We only had a few false alarms with the Snuza. The worst one was in the car. Iris breathes very shallowly so it was hard sometimes for the Snuza to pick it up. Mostly, the false alarms were due to it not being very tight against her diaper.

You can clean it with a baby wipe.

Size is very small and it is very lightweight. I's say it's about the size of a cracker.

We didn't have to change the batteries. Well, we did after two months but then realized that it jsut wasn't working properly. They replaced it for free.

The little guy is loud. You'll probably be able to hear it if you're in a deep sleep.

For us, it did go off a few times when she had a seizure. I did CPR on her because she stopped breathing. In a true SIDS case, chances are you wouldn't be able to do anything. Most research shows that the breathing is actually the last thing that happens-they are brain dead before the breathing stops. Still, it might help you get some peace of mind. For me, I would rather be there as it was happening then afterwards. I didn't want to wake up and find my infant gone again.

I prefer the Snuza to the Angelcare because I could use it in the swing, car, and other surfaces since it attached to the diaper.

We had the snuza, angel care, and hospital grade apnea monitor. I wasn't crazy about the Snuza. I didn't want to keep it on her all the time because I worried it would be uncomfortable with the little sensor constantly sticking her in the belly so when she would fall asleep and the snuza wasn't on her, I was trying to get it on the diaper without waking her. I wasn't very successful at that. I would either wake her up trying to get it on or not get it on the diaper right and the thing would go off. Like you, I liked the idea of the snuza because it was portable but it just didn't work for us. We use the apnea monitor at night and had no problems at all. I know other parents tried them and hated the apnea monitor because of false alarms. We never had false alarms. After 6 months we switched to the angel care double pad monitor and it worked like a charm too.
I was a monitor freak when I was pregnant, like over the top. But once she got here, I actually was much more relaxed than I thought I would be. I guess after what we have been through, we learn that some things are just out of our control. Even when we do everything right, there are no guarentees. Good luck!

I love love love the snuza! It was by far the best thing for our family to use bc he could wear it all day long. Matthew never would sleep in his crib and the bassinet we had wasn't flat so we could never use the angelcare monitor with him. This just clipped to his diaper and he'd wear it all day long for the first 6 months or so. Then around 8 or 9 months if I didn't have a onesie on him he'd take it off and throw it. So we cut back to using it just for sleeping. I still have him wear it at night. Though he is getting old. It just keeps my anxiety at bay so I can sleep at night. The only time we'd have a false alarm is if it fell off of his diaper. It worked perfectly for our needs.

I bought the snuza...but I really only used it like one time. It actually did the opposite of me and made me more paranoid. I also found that it weighed Harrison down and he peed out his diaper. I am more like Brandy as well...when he got here I felt more relaxed...I can send you my snuza...it was seriously used one time. Email me if you are interested.

Armom, what kind of Snuza do you have? Because mine literally weighs 2 ounces. I can barely feel it when I hold it in my mind. Is there more than one kind maybe? Have they gotten better?

There are more then one kind of snuza. The new one is the Halo I believe, It vibrates to stim the baby after a set number of no breaths which you can set. I am a monitor freak. I have really bad anziety and dont think I could breath with out one. We have the halo snuza, hospital cardiac monitor and the angel care monitor. Our rainbow is now 5 months and we are just now taking him off the hospital monitor when he is awake. I still freak out from time to time even with the monitor on but it does ease my mind alot. We played around with the snuza a bit but dont use it a lot seeing he already is on the cardiac/apnia monitor. We plan on using the snuza when our insurance stops paying for the hospital one. We don't get false alarms often and when we do its normally because the belt that holds the leads got loose. He does have a lot of low heart rates when he is sleeping but the doctor keeps telling me that is normal so I can see why some doctors dont give parents the hospital grade monitors. They can cause some added stress, wont change any outcome (false security) and are hard to part with. I feel like I would keep my son on it until he is 5 or 6 if I could and thats just irrational I know. The snuza is pretty much the same thing only nice and very compact... maybe the size of a golf ball but the weight of a ping pong ball. It is pretty loud when it does alarm and if you have a baby monitor in the room and turn up the volume that will amplify it even more. Its about as loud as a smoke detector. Its easy to clean just wipe it off.

One reason I chose the hospital monitor over the snuza was because the snuza says its not accurate durring motion... like when the baby is in a swing, stroller or car and that didnt make me feel comfortable. And my son was in the NICU because he was 10 weeks preemie and i got use to seeing his o2 levels, h/r and respritory rate 24/7. It was hard for me just to go without the o2 sensor when he came home lol.

There are many things to consider and everyone is different. I say buy it and if you find you dont need it just return it but atleast this way you have it if you start getting anziety or panic attacks like I did. There are many extreams... some do just fine others dont. I try hard to have faith over fear but as you see it didnt work.

I realize this thread is nearly 1 year old, but wanted to set the record straight in case someone else stumbled upon it like I did.

In bledpub's post above, they stated "In a true SIDS case, chances are you wouldn't be able to do anything. Most research shows that the breathing is actually the last thing that happens-they are brain dead before the breathing stops."

I am a physician and can tell you that this statement is completely erroneous. The issue with SIDS is primarily immaturity of the pathways which stimulate breathing, heart beat, and rousing (stimulation). Thus, the primary problem is the cessation of breathing and heart beating, and brain death would only occur later as it starved for oxygen. While research suggests there are underlying problems with the brain that may cause this, the brain is by no means "dead".

The bottom line? If your Snuza goes off, you are NOT TOO LATE to save your baby. Try to rouse them, stimulate them, and do CPR if necessary. Do not assume the baby is already dead and you are helpless to do anything about it.