Being a parent is hard, but it was probably a lot harder before these 18 apps were invented.
Kudos to the generations of parents before us who managed without being able to monitor
their baby’s every move, connect with health professionals in a split second and send themselves
insane with worry comparing photos of deadly rashes with that splotch that just popped
up on their toddler’s tummy!
Here are 18 apps that make being a parent just that little bit easier:
Baby monitor apps Most of us have baby monitors at home, but
they’re a pain for travelling.
You have to remember to take them, and then you have to find somewhere convenient to set
them up in the room where your baby is sleeping, often using international plug adaptors.
Then there’s the issue of range.
If you’re staying in a hotel and you want to pop down to the restaurant for dinner you’ll
often find the monitor out of range.
Cloud Baby Monitor is an Apple-only app that enables you to turn two or more Apple devices
into a baby monitor system.
Set one device up as the child unit and the other as the parent unit and it works over
wifi or 3g, which means unlimited range.
It has a whole host of features like white noise and the ability to talk to the baby
and monitor multiple children from one parent device.
It’s $3.99 per device in the app store and $6.99 in the Mac App store.
Baby Monitor 3G by Tappy Taps is very similar to Cloud Baby Monitor but isn’t limited
to Apple devices.
You can’t monitor multiple children from the same parent device, but you can set up
both parents to monitor the child from their own device It costs £3.99 per device.
Apps for being less lonely Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve found being
a parent means you almost never get alone time, yet somehow you manage to feel lonelier
than ever.
Fortunately there are some apps designed to address that.
Subscribe to our channel Hoop has to be my all-time favourite app for
parents.
It’s beautifully designed and highly intuitive, which is always a bonus.
You use Hoop to search for kid-friendly activities in your area.
I’ve found some incredible activities, from bring your own baby comedy club to yoga, ballet
and music classes.
It’s free to use and available on both Apple and Android.
Mush is a local social network for making mum friends.
I like the idea in principle, but like any network it’s subject to a network effect
and needs a lot of take-up to be successful.
So when I tried it in London it seemed like there weren’t many mums in my area.
I also really don’t like that it focuses on mums.
It assumes the mum is the primary caregiver, which is not the case for many families (including
my own).
That marginalises dads and supports an unhelpful gender narrative.
It’s free to use and available on both Apple and Android.
Apps that help your baby sleep We found white noise to be really helpful
when our son was a small baby.
It created a routine that signalled to him it was sleep time, which meant we could put
him to sleep in different environments relatively easily.
It also helped my partner, who is a very light sleeper and found he couldn’t fall asleep
when the baby was in the room with us – because babies make all kinds of noises when they’re
sleeping.
There are loads of free white noise apps out there, such as Sound Sleeper and White Noise
Lite.
And then there are specialist apps like Baby Soother that are designed to simulate the
sounds the baby would have been familiar with in the womb.
Apps to track your baby’s development Being a new parent is very overwhelming.
You don’t know what you’re doing, you’re getting advice from every angle, and you have
no way of knowing whether you’re doing things right.
There are loads of apps out there to help you keep up to date with the first few months
or years of your baby’s life.
The Wonder Weeks App is based on the bestselling book.
It helps you keep up to date with the big mental developmental milestones you can expect
as your baby grows.
It costs $2.99 and is available on both the App store and Google Play.
The What to Expect App, based on the very popular book covers everything you need to
know week by week of your pregnancy, followed by a baby and toddler section for once the
little one arrives.
It’s full of useful information on everything from milestones to childproofing your home.
The app is free and available on both the App store and Google Play.
Babysparks claims to support your child in reaching their potential by providing meaningful
play activities that are supposed to be developmentally-appropriate.
I’m sceptical because the science section on their website isn’t very sciency, but
I will probably use it addictively when Baby 2 arrives later this year and I’ll be sure
to review it on this channel.
It’s £7.99 for the first year followed by a subscription-based service.
Apps for tracking everything When you feel like you don’t know what you’re
doing and when there are multiple people looking after your baby, it can be reassuring to track
things like feeds, nappy changes and sleeps.
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Glow Baby is a good example of this.
It’s a subscription-based app that costs around $7.99 a month.
Other examples are First Year, BabyTime, and Milk Maid, for tracking pumping and breastfeeding.
Apps for when things go wrong No one warned me about all the worry that
comes with being a parent.
I thought it would be all cuddles and tantrums.
Fortunately, there are apps for parents with health anxiety by proxy.
WebMD has a good app that includes a symptom checker and loads of helpful health advice.
It’s also a baby tracker and phot capturing app all in one and it’s free.
Ask the Midwife is an app where you can ask registered midwives anything regarding pregnancy
or the first 12 weeks of your baby’s life.
You can ask questions or chat directly with midwives and between 7am and 9pm seven days
a week.
Talkspace is a brilliant service for parents who are struggling.
When you’re looking after a baby, you often don’t have the time to pop out and see a
psychologist.
But early parenthood can be the most mentally challenging time in your life.
Talkspace pairs you with a therapist after an assessment and then you can chat with them
daily or schedule video chats if you need them.
The service costs from $49 a week for messaging chats to $79 a week for video chats.
Apps that are really really useful Finally, NCT Babychange gets its own category
here.
It’s an app where users rate the babychange facilities in restaurants and coffee shops
across the UK.
As someone who has changed a nappy on a grimy bathroom floor on multiple occasions, I think
at this stage in your life, the quality of baby change facilities is much more important
than the quality of the food in a restaurant.
So, that’s it.
18 apps that make parenting just that little bit easier.
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