Are wireless baby monitors a good choice to help keep your child safe while you are out of the room? What about digital or video-based monitors? Well, consider this…
If a mobile phone company applied for a permit to install a cell tower next to a school in your community, do you think there would be a large public outcry?
Most likely there would be very vocal outrage from the surrounding neighborhoods and the story would be featured prominently in the local news as many concerned and informed parents are increasingly taking precautions to minimize their children’s exposure to any sort of microwave technology.
The fact is that the long term effects of microwave radiation on children’s developing brains are completely unknown.
What is known is that a child’s brain is not fully developed until about age 20 and until that time, the skull is thinner to permit its continued growth and development.  Hence, a child’s brain is extremely sensitive to the effects of any type of EMF radiation (1).
Wireless Baby Monitors: Â The Elephant in the Nursery
While most parents would agree that installing a cell phone tower next to a school would be dangerous and definitely not a good idea, many of these same parents are unaware of the very similar danger posed by baby monitors, devices ironically designed for child safety!
When my first child was born, like all the other mothers I knew, I had a baby monitor on my baby shower list.
At that time, baby monitors were corded and plugged into a wall outlet, so I was very careful to keep it away from the baby’s crib and on a bureau across the room out of concern for strangulation risk from the cord.
In recent years, however, corded baby monitors have all but disappeared in favor of the new wireless models which pose a very severe risk of continuous microwave radiation in your child’s room.
According to Wired Child, a wireless baby monitor at less than 1 meter away from the baby’s crib was roughly equivalent to the microwave radiation experienced from a cell phone tower only 150 meters away.
With most baby monitors now wireless and the risk of strangulation from the cords no longer an issue, many parents are putting them right in the crib so a distance of 1 meter or less is not so far fetched. Even a wireless monitor across the room would still pose a danger, albeit a reduced one.
How to Keep Tabs on Your Baby Without Wireless Baby Monitors
The best way to keep tabs on your baby is to have the child’s nursery next to the master bedroom and use your ears.  It’s how Grandma did it after all!
If you absolutely must have a baby monitor for when your child is napping during the day and you are elsewhere in the house doing chores, then use one of the old-style corded (analog) monitors that you can probably find at a garage sale for next to nothing.
While all wireless baby monitors are a problem, the high-frequency digital models are the absolute worst.  Analog monitors are a better choice than digital and if you can find one that is non-pulsing and low frequency in the 35-50 MHz range then that would be the only wireless option that should be considered. Typically, these analog monitors only have a few channels.  Even analog monitors, however, should be kept at least 3 feet from the child’s bed and if possible, used sparingly.
According to PowerWatch, parents that switch out wireless baby monitors for an old-style plug-in monitor or none at all report the child crying less, having less irritability and sleeping better.
Taking care to get the microwave radiation out of your baby’s room to protect her developing brain may have the distinct advantage of a better night’s sleep – for everyone in the house!
References
Digital Cordless Baby Monitors (PowerWatch)
More Information
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Are AMR Devices Safer than Smart Meters?
Harvard Medical Doctor Warns About the Dangers of Smart Meters
Fitbit Health Dangers
How to Protect Yourself from a Smart Meter
Taylor Lambert Call the manufacturer with the serial number of the monitor you have a question about and ask them if that model is analog or not. If it is analog, that is what you want.
we never had a need for monitors. baby was always close enough to hear.
Ugh! Wish I had known a year ago! We have an old corded one, but it is still a higher mHz than what you recommend. Getting rid of it pronto.
hey I have a video monitor. the part that is in his room is plugged in and the vdeo part is the one that is in our room and needs to be charged. is that ok?
I’ve read this, and all the comments, and I can’t figure out what a NON wireless monitor is. They all have plugs for electricity, but they still transmit the signal wirelessly. Wish there was more detail or brands listed or something.
The only true non-wireless option would mean just that. As in a cable running from receiver to monitor (like hooking your laptop to an ethernet cable, which I now do because I have a newborn and am not taking chances with wi-fi waves beaming into his little head 24/7). Some cameras run over ethernet lines and could be used for baby monitoring as well I suppose (if you used a powerline adapter to run Internet through your home’s electrical wiring, the set-up wouldn’t be too challenging). Or just forget it all and use ears.
Interesting article so I submitted the story to Snopes.com to see what they say.
Gloriana Parral
Lulu Flores
Oh oh
Thank you for telling people this information! All you do is amazing!
Hannah Johnson, check this out
Re: cell towers at schools. Don’t be surprised if there is no outcry; cell towers are huge revenue generators for schools. When one was proposed above a second grade classroom at our school, I learned that the protest was best made regarding aesthetics. Parents questioning health implications can legally be immediately dismissed since the government has declared cell towers safe.