My partner just hit her third trimester and we are getting everything ready for when our first baby arrives. When our baby arrives we want to use one of those baby tracking apps that allow you to log when the baby was fed, when they pooped etc. I want to make sure whatever my partner and I use doesn’t sell our data.
We will need something that we both can use on our own phones and want it simple and easy to use. What did everyone use? Did you like it? Did it feel useful and safe?
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Huckleberry. Is it safe, no idea. But it requires minimal permissions and you can name the baby whatever you want so there’s that 🫥
Also used huckleberry, didn’t find it until after the baby was here but in my sleep addled state it seemed to be decenly private. Syncs well across iPhone/android too.
Well I think I’ll try it out. As long as you aren’t getting tons of weird ads now it would be fine
They have their own ads that you are forced to see, but if you don’t mind the routine of exiting out or buying the subscription it’s fine. We put a generic baby name, a fake birthday, used a spam email etc. and we never bought any of the stuff they were trying to sell. I recommend trying it because it was pretty user friendly and you could modify the tasks very easily.
I would also check out contraction timers or something for you to track them. It was super nice to have when riding to the hospital and before getting hooked up to all the monitors.
And hey! Congrats to the future parents!
I would also check out contraction timers or something for you to track them. It was super nice to have when riding to the hospital and before getting hooked up to all the monitors.
This is a great idea. Do you have a specific one? I see one on The Bump website. I assume that is super simple to use and find one
Minimal permissions is what I was looking for
There’s really no need for a specialized app. My partner and I would just message each other with “pee” or “poop” for diaper changes and the quantity of milk when feeding. Messages are automatically time-stamped.
Not a bad idea. Just get a little messy
I’d actually advise a low tech solution here. You can buy paper agendas designed for exactly this sort of thing, and we used one for my daughter.
There’s some benefits:
- it’s always where you need it, because it’ll always live beside the changing pad/table
- if there’s a “guest diaper changer”, they can use it
- if you’re tracking a late night feeding or change, you can scribble in the data without getting blasted by your phone backlight
- it’s a physical memento from that time you can flip through later
The cons include needing to look somewhere else for the time, which means checking your phone or a wall clock since that paper ain’t gonna tell you.
If you do go the app route, look into the accessibility settings on your phone to help with glaring backlight. On iOS, you can map the Siri button to apply a different black point, which basically toggles to a much darker backlight than you’d normally get.
Now, whenever I’m lurking around the kid while she’s sleeping, I just triple-tap that button and it dims my backlight to something that won’t disturb her.
Good idea about the reducing light. I use android so I will have to find the setting to reduce light.
I might get a paper agenda and an app.
My “nanopremie” daughter needed a lot coming home from NICU: medications, refilling oxygen tanks, nebulizer, plus the usual bottles and poop tracking, plus we have a dog who can’t be forgotten, etc.
I felt like half my time was spent standing in the kitchen wondering what I should do next. I ended up going old school, printing a checklist, grouped with different colors for things at different times of day and a column for each day of the week. Once I had a list that worked for me, I had it printed on card stock and laminated it, so I could use a dry erase marker to reuse it and have a rolling log of things like baths and poops.
That said, don’t fret too much about tracking that stuff. Of all the things that have advanced infant survival, health, and wellness, apps are definitely not a major driver. If it helps your sanity, fine, but also don’t get too focused on things you think will help your sanity… If that makes sense.
My wife loves to track things and is a little anxious. I think we will get one and likely not use it all the time or use it constantly.
I like the old school checklist but it is a little difficult on the go. But I know we will print somethings off at some point.
Froid has LunaTracker. It says you can sync via WebDAV (e.g. Nextcloud or others).
I haven’t used it so can’t vouch for it but it looks nice and simple to use.
I think LunaTracker is made for tracking periods. A little early for that for our baby girl…
Not the one I was looking at: https://f-droid.org/packages/it.danieleverducci.lunatracker/
I do see with a web search there is a period tracker with the same name. Confusing!
Interesting. All the good names are duplicated I guess.
Years ago now I used “feed baby”, it worked between us both, and let us know when things happened. Also tracked weight and height if you entered it in. No idea how secure though.
Edit: I’d like to add that because of how it syncs, I could see when the baby was sleeping while I was at work. It let me feel connected.
That is nice. I work from home so I don’t think being connected will be a problem while I am working. I will look into feed baby it seems to still be around.
