Battery life: According to Which?, the average battery life for an audio monitor is 13.5 hours, while a video monitor's is just seven. Think about how long you'd need the battery to last as most baby monitors will need recharging daily. Some video monitors allow you to connect additional cameras, meaning you can keep an eye on children in different bedrooms. This is particularly useful for larger families. Others have in-built movement sensors that alert you when your child is unsettled or awake. 3. Baby movement monitor To help you make an informed decision, we rigorously test baby monitors on an ongoing basis. Our parent testers try out the monitors at home with their own children, in real-life conditions. We score each model based on a number of factors including video quality, ease of set-up, connection and design. We also consulted experts from The Lullaby Trust and spend hours combing the Mumsnet forums to see which baby monitors are recommended as best buys and which come with words of warning according to the UK's biggest network of parents. WiFi monitors use a wireless internet connection to sync the baby unit to your phone. This means that you can say goodnight to your baby while you’re at work or watch them as well as talk about them on date night (just us?). Although the sensitivity setting can be adjusted to avoid false alarms, some parents can find this type of monitor more anxiety-inducing than reassuring. 4. WiFi baby monitor

To draw up our carefully selected recommendations list, we scored each baby monitor out of 45 based on eight main testing categories: A HD colour screen and night vision (so that you see your baby in the dark) often come as standard, with some models also including remote control camera functions that let you zoom, tilt and pan (useful for spotting where your baby has wriggled to in the cot) and record footage (useful to confirm that your babysitter meant it when they said your toddler had behaved angelically). To help you find the very best products we commissioned Cat Hufton, a writer and mum of two, to research and review the top baby monitors out there.The app offers two-way talk, sound and movement notifications, and temperature and humidity information, as well as breathing measurements when you use the Nanit swaddle or wearable breathing band. Both of these need to be bought separately or as part of a larger bundle. Then each morning the app also provides baby's sleep stats and creates a time-lapse highlight reel of their sleep. Of course, not everyone wants this kind of detail but you can’t fault this monitor for its technology. If you’re reassured by stats and analytics, it’s worth spending the extra money or keeping an eye out for a deal. As well as our independent testing, 28 Mumsnet users took part in a product test of Nanit's Pro Smart Baby Monitor. 89% said they would recommend it to a friend or family member. Here's our in-depth Nanit Pro Review. Transparency is really important to us and that's why we're always upfront about how we tested the products we recommend. We won't always recommend the cheapest products, or the ones with the most extra features. We write about products that we feel offer the best value to most parents – the ones we'd recommend to our own friends and family. Camera and video quality: Not all monitors are created equal when it comes to video quality, so be sure to compare and contrast models to find the best in your budget. Look at whether the monitor has decent night vision as well as day vision, and whether the lens offers a bird's-eye, 360-degree view of your baby's room.

Some WiFi monitors let you save clips, hook up to Alexa or Google Assistant and come with Cloud storage too. Catherine Hufton is an experienced freelance lifestyle journalist and writer based in London. She writes for a wide range of national titles and specialises in fashion, beauty and parenting. She also creates a weekly newsletter called The Freelance Parent. How we chose the products to test Power supply: All monitors need some kind of power source such as mains-powered or battery-operated/wireless. Think about what will work best for your home set up and also how long the battery lasts when not on charge. Video monitors will usually need to be plugged in constantly, so consider where yours is mounted so as to keep any wires safely away from your baby's cot. Ease of use: If other caregivers will be looking after your baby, consider if they will be able to use it easily. Will you require remote access and additional cameras? Audio quality: You need to be able to hear your baby clearly while they are in a different room, so the sound quality of your chosen monitor must be high enough to meet your needs. Look for a decent volume range and a monitor that promises no signal interference or lagging.She then drew up a final shortlist of 12 baby monitors and got to work testing them all over a three-month period when her youngest son was just six months old. How we tested