How to choose a baby monitor
A framework for the questions that actually matter.
There are a lot of baby monitors, and a lot of opinions about them. This is a short, honest guide to help you find the right one for your family. No rankings. No pressure.
The short answer
To choose a baby monitor, work through five questions in order:
Almost every parent shopping today starts from the same place: an audio-visual monitor. A camera, a screen, sound. That part is a given. The real choice is whether to add a second layer on top.
Layer one · The baseline
Audio-visual
See your baby, hear your baby. The baseline nearly everyone wants.
Layer two · Optional
Wellness insights
A gentle signal about how your baby is doing, not just how they look.
Five questions, in order
Work through these and you'll land on the right kind of monitor without needing anyone's top-ten list. Tap any question to open it.
A great camera and clear audio is all some families need. You can see your baby, hear your baby, done. Plenty of happy parents stop right here.
Others want a little more: a steady signal overnight about how their baby is doing. That extra layer is the newer part of the category, and it's where monitors start to differ a lot. If you want it, the next question is the one that matters.
"Wellness monitor" isn't one thing. Different devices read different signals about your baby's body, and no single one reads all of them. More isn't automatically better. The right signal is the one you'd actually act on.
Tap the one that sounds most like what you're after:
-
Breathing and movement devices are the most watchful, and the most likely to wake you. A fair choice if that specific reassurance is what you're after.
-
Heart rate and oxygen is the most data-rich flavor. It's also the most clinical-feeling, and worth asking yourself whether you'll act on a stream of numbers or just watch them.
-
Skin temperature awareness sits at the calm end of the spectrum. A gentle comfort signal, not a stream of numbers, and not a medical measurement. This is the lane Nonnanest was built for. How skin-temperature awareness works
Wellness insights get read one of two ways. Wearables (a sock, a band, a clip) sit on your baby and can read more, at the cost of something on your newborn all night. Contactless devices read from a distance, with nothing on your baby at all.
A WiFi monitor lets you check in from anywhere through an app. Really useful for some families. The trade-off is that the monitor lives on your home network, and often a company's servers.
The one parents miss. Some monitors carry a subscription, which can run over a hundred dollars a year, to unlock features or history. A one-time-purchase monitor doesn't.
A quick word on "AI" monitors
You'll see monitors advertise cry detection, sound differentiation, motion and rollover alerts, even face-covering alerts. These are real and can be helpful. Here's what they are: they make the camera and audio smarter. They don't read your baby's body.
So they sit on the audio-visual side of the choice, not the wellness-insight side. A useful layer to want, just a different one. And a fair thing to ask any of them: how often does it cry wolf? A monitor that alerts at every shadow wakes you as surely as the baby would. More on false alarms at night
A note from the parent who built one
I'll be honest about my bias. I built a baby monitor, so I'm not a neutral party. But I built it because I went through the exact research you're doing now, and nothing fit what I wanted.
I wanted the camera and audio, of course. But I also wanted a gentle wellness signal overnight, without a strap on my kids and without our nursery being one more thing on the internet. I wanted skin temperature awareness, contactless, no WiFi, no subscription. I couldn't find all of it in one place, so I made it. My own kids were the first ones it was ever on, before I sold a single unit to anyone else.
You might weigh these questions differently than I did, and that's the whole point of this guide. Use the five questions. Pick the monitor that fits your family. If that turns out to be mine, I'd be glad to have you.
Nathan Overbey
Founder & CEO, Nonnanest · Read our story
What Nonnanest does and doesn't do
Nonnanest gives you contactless skin temperature awareness, HD video and audio on a dedicated handheld, with no WiFi, no app and no subscription. It shows skin temperature trends and changes. It does not measure heart rate, blood oxygen, or breathing.
When to call your pediatrician
Trust your gut. If your baby seems uncomfortable, isn't feeding well, is unusually sleepy or fussy, or if a contact thermometer reading concerns you, call your pediatrician. A monitor supports your awareness. It doesn't replace it.
If Nonnanest looks like your fit, here's $30 off.
Drop your email and we'll send a code for $30 off. No follow-up spam, just the code.
Nonnanest is a wellness device, not a medical device, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. Temperature readings are for informational purposes only to help parents monitor general wellness and comfort. For any health concerns, always consult a pediatrician or qualified healthcare provider.