babies
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Even breastfeeding is getting quantified, thanks to Momsense
The health benefits of breastfeeding are well-known, yet for various reasons, many new mothers quit after a few months. Maybe they don't have the time, they find it uncomfortable or they believe that the baby isn't getting enough milk. A new product called Momsense is taking aim at this last problem with a product and app that can keep track of how much a baby is actually drinking, hopefully putting a mom's worries at ease.
Doctors relax rules on letting babies watch screens
Ever since 1999, many pediatricians have clung to one main recommendation about kids and gadgets: you shouldn't show screens to any child under 2 years old. However, they've just loosened that once-firm policy. The American Academy of Pediatrics has softened its guidelines to permit screens for the under-2 crowd in the right circumstances. If your little ones are 18 months or older, they can watch "high-quality programming" (think PBS and Sesame Workshop) so long as you're there to help your kids understand. Any younger than that and you should limit them to video chat, the AAP says.
Zika virus' effects are broader than first thought
The Zika virus is primarily known to cause microcephaly (small heads) in the babies of infected mothers, but its effects may be wider-ranging than first thought. A Harvard-led study has conducted brain scans of 45 Brazilian babies from Zika-stricken mothers, and the data suggest that even those children born without conspicuous problems may suffer later on. Ultimately, Zika is disrupting brain development -- microcephaly is a frequent result of that, but there can also be issues around the cortex (which is crucial to coordination and memory) that show up first and may only materialize on the outside as the child grows. Moreover, Zika can damage nerves in such a way that it forces arms and hands to contract.
Robotic exoskeleton for babies can help prevent cerebral palsy
University of Oklahoma's robotic exoskeleton for babies does two things: (1) make the kiddos look like tiny Dr. Octopuses and (2) help prevent cerebral palsy. The motorized device has power steering that gives babies at risk of CP a little push needed to be able to move and crawl like their peers can. See, the condition can be caused brain damage, infections and injuries early in a person's life. To combat the disorder, therapy must start as early as possible -- unfortunately, it's not typically diagnosed until a child turns one year old.
Can a high-tech car seat offer a safer ride for your baby?
Properly installing a car seat is a struggle all parents with young children face. At CES this year, a company called 4moms is showing off its solution to the problem: a self-installing car seat that employs robotics. Once you attach the base's anchors to the hooks in your vehicle, the car seat automatically levels itself and properly tensions those belts to secure it. There's also an app that offers voice-guided step-by-step installation instructions, should the need arise.
Give your fetus a concert with vaginal sound system, Babypod
Some people are born to get down; others are gestated. Spanish gynecology clinic Institut Marquès wants to tap into the fetal-music market with Babypod, a speaker that expecting mothers insert into their vaginas a la tampons to play songs for their unborn babies. Babypod connects to a smartphone and plays music directly in the vagina, which is the only way for a fetus to hear unmuffled sounds, the company says. It's also more stylish than giant headphones wrapped around your belly.
Instababies: People are naming kids after Instagram filters
When it comes to deciding on a baby name, you could go with a family name. Or, like several couples did in 2015, you could look to your cellphone photography habit for inspiration. According to BabyCenter, some of the hottest trends in baby names shared monikers with Instagram filters. Yes, really. The site says that names of the photo-sharing apps presets were extremely popular this year for newborns, with Lux being the top choice. Additionally, Ludwig, Amaro, Reyes, Hudson and Kelvin all rose up the popularity rankings for boys while Juno, Valencia and Willow were routinely picked for girls. The site says it gathered its name popularity and trend data from 340,000 parents from around the world to compile the stats. Here's to hoping the trend continues in 2016 with babies named Lo-Fi, Inkwell and Nashville, because the internet.[Image credit: Shutterstock]
Birth then kill a virtual baby for fun, but mostly profit
Babies are cute, cuddly and worth a lot of money if you know how to exploit their existence. While the babies being virtually birthed by Kustodian CEO Chris Rock (no, not that Chris Rock) may not inspire the sort of bond found only between a parent and real child, they can be a financial windfall in the wrong (or right) hands. During a presentation at Def Con, Rock demonstrated how easy it was to get doctor and undertaker credentials from publicly available databases and use those credentials to register birth and death certificates. In fact, you don't even need to create a fake baby to kill; you can kill one of your friends (or enemies) thanks to a system that doesn't verify the identity of medical professionals.
