Caring Cot: as long as the hand that rocks the cradle isn't mine
posted Sep 23rd 2004 11:30AM
You must forgive the Smiths reference, we only save them for stuff we're really excited about. The Caring Cot was invented by one Gary Cho, whose agenda wasn't just keeping that damned baby quiet in the middle of the freaking night, but also safety and preventative care. If the device (which is estimated to cost £150—that's about $270 US) "hears" the baby cry for more than thirty seconds, it automatically begins rocking the cradle vertically (which he claims is more effective at calming a child than horizontal rocking); it also monitors the child's movement and ambient temperature and can sound an alarm if it thinks something's up, which could help detect early symptomps of Sudden Infants Death Syndrome (SIDS). Jeez, you'd think babies couldn't just take care of themselves, or something.
nice smiths reference. i think we should have a party. unfortunately i am currently living about half a km from the site of yesterday's bombing in jerusalem. watched the action from my roof.
and now, on topic, i don't think this is a particularly bad idea. it makes more sense, to an ignorant american, than the cel phones for dogs. on the other hand, given that it sounds like a simple audio detection/timer system i think the price is a bit steep. something tells me the wiring coming off the side would not go over well if one is concerned with babyroom fashion.
I don't know that this is that great an idea, it seems like rewarding the child with rocking might train it to cry more.
Heh, your comment about babies not being able to take care of themselves remind me of an old Onion article, which is fortunately mirrored here: http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/~arobic/funny/babies.html
(Since The Onion doesn't allow public access to its archives anymore)
Personally, I think this is a GREAT idea!! At least better than not having any intervention when the baby starts to cry. Of course, one would have to wonder what kind of artificial sense of relief this would impose on a mother that would otherwise tend to it more often than not if just using a regular old fashioned crib. As for "rewarding the child with rocking might train it to cry more" comment, I would beg to differ. If the baby feels it is being tended to, then this (in theory) would satisfy its temporary attention needs.
It's a good idea. Baby won't cry more often unless he/she is just looking for a free ride which is okay too. ;-)
Yup, moms will ignore the whole high-tech thing and attend to the kid... it's in their DNA. The crib is more for a dad-type I think.
The baby monitoring stuff would provide a peace-of-mind to new parents as SIDS is on the top of the worry list for night time. I'm a fairly rational person, and I checked in on my daughter just about any time I didn't hear *something* in the baby monitor. Now maybe if the crib made a heart-monitorish *ping!* noise all night. LOL.. or not.
The price seems about right. If you've priced regular old dumb cribs lately, you might see that a quality smart crib ringing in at $270 ain't all that bad for a yuppy type. For instance.. check these out: http://www.dreamtimebaby.com/cribs.html and they don't even do anything for ya!
Gotta love the Smiths.
Sounds kinda cool. Worth a try anyway, although I don't know what sort of peace of mind the SIDS feature really offers. After 2 hours, its already too late. Sounds like an additional selling gimmick to me.
But if there is a price on these things, where can they be purchased?