First-time parents Ryan Golinski and Kate Crawford splurged on a $300 wearable monitor called the Owlet Smart Sock before welcoming their son in early July. “I’m a worrier, so I began to look into products for when the baby is sleeping,” Golinski tells Us Weekly. “I can’t be standing over him 24 hours a day making sure he is breathing.”
The device, which is worn on the baby’s foot, tracks his tracks heart rate, oxygen level and body temperature. And it was worth every penny, according to the new dad.
In a Facebook post published Monday, August 7, Golinski opened up about a “very scary night” involving his 4-week-old son, Bryce. “Around 3 a.m. the sock started alarming us something was wrong, which we thought was a false alarm because it said his heart rate was reading 286,” the Philadelphia-based dad wrote. A healthy heart rate is 90 to 180 beats per minute.
Golinski and Crawford raced Bryce to the hospital where he was diagnosed with SVT (supraventricular tachycardia), an abnormally fast heart rate over more than 100 heartbeats a minute. SVT can lead to seizures, stroke and even death. “We caught it before any side effects,” Golinski wrote. “So everything is going well now and his heart is still extremely healthy.”
Golinski added that had it not been for the sock, “we could have been dealing with some a lot more serious.” New York City-based pediatrician Dr. Allison Ostrow agrees. “SVT can be fatal if not caught in time,” she tells Us. “Hopefully this baby’s condition can be controlled with medication. He might outgrow it or it may be an indication that something more serious is going on.”
It’s important to note that the Owlet does not prevent sudden infant death syndrome, but rather, lets parents know if their child is choking or suffocating. The American Academy of Pediatrics warns that cardiorespiratory monitors shouldn’t be used to prevent SIDS. Read their recommendations here.
Golinski hopes more parents will add the Owlet to their baby registry. “It saves lives,” he tells Us. “Spread the word.”
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