Setting Up Your Own Baby Camera
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Baby camera’s are extremely useful ways to keep an eye on your child while in their bed and room. Setting up your own camera is quite simple.
When we had our first kid, we really wanted to be able to see what was going on in the room. My wife was really nervous about leaving a baby in the bed by themselves. I wanted to get the baby into their own bedroom as soon as we could so that we could start getting back to a bit of normality.
When you put your baby to sleep at night, or when you put them down for a nap, you don’t have to be worried about what’s happening in the room - you can see them. Letting your baby cry in their crib becomes far less stressful when you can see they’re totally fine. Watching your baby sleep on the camera is also quite calming.
Baby cameras are very common items that are sold. If you do a quick search, you’re going to find a whole bunch of different options. I’ve not used any of those specific models or brands, but I’m sure that the reviews of them will give you a good idea of how good they actually are. I don’t think you can necessarily go wrong with them.
However, the big problem I have with most of these options is that they’re really dedicated for baby cameras. While there are some use cases for the cameras, it’s not overly convenient to make them work that way. Your baby will not be a baby forever, and the camera will no longer be useful at some point. Is that the end of the world? Not really. But if you can have a camera that can easily be reused for something else, it seems like a real no brainer.
Rather than buying a dedicated baby camera, you’ll be better served by buying a camera that isn’t specific for a baby. After a bit of research, and a bit of technical acumen, I tested out a few cameras. Overall, I didn’t have any significant issue with any of the cameras that I tested, and all of them worked well.
What you’ll be looking for is an IP camera. You really don’t need anything overly expensive for your purposes here. If you’re not overly comfortable with technology, you’ll want a camera that is mostly just plug and play. Additionally, you’re not going to want a camera that makes the stream available outside your home. While that may seem like a cool idea, it greatly increases your risk of exposing the camera to a hacker. You really don’t want that with your baby camera.
Once you have a baby camera, you’re going to need a way to view the camera. Some cameras come with a specialized app that you can use with them. I’ve not been impressed by any of those apps - I dislike almost all of them. Instead, I’d recommend an app that supports multiple IP cameras. My favorite is IP Camera Viewer - I have several cameras setup in this product, and it does everything that I need and want. It’s extremely flexible, and it will let you set up hundreds of different types of cameras.
I have several old phones that I’ve collected over the years, and so I generally use one of those for viewing the camera. However, I also have the app on my own phone which is super convenient as well. I don’t have to have a dedicated device or something else to see what’s going on in the room - I’m able to see my kid on every smart device that I own.
And once your child is old enough for the camera to be removed from their room, you can move it to another location in your home if you’d like. Perhaps you’d like it at one of your doors, or perhaps you’d like in your garage, or some other location. Wherever you put it, it’s made exactly for that use case.
