As new parents buy high-tech baby monitors and toddler formulas, pediatricians advise caution 

Editor's note: This segment was rebroadcasted on Aug. 28, 2024. Find that audio here. 

Anyone who’s taken care of a newborn will understand the uncertainties, anxiety and exhaustion that come along with parenting an infant. So it’s not surprising that new parents are buying up a new generation of baby monitors that measure infants’ heart rates, sleep cycles, pulse and more.

But pediatricians caution that these are not medical devices, and while they can provide some parents peace of mind, they do not make babies safer. And more important, they do not prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS. Another caution, they note, is that the monitors may give parents a false sense of security.

Host Robin Young talks to Dr. Jenelle Ferry, a neonatologist at the Pediatrix Medical Group in Tampa, Florida, about the monitors and about the companies’ marketing toddler milks and formulas, despite no evidence of benefits for healthy children.