Baby monitors allow you to watch and listen to your baby when you are in separate rooms. The baby monitor itself consists of transmitter which rests near your baby and a receiver which the parent places near them to monitor the sound and video. Parents in large homes may consider purchasing multiple receivers so they can continue to monitor while moving from room to room.

Depending on your home and lifestyle you may prefer an audio or audio plus video monitor. Although slightly more expensive, video monitors give you a much better sense of your baby’s condition or distress. However, audio monitors with light levels indicating the volume or crying intensity can also work quite well.

Baby monitors come equipped with various features which are designed to meet the needs of many different homes and lifestyle types. It will be important for you to make a note of a few things before deciding which features are best suited for you.

Frequency and Interference
Do you have cordless phones, and other radio operated devices? Do you have nearby neighbors that may have a baby monitor or cordless phone? If you answered yes to either of the above, then you may face an interference problem, and will want to choose accordingly. Steer clear of monitors that operate on a 49 MHz frequency which are most susceptible to interference from other radio devices. More advanced models operate at 900 MHz and the best at 2.4 GHz. However, cordless phones operating at 2.4GHz could interfere. Your best bet will be to choose a model that includes as many channels as possible so that if one or more frequencies are interfering, you’ll have multiple options to switch over to.

If you’re really concerned about interference and willing to shell out a bit extra cash, then step up to the most advanced DECT technology monitors. DCET stands for Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications, and to make a long story short, it will avoid interference problem altogether.

Important Features
As discussed above, interference is the most notorious issue with baby monitors. Therefore a model with many frequency band options or DCET is highly recommended. Another highly recommended feature is sound lights. Sound activated lights turn on in relation to the volume intensity at the transmitter. Thus, the louder your baby cries, the more lights turn on. Also recommended are an out-of-range indicator and a low-battery-indicator.

Optional Features
Some baby monitor models come equipped with walkie-talkie, intercom or music playback features. These features allow you to either talk to your baby from the receiver or setup music or voice playback from the transmitter unit. Although nice to have, they are mostly amenities that may or may not suite your lifestyle. Pay extra for these features only if visualize them being used frequently.