While you were sleeping: The baby sock that monitors your child's breathing, giving anxious parents peace of mind

Most new parents have spent sleepless nights, worrying whether their child is breathing properly while tucked up in their cots. But a new device may help parents rest easier while their baby sleeps, and keep their little one's feet warm at the same time. A team from Brigham University, Utah, have created a sock-like baby monitor which straps around an infant’s foot and uses pulse oximetry to monitor the heart rate and blood-oxygen levels.

A team has created a baby monitor sock which straps around a baby's foot to reassure worried parents

If the child stops breathing or has a significant change in heart rate the monitor will notify parents by alerting them on their smart phone. Jacob Colvin and his five colleagues hope the device, which is completely wireless and uses safe, non-invasive technology, will reduce the annual cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which sees at least 300 babies die suddenly and unexpectedly in the UK every year.

If the infant stops breathing or has a significant change in heart rate the monitor will notify parents by alerting them on their smart phone

The inventors hope it will reduce the annual cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which number around 2,500 in the United States and 300 each year

Mr Colvin, himself a father of two, said: 'Our hope is that we can give parents time to react and see that something’s wrong before it’s too late.' It joins a host of other high tech gadgets for new and expecting - and anxious - parents.  This week Japanese inventors devised a way to transform the commonplace ultrasound scan into an anatomically correct resin replica of a foetus for parents to handle and keep as a memento. The nine-centimetre (3.6-inch) resin model of the white foetus, encased in a transparent block in the shape of the mother's body, is fashioned by a 3D printer. Student Colvin and his team recently debuted a prototype of their Owlet Baby Monitor at the third annual Student Innovator of the Year competition. They won both first place and crowd favorite awards, with cash prizes totaling $6,000.

Daily Mail UK