New monitor tells you why baby’s crying
A new device could help parents solve the mystery of why their baby is crying, by
revealing how different sounds express different moods and reasons for distress.
Understanding why babies cry in order to calm them down and give them what they
need is one of the hardest tasks for new parents.
Now, the new Whycry monitor promises to help parents through the difficult first few months of their child’s life.
By analysing the energy, frequency, pitch, breathing and cycle of
a baby’s cry for 20 seconds at a time, the new WhyCry monitor claims to be able
to identify babies’ moods.
It works by converting the baby’s cries into
digital sound waves, which are then analysed against samples from 100 other babies
stored in its memory.
The manufacturers claim it can tell whether the baby
is stressed, annoyed, bored, sleepy or hungry.
For example, it says a high-pitched
and demanding energetic cry means that a baby is hungry, while an intense short
cry that slowly drops and rises again means the baby is stressed.
Once
the baby’s cry is analysed, one of five indicators showing a facial expression
is displayed on the device to tell the parent why the baby is crying.
To
work accurately the device must be placed between 1ft and 6ft from the baby.
Other
noises or additional voices in the room can lead to a false reading, the manufacturers
warn.
Research by Spanish doctors, involving 86 babies under 12 months,
shows the portable monitor is 98 per cent accurate when the results are cross-checked
with a list of babies’ body language, which can also indicate the mood they are
in.
So if the baby is shaking his head and arms, has tightened fists or
sucks his fists, this is a further indication that the baby is hungry, according
to the makers.
On the other hand, kicking and shaking his arms gently and
moving his head, are signs the baby is bored, it says.
WhyCry was invented
by first-time father and engineer Pedro Monagas from Madrid, who was frustrated
at not knowing why his son Alex was crying.
After five years of research,
he identified common themes within babies’ cries such as frequency and pitch.
The device is aimed at helping parents through the first ten months of
a baby’s life – when they can have the most difficulty communicating their needs.
British parenting experts have given a cautious welcome to the new device,
although stressing the need for parents to trust their own observations.
A
spokeswoman for Cry-sis, a charity that offers support to families with excessively
crying, sleepless and demanding babies, said that relying on the device could
mean you miss signs that your baby is ill – children often cry when they are ill
with conditions ranging from a cold and teething, through to a high temperature
and earache.
Sheila Kitzinger, social anthropologist and author of the
book, Understanding Your Crying Baby, adds: ‘It may provide some answers and some
immediate observations that are useful, but it would be an awful thing to depend
on.
‘Parents need to focus on the baby and see what is happening – they
need to do more than count the rates of breathing and pitch of the cry.
‘Because
if you don’t learn what your baby is trying to say when they are crying, you are
in for trouble later on.’
Where to next?
- Would you use the WhyCry? Share your views in Discuss, Debate and Deliberate
- Read other recent news stories
- For more stories, visit babyworld’s news archive
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