is too sensitive go back to 4, etc.

Glad all it going well for you :)