The UK inches closer toward making babies from three people's DNA
The UK's House of Commons overwhelmingly voted in favor of a law that would allow scientists to genetically engineer babies from the DNA of three people. Before your mind wanders to some of the more... salacious possibilities, the technique -- a spin on traditional in vitro fertilization -- is meant to help women with mitochondrial disease have families without fear of passing the illness down.
mamaRoo's electric baby rocker can now soothe by Bluetooth
While baby care gear isn't what you'd traditionally expect from CES, 4moms was on hand to demo a new version of its mamaRoo baby rocker. Gone are the days of having to sneak up on your resting child commando-style to switch modes or slow the device down. The mamaRoo rocker now packs Bluetooth connectivity, a snazzy display and an improved rocking mechanism to help keep junior snoozing while you sip a glass of red... for heath benefits. The iOS and Android apps will also let you select from a variety of white noise presets or enable play of your media player via a 3.5mm connector. Devices cost between $239 and $269 depending on your plush fabric choice and are slated to ship soon.
MIT Media Labs' next hackathon will make breast pumps suck less
MIT's Media Lab plans to fix the breastpump. In fact, its fall 2014 hackthon is dedicated to this very aim. Breast pumps are time-consuming, noisy and often painful -- and as the organizers put it (rather TechCrunch-ly): "this is a space that is ripe for further innovation." There's already several problems set to be tackled: the hardened cones that cup over the breasts, the litany of parts, tubes and bottles, as well as a lack of metrics: existing pumps don't offer any information on how much milk is collected, or when. Over at Quartz, they've added their own ideas for the to-do list, including ensuring a closed-system that won't be ruined by water, milk and the inevitable mold, as well as a pumping system that's generally more discrete. It's in fact the second breast pump hackathon, but this sequel will encompass 60-80 engineers, designers and breastfeeding experts -- registration is open.
Think an iPad seat for your baby is bad? You've only scratched the surface
I've been doing my best to ignore the outrage over the Fisher-Price iPad Apptivity Seat since I started seeing it pop up on social networks for one simple reason: I knew full well that the people freaking out over this particular product had no idea what kinds of iPad/iPhone-compatible baby products were actually being sold out there. Allow me to take you down the rabbit hole, after which you'll see the Apptivity Seat as one of the most easily excusable of the bunch. Exercise for your baby... with a dose of ADD Another entry from Fisher-Price, the Apptivity Gym, features adorable plastic toys hanging down for your baby to play with -- you know, like baby toys have done for decades. Oh, and there's also an iPhone holder embedded in the center of it to encourage your young one to ignore the actual physical toys that would provide said exercise. Logic. An adorable stuffed animal with an iPhone embedded in its chest Fisher-Price is really on a roll it seems, as this "Laugh and Learn Puppy" is equal parts fluffy stuffed animal and Apple smartphone. Ignoring the fact that having a hard plastic case around a metal smartphone pretty much negates the whole point of a stuffed animal in the first place, this toy will guarantee that your child will ignore every other toy that doesn't also include a technological component. OK, Fisher-Price isn't even trying anymore This "Laugh and Learn iPhone Case" doesn't even try to be anything less than a colorful, overly bulky iPhone case disguised as a kids toy. Want your baby to give up any hope of playing with actual toys ever again? Just give them your iPhone, apparently. Potty training with a dose of iPad Yeah, it's not just Fisher-Price that's doing this kind of thing: The "CTA Digital 2-in-1 iPotty Seat" is about as obnoxious as it gets. When it comes time to teach your young one how to go to the bathroom like a grown-up, you should probably get them started on everyone's favorite potty pastime while at the same time ignoring any and all important parental guidance or motivation. It's worth noting that while the Apptivity Seat has gotten absolutely destroyed in the Amazon reviews section since the web caught wind of it, the rest of these products are rated quite highly (with far fewer overall reviews). If we're going to decide that children half a year old shouldn't be spending their time tapping away at an iPad screen (and no, they shouldn't be; stop it), we should at least keep these things in perspective.
