The Nanit Pro Baby Monitor Might Help Me Sleep When the Baby Does

The Nanit Pro offers an impressive array of functions as compared to the others on the market. First and foremost, it's a high-quality HD video monitor (1080 pixels, to be exact) that streams directly to your phone, so you have a clear view of your little one at all times. It also features two-way audio communication, allowing you to talk back to your babe in moments of wakefulness.

Beyond those basic (but important) functions, what makes the Nanit Pro really stand out is that it offers sleep tracking and guidance based on your baby’s unique sleep patterns. Over time, these insights can help you learn your little one’s sleep habits and figure out how to improve them.

Nanit also sells smart sheets that use the camera to measure your baby’s height and growth based on their body’s placement in relation to the patterns on the fabric—with no additional wearable required. The app will then automatically create a digital growth chart for your little one, and you can keep track of their progress. The same pattern technology is used for the Nanit breathing bands (more on this below).

Can a Smart Baby Monitor Prevent SIDS?

Every Nanit Pro now comes with a breathing band that your baby can wear while sleeping. The Nanit camera picks up on the pattern on the band to detect your baby’s breathing motion and send you alerts if need be. While having a smart device that monitors your baby’s breathing can provide a little comfort, easing the incessant impulse to check your baby, experts warn that they should not be relied upon entirely to prevent SIDS. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), there is no data showing that home cardiorespiratory monitors reduce the risk of SIDS, and parents should still take all the necessary precautions to prevent SIDS, such as keeping the sleeping space free of everything other than a tight-fitting sheet and always putting a baby to sleep on his or her back.

What Do You Need to Use a Nanit Pro?

To use the Nanit, you need an iPhone or Android device with Bluetooth because there is stand-alone monitor that comes with the device, only the app that connects to the camera. While you need Wi-Fi to set up the monitor, it can be used if the Wi-Fi goes out as long as your phone and the monitor are on the same network (similar to how Bluetooth works). The great news is that if your baby is at home and you're away, you can still watch them through your app.

When you buy your Nanit, you should also decide how you want to mount the camera. It comes with a standard wall mount. But you can also buy it with a smaller Flex Stand that sits on a table or dresser (for $250), or with a floor stand, if you want to position it away from a wall or other furniture (for $400).

The Nanit Pro comes with a breathing band, but you can purchase Nanit swaddles, sheets, sleep sacks, and extra bands, all with the print that enables the app to measure your baby's breathing.

Can the Nanit Pro Baby Monitor Be Hacked?

The important thing to know is that, theoretically, any smart baby monitor (or camera system, in general) can be hacked. However, Nanit has taken a number of safety precautions to ensure the security of their monitoring systems, including physical and digital security monitors that are continuously audited. The video data are encrypted, and the app requires two-factor authentication. It is also impossible to pull the video stream directly from the monitor itself, which adds an additional layer of safety.

Using the Nanit Pro

The video quality of the Nanit Pro really is fantastic, and I love having the ability to be able to stream the audio in the background of my phone while I’m doing other things. We also have the app set up on an iPad so that we cam watch our baby phone-free. The setup process was simple, and we found the instructions intuitive for both the monitor itself and the app. We haven’t yet mustered up the courage to leave the house without the baby yet, but I have a feeling when we do, the ability to monitor the baby remotely at home will be hugely beneficial. We can also share app permissions with the sitter, so that they can keep an eye on him from a personal device in another room.

While other monitors we looked into rely on electric sensors to track the baby’s sleep habits, we love that the Nanit Pro doesn’t require any wearable electronics to track our baby’s sleep, breathing, and growth. But the biggest benefit of the Nanit Pro is definitely morning sleep analysis, which includes a time-lapsed video of the baby’s nighttime activity that you can rewatch. This helps you learn your baby’s sleep patterns over time, make improvements, and also note the effect of any changes you make on your little one’s overall sleep quality and quantity. Something we used less frequently but still did find some benefit from is the sleep guidance offered through the app from pediatric sleep experts.

While the Nanit Pro has a lot of good, there were a few things I found myself wishing were slightly different. The first is that it doesn’t have a separate monitor. While it’s great to stream to your phone, we sometimes found ourselves wishing that we could just leave it up and running while using our phones for other things. Using a tablet was a good workaround for this, as was the ability to stream audio in the background of our phones, so it didn’t end up being a huge inconvenience, but it’s something to note if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like to be tied to your phone.

I also found myself getting a tad obsessive about the app’s sleep insights and data. At a certain point, I just had my partner look at the morning sleep analysis to tell me if there was anything I should be worried about. Otherwise I found myself spending an inordinate amount of time analyzing every detail. This might be a problem only for type-A, data-obsessed individuals like myself.

The wall mount that the basic package comes with is not very travel-friendly, but as mentioned earlier, Nanit does sell a floor stand and a multi-stand, which make it easy to take your Nanit with you on the go. The downside there is that it can get a little pricey once you start adding all the accessories. For what it’s worth, we love the floor stand for home use, especially since we started out using the monitor in our bedroom and then moved it to the nursery, and we didn’t want to install the wall mount twice.

Is the Nanit Pro Worth It?

My overall verdict is that, while pricier than many of the other baby monitors out there, the Nanit Pro Smart Baby Monitor is absolutely worth it for parents who want to gain a deeper understanding of their baby’s sleep patterns and have the opportunity to monitor breathing and growth without the use of any additional electronic sensors on their little one.

You get two days of storage of video and access to sleep insights for free for the first year, and you can pay for more on a monthly subscription model. That subscription is $10/month or $100/year for the premium plan, and $30/month or $300/year for the unlimited plan. Honestly, just having the two days worked just fine for our needs. After a year, you have to pay $5/month (or $50/year) for the sleep insights and two-day video storage. While it’s a reasonable cost, the point remains that there are a lot of possible add-ons with the Nanit. Even if you choose to use just the basic setup, you will still find a lot of value in the Nanit, and it should help your baby, and you, get a little extra sleep. And really, isn’t that priceless?