Newborn babies are required to sleep at least 16 hours a day for having a healthy growth rate. However, it is essential to create a safe sleep environment and monitor the baby during sleep to avoid any risks of suffocation and entrapment.
Making the whole monitoring process easy and accurate for parents, a team of researchers from Brigham Young University have developed a new device called Owlet Baby Monitor that monitors a baby's heart rate plus blood-oxygen levels during its sleep. The wireless device, that uses pulse oximetry signals to give accurate data, is worn around an infant's foot like a sock and alerts the parents when it notices any change in the baby's normal breathing process.
"Our hope is that we can give parents time to react and see that something's wrong before it's too late," Jacob Colvin, involved in the innovation, said in a news release.
Colvin and his team grabbed first place at the third annual Student Innovator of the year competition and crowd favorite awards for their first model of the Owlet Baby Monitor.
"The Owlet baby monitor has the potential to really benefit our society -- and bring some peace of mind to new parents," Justin Zsiros, faculty adviser to the competition, said about the device.
The innovation is expected to lower sleep-related deaths among infants in the United States.
"If we can hear just one mother say that we made a difference, it would all be worth it," Colvin said. "That makes all the difference in the world."
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is one of the leading causes of infant deaths in the U.S., killing about 2,500 babies each year. According to a 2011 American Pediatrics (AAP) report, sleep-related deaths apart from SIDS like asphyxia, suffocation and entrapment among infants have gone up considerably in the recent past.
Following are some tips from AAP to avoid sleep-related deaths among infants:
* Place the baby to sleep only on its back
* Do not place the baby on any soft surfaces like car seats and go for firm sleep surfaces
* Avoid co-sleeping or sharing the same bed with the baby
* Remove and keep away soft objects like pillows, blankets and bumper pads out of the crib
* Do not cover the infant's head to avoid overheating
