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Parenting is difficult. In my case, this feeling is especially true when I try to make my four-month-old son sleep, his toddler.
He literally wakes up every 30 minutes at bedtime, which means that the three adults at home – my mother, my husband and I – take turns rocking this 9-kg boy, rock lullabies or help him move to fall asleep.
We tried different tips, including using various types of lollipops, washing before going to bed, playing various kinds of relaxing music, and even letting him cry.
But every time we tried to put him back to bed when he seemed to be sleeping, he moaned and made all kinds of noises to get us back to attention.
Tired and sleepless, I decided to use technology to get help, as would any new mom in the 21st century.
My online research has led me to discover the existence of baby sleep coaching apps, such as nod, huckleberry and Baby hatches. All of these tools are designed to monitor a baby's sleep patterns and use artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to provide users with personalized recommendations in real time.
Having written about the latest advancements in AI, my hopes of finding a high-tech solution to help solve my baby's problems at sunset were high.
I remember the Chinese master of Go abstract strategy game, claiming in 2016 that no computer could ever surpass it. A year later, Ke Jie was in tears after being beaten by AlphaGo, the program developed by Alphabet, DeepMind Technologies, in three consecutive games.
nod, the application I chose, uses machine learning technology to track and analyze the baby's sleep and feeding activities. Machine Learning, a branch of AI, offers systems the ability to use data and algorithms to improve the performance of a specific task.
After downloading the application on my smartphone, I said proudly: "I found a cure! We are saved! "
My mother, who is 60 years old, was not impressed. "How can an application be useful?" She asked. "Every baby is different!"
His reaction did not diminish my self-confidence because I did my homework. the nod The application was not just one of the finalists of the "Best of Baby Tech Awards" at this year's CES show in Las Vegas, its premium edition, to which I was subscribed for 35 yuan (RM21) per month, includes priority support, advanced information and graphics, and daily recommendations validated by pediatric sleep experts.
To begin, I entered some basic information in the app, such as my baby's name, birthday, and gender. Every day, over the last two weeks, I regularly recorded my son's sleep and the difficulty of putting him to bed on a 11-degree sliding scale – from the happy baby's face to the crying baby's face. The application also allowed me to write in more detail, such as where my son bit me before I fell asleep.
For several days, there was no feedback based on the data I provided. All I have received is an automated notice: "We will send you the next recommendation when we are ready."
This has prompted me to provide more data to the application in the hope that the system will get a clearer picture of my son's sleep problem. So I went into my son's meal as well.
the nod the application requires detailed information. Did I go to bottle or breastfeed? Was it the left breast or the right breast? How long? You must record the timing to the nearest second.
It also asks for the exact amount of milk consumed in ounces, which is a unit of measurement that is not used on the continent. So I have to convert my milliliter data to ounces every time I enter them. Babies of my son's age must be fed at least six times a day, so there is a lot of data to record.
Then the truth finally turned on me. This app, which is supposed to help ease the stress that I have to raise a child, has made things more stressful. The task of recording accurate data about my child's sleep and feeding activities nod The application has been tedious not only for me, but also for my mother who takes care of my son the day I'm at work. We have become more sleep deprived than previously because of all the data that must be saved in the application.
Still, I was not ready to give up the AI until I received the first recommendation from nod A few days ago. He said that I had to reduce my son's diet during the night, which seemed to be more of a suggestion than a real solution. So, weeks after starting to use the nod app, I feel like I'm back to square one.
Things are not so bad though. Since we have been watching my son's sleep closely and writing lots of notes, we realized that he slept faster at night after being more active during the day, for example by hitting toys and passing a nap of quality.
the nod App, which illustrates in several diagrams the sleeping habits of my son, estimated that he slept on average 13 hours and 20 minutes over seven days. This has improved compared to the average of 13 hours and three minutes during the first week of use of the application. These figures, however, were still below the 13-hour average and 40-minute average.
So I boasted to my mom about the data and the progress made with nod. She sneered, saying that it was not done by technology but by maternal instinct.
Although I do not recognize that my mother is right, I will probably cancel my bonus nod subscription and go with the free version of the application. I can still use it as a fancy digital diary for my baby's data. – Morning of South China
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