Hospital uses iPads to help moms stay in contact with newborns
As part of a program called BabyTime, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles recently deployed iPads in its neonatal intensive care unit to enable mothers to see their newborns and interact with hospital staff when they can't do so in person. Infants are typically placed in the NICU when they are born prematurely or have other complications that require specialized care and supervision. In some circumstances, the condition of the mother might preclude her from being allowed or able enough to visit her newborn in the NICU. Such scenarios might arise when a new mother has post-operative complications, an infection which may pose a risk to the newborn or is otherwise not yet well enough to leave her bed. Cedars-Sinai notes that approximately 20 to 30 percent of new mothers who undergo C-sections "do not feel well enough to travel from their bed in the Labor and Delivery unit to the NICU for the first 24 to 48 hours." With the iPad, however, these mothers can now see their newborn and, just as importantly, interact with the nurses and doctors keeping an eye on their baby. All in all, it's a great way to keep patients more involved and informed while also adding an overall sense of comfort to what can otherwise be a stressful and worrisome situation. Charles F. Simmons Jr., MD, who chairs the Cedars-Sinai Department of Pediatrics, touted the new program in a press release: BabyTime will help bridge communication with the family and the baby's medical team and is an excellent use of technology to help new mothers bond with their babies, even when they cannot be physically at their babies' bedside. When doctors and nurses are treating a newborn in the NICU, mom can be right there asking questions and getting updates, even if she's on a different floor. As one would expect, the way the program works is pretty simple. When a newborn is admitted into the NICU, one iPad is placed next to the baby's incubator while another is delivered to the baby's mother. The press release notes that the mother can log onto BabyTime twice a day. Over the past few years, Cedars-Sinai has particularly embraced the intersection of technology and healthcare. The hospital previously gave its staff iPhones to facilitate communication amongst nurses and doctors and was also one of the first hospitals to roll out an iPhone app which enables doctors to remotely access EKG results and fetal monitoring.
WoW Moviewatch: Together
I'm back! Thanks to Adam and Dawn, who covered the hallowed halls of machinima while I was gone. Since it's going to take a day or so for me to get my legs back under me, we're doing something wildly different today. Together is so wildly different that it's from a different game! For various reasons, this song is a perfect tribute to my healthy and happy wife and girl, so I'll ask you all to forgive me a day of sentimentality. It's hard to believe I just proposed a handful of years ago (seriously, thanks, tuskarr!), and now we have this lovely girl. Here's to the hope that everyone gets to experience their joy. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Withings intros WiFi-connected baby scale so you can tell your friends oh, how they've grown (hands-on)
Withings put itself on the map with its WiFi-connected scale, and though it recently took a detour into blood pressure readings, it's now returning to what it does best: tallying the weight of sweet, vulnerable, crying humans. The Smart Baby Scale is exactly what it sounds like -- a scale designed specifically for infants and toddlers -- and like its predecessor, it organizes all its data in charts that you can read on a PC or iOS device. The scale comes with a baby basket for infants, which you can remove once your little bambino outgrows it. According to the company, the weighing area was specifically designed to be just large enough for babies, but small enough that grown-ups likely won't be able to weigh packages, watermelons and other heavyweight items that might break the scale. Look for it in the second quarter of this year for $179 -- a twenty-dollar premium over the adult version. Check our hands-on after the break. Mat Smith contributed to this report.
Exmobaby links up with AT&T, lets you keep tabs on sleeping babes
Ask any parent of a newborn what they miss most and they'll almost always mention sleep. That particular baby-borne exhaustion can take an even greater turn for the worse if said rents happen to be worrywarts. But wouldn't it be nice if bleary-eyed Moms and Pops could outfit those fussy babes with bio-monitoring pajamas and catch up on Zzzz's? It's not as far-fetched as it sounds. Exmovere's already introduced tech along those very lines and, now, the company has AT&T as a partner to push its Exmobaby onesies forward. The transmitter-equipped pjs work by collecting critical data from sleeping tots -- like heart rate and temperature -- that can be sent as alerts to phones, tablets and even PCs running the appropriate software. There's no launch date announced for the washable scifi duds nor has pricing been set at this preliminary stage, but chin up -- those night sweats should soon be a distant memory.
