Owlet's infant monitoring sock is back on sale in the US
But it doesn't include the blood oxygen monitoring feature it offered previously.
After it was pulled from sale in the US last fall over a warning from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Owlet’s infant monitoring sock is once again available to purchase. Announced late last year and now known as the Dream Sock, you can buy the Bluetooth-enabled wearable either as a standalone product for $299 or as part of the company’s Dream Duo bundle for $399. The latter includes the Owlet Cam, a baby monitor with a 1080p camera and sensors for measuring the ambient temperature, noise level and humidity in the room where your newborn sleeps.
Each Dream Sock comes with a bedside base station that connects to your home WiFi network. It relays the data the wearable and camera collect to the Owlet Dream App. Owlet is marketing the Dream Sock as a sleep aid tool. It will monitor your baby’s bedtime habits and use that information to provide personalized tips and guides to help you get them on a regular sleep schedule.
A feature the company’s Smart Sock 3 offered (and continues to do so in countries where it’s still available) was heart rate and oxygen blood level monitoring. Owlet doesn’t mention that functionality at all when it comes to the Dream Sock. That was one of the features that separated the company’s products from similar devices offered by competitors like Nanit and a major reason for why the device was popular in the first place.
There aren’t many other products that monitor a baby’s heart rate and pulse ox in the way the Smart Sock 3 does, but that functionality is what attracted the attention of the FDA and prompted the agency to warn Owlet about its marketing of the Smart Sock 3. A company spokesperson told Engadget Owlet is working toward the submission of a device application to the FDA for the heart rate and oxygen notifications the agency identified as a problem under its guidelines. Once the company obtains those approvals, it will once again offer those features in the US. In the meantime, you buy the Dream Sock through Owlet’s website. It will also be available through Best Buy and Target later this month.
Update 01/07/22 3:43PM ET: Added more information from Owelet.
Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here!
