Why is your baby crying? Your iPhone can tell you
Taking care of a baby can be difficult. I don’t know this first hand since by no means am I ready to be a Dad, but it can be tough.
I have heard the horror stories of early-morning wake ups, diaper changing and constant crying for no apparent reason. Since babies don’t know how to talk it can be challenging to figure out what is wrong and why they are crying.
In an attempt to remedy this challenge, a company has created an iPhone application that is supposedly able to translate your baby’s cries and then offer you a list of remedies to help stop the crying.
No, I am not joking.
Biloop Technologic S.L., a Barcelona-based company, created the application based on several studies. The company boasts a 96-percent success rate when the given remedy was applied to the crying baby. That number is shockingly high.
From the outside looking in, I see this as sort of pathetic. Parents should be able to find out what is wrong with their baby without an iPhone application. It is part of your job as a parent to figure it out on your own and not let some device do it for you.
If you have ever babysat or looked after someone else’s child, the Mom or Dad will always leave you with a few tips. For example, if he starts to get cranky around 5 p.m. it’s because he’s hungry, or don’t let her take a nap at 6 p.m., otherwise she’ll never go to bed later. These are things you learn as a parent by paying attention to your baby.
Since I can’t vouch for the frustration of trying to figure out how to make your baby stop crying because I am not a parent, I guess I will keep an open mind on this new technology. If it really works, which I seriously doubt, it would keep the baby happy and not crying for long periods of time.
The application promises to identify five distinct cries made by babies and then offer a remedy to the crying. According to the research linked to the application, the five emotional states that trigger crying are hunger, fatigue, annoyance, stress and boredom.
The application is supposed to tell you if the baby needs food, needs a diaper change, wants a toy or pacifier or wants to go to sleep.
The application is currently available for download on the Apple App Store for $9.99, but on Wednesday the price goes up to $29.99. The application has other features, too like a place to store emergency contact numbers such as the baby’s doctor’s phone number.
The concept is interesting if it actually works, but how can we know for sure that the baby stopped crying because the application works or just because the baby was happy with whatever you put in front of them?
The late-night comedy show on NBC “Saturday Night Live” included a joke on the new iPhone application during its Weekend Update segment. The joke said that the reason your baby is crying is because it wants you to put down the iPhone.
The joke has some merit. It seems like technology does a lot of parenting for us these days. Video games, TV and movies keep kids occupied and, unfortunately, the days of playing outside with your kids is fading a little. Now, by adding an iPhone application into parenting, we are opening up an entirely new door. It makes you wonder what else will be out there in the future.
Alex Kreitman's Blog 
Haha this is awesome. I wish there was an app to tell me how to respond to women’s questioning.