Product Review: Best App to Track Your Baby

So I recently joined the 21st century, and got a "smarty" phone when I re-upped my cell phone contract.  An HTC Sensation, since you asked.  I don't know how I went so long without one.  My phone is probably more powerful than my grad school laptop I'm using to write this post.  Part of what makes smarty phones so smart is the apps or applications.

My wife and I had previously tried in vain to keep track of all of our son Clark's "achievements." By achievement I mean poops, pees, feedings, naps, weight, etc.  I'd say about half of his"achievements" were never logged.  Anything that happened in the dead of night was immediately forgotten to time.  Once I finally got a smarty phone, I figured there must be an "(Android) App for that."  I started with an app to track his sleeping, then moved on to trying out more comprehensive baby tracking apps.  Here is my assessment/review of the apps available.

Baby Care:

Baby Care is a perfectly fine free program.  It beats paper and pen by a mile. "This software is freeware (ad supported), and developed by a newborn parent and his team(LuckyXmobile)."

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Pros: Unlike the other apps on this page, Baby Care gives you the ability to directly input specific feeding types (nursing - left and/or right, bottle, and solids - cereal, fruit, vegetables, meat.  There is the ability to track your child's vaccinations, but most likely you'll only use that feature once every two months or longer. The baby journal allows you to record voice and written records, as well as add pictures.  The stats page is attractive and the charts (bar charts) are easy to read. Reminders work well.

Cons: Unfortunately, there is no feature to sync multiple phones.  Adding events that occurred on a previous date is more complicated than it should be. The basic user interface could be more intuitive and friendly.  When you add an achievement, the start and stop are separated requiring extra steps.

Baby Day Chart Lite:

I wish I could tell you more about Baby Day Chart Lite, but after checking out only  a few of the features, the "Lite" version of the app told me I was out of "stars."  I would need to post a comment or picture of my child to Facebook to earn more "stars" allowing my continued access to the "Lite" version of the app, that is unless I chose to buy the paid version.  BDCL missed a chance to showcase their app.

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Pros: (that I could see): You can share your baby tracking data on Facebook.  Of course all your friends want to know how often lil Bobby pooped yesterday.  There is also a running tab on the main page of the number of diaper changes, naps, and feedings. Admittedly, the GUI (graphic user interface) is very cute.

Cons: As mentioned above, you are forced to post to FaceBook to continual your trial. I didn't get to try all the features (its already a lite versions), so I can't say my review is comprehensive. 

Baby Sleep Tracker:

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This program is pretty simple and not very useful, though it could be.  The interface give you two buttons: "Fell Asleep" and "Woke up." You can't put in any missed or previous data.  You can't change the time if you forgot to hit "Wake up" because you were distracted.  The other feature is a chart of your baby's sleep patterns.  This is where the app could be useful.  However, the chart is hard to read on a smarty phone screen, even a large one.  So you're not really sure what the charts are trying to tell you.  Is there a pattern to naps and sleep?  Who knows?

iBaby:

No, it's not from Apple (yet!), so don't get too excited. It's from Appest.com.

Much like Baby Care, this is a good free app.  The GUI is very colorful and friendly and easy to use.  It seems to work quite well.

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Pros: I liked the slider to input volumes and amounts (e.g., milk, formula, etc.). You can add voice recordings, written posts, and pictures to the baby diary. You can personalize the display, choosing what tabs are on the screen bar.  You can view your data by date or by type.

Con: iBaby may be the only app that separates entering poops and pees. The two often go together, thus requiring an extra step to log both for a soiled and wet diaper change.  I don't quite know why there is a weather forecast in the corner. Unlike the other apps on this page, iBaby scrolls vertically from day to day.  There are no charts.  The GUI is awkward when it comes to adding an event, you have to enter the start and ending separately even if the event has already occurred.

 

Baby ESP:

Baby ESP is the only paid app on this page and the only in it's category that is worth paying for (in my opinion). I downloaded the trial version and upgraded to the paid version before the day was half through.  The app is great if you are looking to keep track of your infant's activities.

The best feature of all is the ability to sync between multiple phones.  My wife had long ago grown tired of me asking her how long ago did Clark eat, or poop, or sleep?  Now, I just have to look at my phone, whether I've been taking care of the baby all day or my wife has. You can even have multiple profiles for multiple children and for tracking mommy's activities.

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Pros: The multi-phone sync feature is the biggest selling point along with the "Night Mode (dimmed red light instead of your phones usual bright light)" for sleepy eyes.  These two features put this app head and shoulders above the rest, as well as worthy of actually paying for (twice - once for each phone in the family).

The stats summarize each day's activity for comparison against other days or weeks. There is the ability to add addition options to the "Other" and "Medicine" categories.  The journal is a nice feature and allows you to add a picture a day.  ESP was the only app that allowed for a profile for mom to track her vital stats - pumping, any medications, sleeping, her own journal (w/ picture) and more. This app had the nicest interface for adding baby's daily activities.

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Cons: There is no ability to add voice recording to the daily journal.  The charts are hard to read (point/line graphs). The charts and stats don't aid in discerning patterns, like  when baby naturally naps or gets hungry.  The reminders don't seem to work very well either.  Lastly, there is no way to add solid food feeding for tracking.

Baby ESP is the best of the apps in this category by far.  You'll know this when you go to use it in the middle of the night and you're not blinded by the light.  However, it is a paid app.  The best of the free apps is Baby Care with iBaby a distant second.  I'd say avoid the others mentioned above, pretend I never mentioned them.

     - Clark's Dad