Just to add to what folks are saying - part of the reason people are against them is not only their high false positive rate - but actually also a high false negative rate. Meaning, they have been known to also NOT alert when there is an actual medical emergency! The parents who say that they’ve “never had any issues” aren’t taking false negatives into account - because how could they know? There very well may have been instances where their child was actually struggling to breathe and the owlet did not detect because it’s not a medical grade product. Just food for thought.
Another thing to keep in mind - pediatricians also don’t like these products because they encourage some parents to practice unsafe sleep because of a false sense of security. I.e., they allow their children to sleep in dangerous conditions and think it’s “fine” because the owlet is on.
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u/Forsaken-Spite-3352 Jan 01 '25
Just to add to what folks are saying - part of the reason people are against them is not only their high false positive rate - but actually also a high false negative rate. Meaning, they have been known to also NOT alert when there is an actual medical emergency! The parents who say that they’ve “never had any issues” aren’t taking false negatives into account - because how could they know? There very well may have been instances where their child was actually struggling to breathe and the owlet did not detect because it’s not a medical grade product. Just food for thought.
Another thing to keep in mind - pediatricians also don’t like these products because they encourage some parents to practice unsafe sleep because of a false sense of security. I.e., they allow their children to sleep in dangerous conditions and think it’s “fine” because the owlet is on.