Taking care of newborns is a whole new lifestyle. Parenting tools and apps retrofitted precisely for new parents would sensibly make the transition experience something to look forward to, and maybe cause it to be even more profound. Whether its adopting or adapting to the relevant tech tools for the child or caregiver’s benefit, the following apps are primarily to lighten the caregiver’s load and ultimately ensure that the caregiver can be more sharply attuned to the complex process of attending to their child’s ever-changing needs.
1) WebMD Baby
This free app serves up a formidable health and medical information reserve for the well-prepared new parents. With close to five hundred articles and videos combined, including hundreds of tips from paediatricians, this app would quell frazzled parents to some degree.
In addition, this well-developed app includes feature tools which thoughtfully aid the parents, such as the Sleep Tracker, Feeding Tracker, Growth Tracker; and a potentially addictive baby book which lets the enthusiastic parent keep on top of things with a virtual book made up of digital media of their baby’s ‘firsts’.
2) Baby Log Lite
If you haven’t already done so, literally keep your baby’s activities and habits organised neatly into a tracking database programme like Baby Log Lite.
The more you use the app to record your little tot’s feeding, sleeping, diaper changing, etc timings, the more accurate the app will be in drawing regular data patterns (in chart form or otherwise) and predicting activity timings. Tap on your child’s unique information storage when next visiting the doctor, or when passing on the essential established data to other caregivers.
3) My Baby Today
For newborn parents who think that some kind of order would make their lifestyle change easier to manage, they should go for the virtual planner in the form of the free My Baby Today app. Not just a tool which revolves around the child, the app holds some reserves of advice for parents on managing their own lifestyles, whether it be healthwise or otherwise. The app also helpfully offers customised schedules, flexible checklists and even activity suggestions, allowing users to appreciate their child-caring role and enjoy their experience from a broader point of view.
4) Babyphone
Convert your smartphone into a mini but functionally powerful baby monitor with this app. It comes with the option of tweaking the level of ‘sensitivity’, with lower levels only picking up on a baby’s cries, while the higher levels alerts the user if the baby so much as moves. Babyphone can automatically alert the parents when the baby awakes, by directly dialling a pre-installed phone number to ring the adult into the child’s room and attend to the restless child’s needs immediately.
5) Sleep aid tools
Tame a fitful infant to peaceful rest with an array of ambient sounds and music. The White Noise Baby app (costing $0.99 cents) offers the sounds of a conch shell, a car ride, a vacuum cleaner, classical music, and many more all on a perpetual loop. Set the app to “Baby Mode” to ensure that naps become blissfully uninterrupted time blocks. The app can even morph your phone into a convincing rattle toy for your restless tot.
The app “MagicSleep” doesn’t so much rely on magical properties as scientific ones. Its description on the app store comes with a ‘warning’ that says, “MagicSleep is extremely effective. DO NOT USE while driving or operating heavy machinery”. This app rings in some ‘sound science’ to produce a well-developed psychoacoustic sound (formulated minutely to mimic that of the inside of a womb), and induces a faster and deeper sleep for everyone.
6) PoopMD
Stool appearances are one of the main things parents are tangibly able to and will monitor for their newborn. Groups of colours could raise warning flags about the health condition of your child, or potential health issues that could arise. PoopMD includes a stool guide for a spectrum of colours, created by the John Hopkins Children’s Centre. In addition, this advanced app has a colour-recognition feature that allows users to match their stool photos immediately to the app’s database. Note that although the app is a handy tool to raise parents’ awareness of how to monitor their babies’ various health conditions, it is advised that a health professional should always be consulted for further diagnosis.
7) iHomeopathy
Most news parents would be pretty edgy when it comes to safely rearing their children pass the various monthly milestones, and to successfully make it through the first year trouble-free, and every year after that. By having a virtual first-aid app as part of their emergency contingency plan, it is guaranteed to take some load off a parent’s mind. iHomeopathy app addresses loads of childhood medical conditions, common petty ailments, and the appropriate home first-aid treatments. The first line of medical response is always the most crucial, and it would be prudent to have this valuable tool as an app at hand whenever you need it.
8) DadLabs
This unique video network website caters more for the fathers. DadLabs is made up of ‘How-To’ video guides and shared personal experiences by longtime fathers. In truth, whether you’re in the mother or father role, you can still look for kindred spirits here, as they pass on tips and encouragements daily on hot topic parenting issues.
9) High Contrast Patterns and Shapes
Have some fun training your ever-developing child’s vision while stimulating their mental capacities with this fascinatingly hypnotic app. It displays all kinds of shapes and colours which can keep the young ‘uns at bay for pockets of time, and even free up the caregivers to make use of these anticipated lull moments to complete their own day-to-day tasks.
10) Digital scrapbooking
Our list would most certainly not be complete without our mentioning the virtual scrapbook-y apps! If you find joy in working on your creative juices online, there’s the free BabyBook. Capture the growing moments and memories of your ever-developing child with pretty or artistic digital details, while building your online scrapbook. Babybook even has the giddy option of letting you physically produce your digital scrapbook to a hardbound book at year-end!
For a more seemingly ‘practical’ and ‘techie’ logbook of your child’s epic milestone moments, there’s iBearBaby where it allows you to log in all sorts of information and media, even sound recording, to your child’s profile. I don’t know about you, but the idea of steadily building or reliving my child’s or family members’ life moments in the palm of my hand, seems like a very welcomed source of entertainment or occupation.
