At what age do you ditch the monitor?

[NicolaSeven]

DD is 9months and the monitor is on the fritz, so I don't know what the temperature is in her room (theoretically, although 'bloody freezing' covers it at the moment ).

I can hear her if she cries, but now don't hear every whimper or grunt. At what age does the risk of SIDS stop being a concern? Should we invest in another monitor, at this age, even though she is almost certainly my last child?

[workingonitagain]

hi Daffyboobface

we have 2 monitors, ds1 is 3 and ds2 is 1. i have they 1yo's monitor off at night as i can hear him screaming but i have the 3yo on as he calls out when he needs a wee and he doesn't shout as he is half asleep and probably wouldn't hear it through the closed doors so we'll definitely have it on for a while and also once they are in bed (neither of them come out of their room and the doors are closed) we are downstairs and not sure if we'd hear them

[IWillOnlyEatBeans]

DS is 2.10. We use the monitor during the evening when we are downstairs with music/the TV on, otherwise I'd not be able to hear him if something was wrong (he doesn't get out of bed once he's in there, so would never come downstairs to get our attention).

Once we go upstairs to bed we switch it off as he is in the room next door and I can hear every cough/wimper without it...

[NicolaSeven]

Thanks for the responses. Food for thought. May see if I can pick up a new one on eBay then.

[Eggsbon]

We ditched ours around the 9 month stage - his monitor buzzed really annoyingly, so we probably got rid of it a lot sooner than we would do otherwise. We always leave the lounge door and the bedroom door open and can hear him if he crys or is even just chattering to himself. I think it depends on your house, if you have a little two up, two down like ours there is no need for one...if you live in a bigger house, probably best to stay on the safe side and leave it there until they are old enough to get out of bed and tell you there's a problem.

[ZuleikaD]

Well, a monitor isn't for preventing SIDS, so that's not relevant, and you can tell what the temperature is in her room just by going in there (it's unlikely to be too hot, which is where the risk is). I wouldn't bother buying another - if you can hear her when she cries then you're fine.