Last week my esteemed colleague Bernd Eckenfels became a father for the second time – congratulations Bernd!
Now whilst they say second time around is easier, we still thought you might appreciate a few pointers from some of the latest gadgets from CES 2015. They have moved on significantly since the days when I returned from paternity leave myself not so long ago, contemplating the virtues of automated M2M connected nappies.
1. Make sure baby doesn’t get colic – with help from Baby Glgl– the Bluetooth-enabled bottle which enables 
parents to prevent babies from gulping in too much air when they drink, which can lead to colic and indigestion. It has LED indicators that let parents know when they need to adjust the angle of the bottle to reduce air bubbles. It also connects to a mobile app, so mum and dad can track how much, and how fast baby is drinking.
2. When baby cries – check his Smart Diaper to see what’s wrong. The diaper has a chip in it which can test for hydration, infection and even diabetes. All you do is scan the chip on the outside of the diaper with your smartphone for the data to be uploaded to cloud where you can see the results in a more digestible format. You can send these results to the doctor for a diagnosis.
3. If you’re worried baby feels hot – then you could try TempTraq, the first and only 24-hour intelligent 
thermometer that continuously senses, records and sends alerts of a child’s temperature to your mobile device. The stick-on sensor sits under their armpit and you can sit back and receive regular updates, rather than pacing back and forth with a traditional thermometer and waking them up every 5 minutes.
4. If you’re up at night worrying while baby sleeps – the Owlet connected sock monitors baby’s well-being
and alerts you when his or her vital signs are outside the norm. Hopefully giving you peace of mind and maybe even a full night’s sleep. No more need to constantly tip toe in and out of the baby’s room when you see everything from your phone – including heart rate, oxygen levels.
5. If you decide you want another…then Bloom is a high-tech way for women to monitor when they’re most fertile. A sensor, worn internally by the woman, continuously measures her core body temperature to detect changes that occur before ovulation, and then via Bluetooth, sends an alert to a requested smartphone when she’s most fertile.
As we’ve commented before, both the commercial opportunity and the potential for IoT innovation in all sectors is really exploding right now and parents are clearly a key target market, if the spread of announcements at CES is anything to go by. What’s the most ridiculous and more wonderful IoT babycare innovation you’ve seen? In the meantime, good luck Bernd and growing family!
