Taking care of your newborn need not stay with the old times. With all that you need to do and monitor for the wee one, it can be overwhelming. But technology has made the parenthood experience a bit more manageable and enjoyable through these helpful baby apps.
Baby Tracker Apps
These tracking apps serve as the daily log of your baby’s activities. It is a handy and convenient way to take note of feeding and sleeping schedules, diaper changes, tummy time sessions and other activities of your baby.
These apps can help observe patterns within the activities, which will help set up your baby’s routines. This is also a helpful tool to consolidate and communicate the info to multiple caregivers or babysitters. Some of the highly-rated apps are Glow Baby (IOS / Android), Baby Tracker (IOS / Android)
Nursing / Breastfeeding Apps
Being your child’s primary food source is not easy, especially when you also have to deal with pumping and stashing bags of breast milk in advance.
Some apps help mothers monitor their milk output and pumping schedules. Other apps even have additional functionalities such as alarms and trackers that monitor just how much milk you have left in the refrigerator at home, at the office, or in the freezer. You can also monitor trends from pumping sessions, output per breast and the quantity the baby consumes.
There are specific breastfeeding/breast pumping apps like Milk Maid (IOS), while some are integrated into comprehensive newborn trackers like Huckleberry (IOS / Android) and Baby Connect (IOS / Android).
And here’s one more cool app! Want to indulge in a glass of wine but are afraid since you are still breastfeeding your baby? Then make sure to have Feed Safe (IOS / Android) on standby! It will help you calculate the time from when you drank wine to when it’s safe to have your baby latch again.
Parent Support and Information Apps
Newborn parents will need all the support and information they can get. With that comes these support and community apps, where parents can exchange learnings and insights.
Some examples include apps specifically for moms, like Peanut (IOS / Android). Some apps serve as handbooks about childcare from experts and paediatricians like WebMD Baby (IOS / Android). Forums inside apps are also available where parents can ask for and share information and experience, like the BabyCenter app community (IOS / Android).
Baby Development Apps
It’s not just about feeding schedules and nappy changes with your child; you would also be responsible for guiding their development in terms of motor skills, cognition, sensory and other crucial milestones. For first-time parents, that would be quite hard, making these apps quite essential.
Apps like Wonder Weeks (IOS / Android) can help identify why your baby gets so fussy and cries non-stop as it explains the child’s behaviour in age-linked phases within the first 20 months. Play programs and activities to support the child’s progress for the first 3 years can also be accessed through apps like Baby Sparks (IOS / Android).
Baby Monitor Apps
Through the years, baby monitors have become quite a convenient necessity for parents. It allows the moms and dads to go about their activities or to rest while still monitoring their babies.
During its earlier incarnations, baby monitors come with their own camera units. But now, any smart device (mobile phone, tablet, laptop, watch, TV) will do. The two devices – the baby or camera unit and the parent’s unit, will be connected through the app and an internet connection.
Depending on the functionalities and packages, monitor apps may offer video and audio, with motion sensors and sound alerts. Certain apps may even have night vision mode, the capacity to play music or communicate between the devices.
Examples of highly-rated apps include Cloud Monitor (IOS) and Baby Monitor 3G (IOS / Android).
Photo-Sharing Apps
While we get bombarded with these cute babies on our social media, many parents are uncomfortable posting photos and videos of their children for public viewing.
Removing that fear and adding more protection and privacy are private photo-sharing apps. Parents can upload photos and videos of their children and their whole family, with the option to keep these albums private or share them only with chosen people. Over time, you’ll be able to build a secure library of memories of your family.
Examples of these apps are Tiny Beans (IOS / Android) and Photocircle (IOS / Android).
Final Thoughts
Technology has indeed made waves in making parenthood more manageable, especially for first-time parents. However, a word of caution about the information we put on the apps or online.
While there is the convenience of having easily accessible and convenient logs of details about your child and your family, poorly secured apps may fall into the wrong hands. Ensure that the apps you download and use are encrypted and have great security features.