Evoz Baby Monitor lets you spy on your kid from anywhere your iPhone gets a signal
Worried that your bundle of joy might get up to no good during your weekly Hatha class? Not with this monolith by his bedside, he won't. It's called the Evoz Baby Monitor and it takes its job very seriously. All you have to do is place this WiFi-enabled device next to Junior's crib, download Evoz' app on your iPhone and the monitor will automatically provide you with alerts (via text, e-mail or phone call) whenever your kid cries. Once you sync this watchdog with your phone, you can even use it to remotely listen in on your prince, just in case he utters his first words while you're out on the links. Best of all, the system isn't restricted to a fixed range and promises to work in any area where you've got cellular coverage -- whether that be in the backyard, at the gym, or at Child Protective Services. Evoz won't start shipping the Baby Monitor until October 4th, but gravely concerned parents can pre-order one now for $120, at the source link below. Otherwise, just crawl past the break for more information, in the full PR.
Researchers use wireless network to monitor breathing, could save lives
When Neal Patwari and his team of researchers developed a wireless network capable of seeing through walls, we assumed they were simply looking to cultivate their Alastor Moody-like superpowers. Turns out, they had far more important things on their minds. Patwari and his colleagues at the University of Utah have now penned a new study in which they demonstrate how their motion detecting technology could be used to monitor breathing patterns, as well, potentially enabling doctors to keep closer track of patients with sleep apnea or babies susceptible to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). To do this, Patwari reclined on a hospital bed and surrounded himself with 20 wireless transceivers operating at a frequency of 2.4GHz, as pictured above. He then timed his breathing at about 15 breaths per minute (the average rate for a resting adult), which he measured with his array of nodes and a carbon dioxide monitor. The engineer ultimately found that his system's algorithm could accurately measure respiration within 0.4 to 0.2 breaths per minute -- a relatively low error rate, since most monitors round off to the nearest full breath. Patwari says this development could offer a non-invasive and low-cost alternative to the devices used in most hospitals, and hopes to implement his technology into at-home baby monitors, as well. He acknowledges, however, that it will likely take at least five years before any of that happens -- so don't hold your breath. Full PR after the break.
Babies go gaga for Apple? Not hardly
Martin Lindstrom says he found something interesting while doing some research for an upcoming book about brands: He handed a BlackBerry phone to about 20 different babies, and then watched their reactions to it. Without exception, they all reached up to touch the screen of the phone, which didn't do anything (since the BlackBerry wasn't a touchscreen), and then got bored. "These babies, all under two years old," he says, "have already been converted to the Apple brand." Which makes for a fun tagline, and that leads into an article about how old brand experiences, like waiting for film to process, are being replaced by technology. But Lindstrom apparently forgets another possibility: That these babies aren't already conditioned to a certain brand, but that touch is just the natural way they would deal with the world anyway. Yes, Apple has done a lot of work to build its brand and its reputation, and yes, the quality of the iPhone speaks volumes to anyone who has experience with one. But babies looking to touch something shiny doesn't mean they've been "brandwashed" by Apple -- it more likely means Apple has simply "tapped" into something that was already there in the first place. [Image from oxtopus on Flickr]
Vinci tablet for babies goes up for pre-order, prepares to be hurled across the playroom
When some of us were tots, there was one family computer, and we were lucky if we got our sticky little fingers on it while we were still in diapers. Times have changed, though, and for some parents, sharing the 'ol iPad or 10.1 with curious babies just won't do. Enter Rullingnet's Vinci tablet, that ruggedized tablet for toddlers we played with back in January. It's up for pre-order now, and though it's not exactly the modded Galaxy Tab we saw demoed, it's a very similar piece of hardware with a 7-inch (800 x 480) display, rugged casing, a 3 megapixel camera and Froyo on board. If you'll recall, it's missing any wireless radios (you know, to keep littles ones from being exposed to radiation), but parents can update apps via microUSB. Aside from the kid-proof caging, though, the hook here is that the tab comes pre-loaded with educational content such as 3D games, music videos, and animated storybooks -- a package overseen by the company's founder, herself a mother to young kids. With a starting price of $389, it's slightly less expensive than other Android tablets, though there's also a version with a more grown-up $479 price tag that doubles the battery life to six hours and comes loaded with more educational goodies. Hit the source links to pre-order, and remember that the tab's intended for kids ages three and under, so if yours is already forming sentences, well, your investment should be good for at least a year.
