At first glance, this monitor appears to be a mom’s dream come true.  You can not only hear your baby’s every gurgle and whimper, but monitor the temperature in the room, play lullabies, and talk to your baby from wherever you are in the house.  All of this can be done from the light-weight parent unit.  What more could a worried, stressed, new mom ask for?  Well, since I’m the worried, stressed, mom of a busy 10-month old, my pals at BostonGeek thought I would be the perfect person to review this product.

Here is a review of the monitor’s features as listed on the Philips website:

Complete peace of mind

Well, that’s a bold statement.  Will I ever have complete peace of mind?  Probably not, but this monitor is so sensitive, I was able to hear my daughter’s EVERY breath.  This surprised me.  The monitor I typically use only picks up voices and loud noises. 

Guarantees zero interference from any other device (other baby monitors, cordless phones and cell phones)

In my house, I have 2 cell phones, 3 computers using WiFi, 2 cordless phones, a wireless doorbell, and another baby monitor.  I experienced no interference, not even the annoying background hiss that I usually get with a baby monitor.  It was crystal clear at all times.

Provides a secure and private connection using data encryption. You will be the only one who can hear your baby and you only hear your own baby

Data encryption on a baby monitor?  This is not something I typically worry about with a baby monitor and not a problem I have had to deal with in the past. But I can assure you that I never heard anything but my daughter on the monitor.  As for whether or not my neighbors cell phone calls were interrupted by my little princess’ shrieking, I can’t be certain.  But do I really care? No.

Indicates a continuous connection between the baby and the parent unit with visible and audible link indicators

Most monitors have one or both of these safeguards allowing parents to know when the connection between the two units fails. The SCD 589, however, allows you to shut off the audible alert so that it doesn’t wake the baby you just spent 3 hours rocking to sleep.

Provides the ability to allow you to talk back to the baby

This monitor has a 2-way “talk-back” function built in to allow you to talk to your baby without entering the room, just click the “talk” button on the side of the parent unit.  Sometimes all my daughter needs is to hear my voice and she’ll fall back to sleep.  The radio allows me to talk to her without her seeing me, which has been known to cause chaos. 

Uses lights to indicate if the baby makes noise, even with volume off

Again, this is a feature of most baby monitors.  You can shut off the volume and as the intensity of the noise increases, so do the number of lights.  Basically this feature tells you when you MUST stop whatever you’re doing and check on the baby (for me that’s usually 4 lights).

Remotely monitor the baby’s room temperature for extra comfort and control 

Ok, this is cool.  My house is old and heats unevenly; I never know the temperature of my daughter’s room or what to dress her in for bed.  “Should she wear the purple flannel footsy pjs tonight with the heavy blanket or the pink cotton bunny pjs with socks and a knitted blanket?” I can never tell.  And once she’s in bed, is it safe to peel away a blanket if she “looks” too hot or will that just make her cold?  ACK!  It’s enough to drive you nuts.  At least with this monitor, it not only tells you the current temperature, but you can set an alarm alerting you if the temp goes below a certain point.  I must admit, this is my favorite feature.  I like the idea of this for newborns, since they typically have issues regulating their body temperature.  One suggestion to the manufacturers:  Complement this feature with a humidity monitor!

Ultimate mobility in and around the house, small, mobile parent unit to freely roam around the house

The parent unit is light and easy to use and not encumbered by being tethered to the wall by an AC adapter.  It is much like a cordless phone, where the base stays plugged in at all times and the handset is removable. The parent unit allows you to control the temperature alarm, nightlight, and lullabies all from the parent unit without ever having to enter the baby’s room. The interface of the parent unit is also easy to navigate.  I didn’t need to read the instructions in order to operate it. 

The neck cord provides hands-free convenience and mobility: clip the parent unit to your belt or wear it around your neck

I was not crazy about the neck cord.  The unit was light enough so that suspending it from a cord around my neck was comfortable, but I did not like the way the unit swung around when I walked.  The belt clip was much more practical.

The rechargeable parent unit gives you a minimum of 24 hours of cordless monitoring with a range of up to 300m (900 feet)

The parent unit DID give me 24 consistent hours of use and I was able to use it anywhere in my home and even outside in my yard.  However, I noticed that the parent unit doesn’t sit well in the charger base.  Instead of having prongs to secure the unit into the charger, it simply has metal contacts that touch.  Therefore it was easy to knock out of the base.  With an “almost” toddler in the house, I like things to be secure.

Travel pouch protects units while traveling 

The pouch is a nice design; it fits everything you need to transport the monitor and the owner’s manual.  It’s also lightly lined to protect the product when it’s being thrown into the back of a minivan or the trunk of an overloaded car.

Nightlight with soothing stars to comfort your baby

When I first read about this feature, I thought the stars would appear on the ceiling to help soothe the baby.  However, they are just a bunch of small orange lights that illuminate on the child’s unit.  My daughter can’t even see them from her crib.

Five lullabies soothe baby to sleep

If my daughter was actually soothed by lullabies, this feature would be a huge plus.  You have five different beautiful lullabies to choose from (and if I had my degree in Fine Arts instead of Psychology, I could tell you what they were) all of which can be controlled from you parent unit.  You can change the songs, pause and stop them, and adjust the volume.

The Bottom Line: 

Most parents do not need all the “bells and whistles” of the SCD 589.  It’s my opinion, though, (and I’m not a doctor) that this monitor would be ideal for parents of preemies and infants at a high risk for SIDS or RSV.  When you are the parent of a high risk infant, hearing every breath and being able to be in constant contact with your infant while he/she is most vulnerable is invaluable. But if you can’t afford the $200 price tag for the SCD589, rest assured there are excellent, reliable monitors out there that can keep you in constant contact with your little one for under $50.  If this monitor had been available when I was pregnant and putting together my baby registry, this would have been the first item on my list.  Hey, I wasn’t going to be the one paying for it and who cares if I wasn’t going to use all of the functions?  It claims it will give me peace of mind and help me keep my baby safe!  It’s VERY attractive to a first time mom and an excellent product.