With the evolution of technology and the integration of smart phones into our everyday life, we have seen a huge increase in monitoring products for parents. If you can think of it – there IS an app for it. But now a new product has been debuted that may be too much – for the average parent.
New York-based startup Pixie Scientific, has raised half of their startup costs via Indiegogo to fund a smart diaper that is designed to read your child’s health data and a mobile app.
The diaper has a smart patch on the front that can be scanned by your smart phone before you discard it. At that point the algorithms will begin to analyze the data, looking for new trends or changes in your baby’s chemistry. The data they track can reveal signs of urinary tract infection, prolonged dehydration and developing kidney problems.
So how does it work?
Kidneys filter specific solutes from blood into urine. By taking useful data on these solutes, as well as by picking up on signs of bacterial activity from a wet Smart Diaper, we make use of something that would normally be thrown directly into the trash. Smart Diapers alert you to certain conditions that require immediate attention and also track your child’s health for months, automatically looking for emerging trends in multiple combinations of parameters. Some of the parameters that Smart Diapers track have no absolute “good range”, and it is the changes in those parameters that are meaningful.
Smart Diapers are not meant to report a daily number, but, rather, only speak up in those rare cases when you should contact your physician for follow-up testing.
Does the average parent need this product? Not likely. In the almost eight years I have been a parent we haven’t needed to visit the doctor for any of the issues diagnosed through this technology. But a parent who has a child with some health concerns may find this useful if the data is accurate.
The Smart Diaper designers note that,
Any child can get a urinary tract infection, though girls get them more often than boys. 7-8% of girls have it by the age of 24 months. Most UTI’s are not serious, but some can lead to chronic kidney infections which can cause permanent damage such as poor kidney function and high blood pressure later in life.
When symptoms are present, they can range from mild to severe, but, unfortunately, they are difficult to observe in children who wear diapers. UTI symptoms can include fever, pain or burning during urination with frequent discharge of a few drops of urine at a time, irritability, not eating and nausea.
I think as parents we have started to over think and over analyze what is happening with our children. This is just another product that feeds into that. It plays into the first time parent fear that most new moms and dads get. Do you agree?
If you are looking for more information on Smart Diapers please visit their page on Indiegogo
