health

A onesie that could save up to 9 babies every day.

A life changing onesie.

An Australian start-up company has developed a onesie that could potentially save babies from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

The jumpsuit is designed to track your baby’s heartbeat, body movements, breathing patterns and temperature. It collects data and sends the results (in real time) to parents’ mobile phones.

A SIDs and Kids media release says that in Australia, “Nine children under the age of four die suddenly and unexpectedly every day in Australia from causes including sleeping accidents, drowning, motor vehicle accidents, sudden onset illness, SIDS and stillbirth.” So TechBeach has developed a baby suit that could change the statistics, and ease parental concerns.

“All parents worry about their babies, all the time – I didn’t sleep at all when my children were born,” TechBeach CEO and father-of-three Giuseppe Porcelli told Daily Mail Australia.

Parents can get scared when their babies sleep.

Giuseppe explained that when a child is too hot, too cold or has flu-like symptoms parents panic - they get scared. He told them that if something like this was available before, it would've made parents' lives a lot less stressful.

"The advantage of the technology is that you can have all the information wherever you are," he told Daily Mail Australia.

It's a huge forward move in monitoring technology. With sensors built in to the onesie that transmit real-time health data to a mobile phone, this is a first in Australia and something that will change the future for parents.

The sensors don't sit directly on the baby's body, instead they are situated inside the suit. They show behavioural trends and send alerts to the parents mobile app. As the child grows older you can attach the device to other jumpsuits and (once your baby outgrows onesies) other clothing.

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You can monitor your sleeping baby. Image via Sids and Kids Facebook.

Giuseppe told the Daily Mail Australia that their suit is unique from other baby monitors.

"The difference is that the data we read tells the whole picture of the child - and it's preventative," he said. "What we have is not just an alert that we can read after something has already happened but data which can help us to understand the character of the kids, their behaviour."

The CEO said that all of the current feedback has been extremely positive. He told the Daily Mail Australia that out of the 22 families that have tested the suits with TechBeach all were 'really satisfied' with the information they got.

SIDS is also known as cot death. It occurs when an infant dies suddenly from something that can't be explained. It is thought that babies are at the highest risk of this death when they are sleeping.

The jumpsuit should be available in Australia from April and will cost about $190 per set.

Experts warn parents against relying on baby monitoring devices because there is no scientific evidence that says the monitors will prevent an infant's death.

What do you think of monitoring devices for babies, children or adults?

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