About.com Rating



The ItzBeen baby care timer is basically a set of four timers built into one unit. It's designed to help frazzled new parents keep track of how long it's been since baby's last diaper, feeding, or nap when the sleep-deprived brain can't quite keep up with that sort of tracking. For parents who want a quick way to track these things, the ItzBeen baby care timer does the job adequately. It has a few drawbacks to be aware of, though.

ItzBeen Baby Care Timer Features

The plastic ItzBeen timer unit is about the size of the palm of your hand, and has the timer interface on the front and a belt clip on the back. The main part of the front is the four timers, for diapers, feedings, naps and a bonus timer for whatever else you need to track (c-section pain meds, baby Tylenol if necessary, time until you can dig into the stash of M&Ms in your desk). Each timer has a 24 hour maximum. There's also a clock below the timers.

A small button below the timers lights up the entire unit for a few seconds so you can check the timers in the dark. At the top, there's a second nightlight button that illuminates just the very top "ItzBeen" logo like a flashlight. At the bottom of the timer section is a switch for nursing moms to keep track of whether the last feeding was on the left or right.

Each timer can be set as an alarm, as well. There is a lock switch on the side so that the buttons won't reset the timers if you slip the unit in your pocket or diaper bag.

Another side switch turns off the sound, in case you forget to turn off the alarm and don't want to disrupt a much needed naptime.

What I Like About the ItzBeen Baby Care Timer

There are scores of new parents who really love the ItzBeen timer. It provides a bit of convenience at a sleep-deprived time when even the most ordinary tasks seem very hard. While it seems silly to spend money on simple timers, when you're in that newborn whirlwind, it may very well be worth it.

I like the shape of the unit, because it seems to fit nicely in my hand and isn't awkward to hold while pushing the timer buttons. It's nice that you can use the clip on the back to wear the unit around the house, too. The whole thing has an attractive look to it and is pretty easy to figure out for the basic functions. I had to read the directions to learn how to set the alarms and the clock, but beyond that, it's fairly self-explanatory. Just push the button that corresponds to the function you want to time, and the timer starts counting. Push it again and it resets.

The bonus timer is nice, since often there are other random things you'd like to keep track of. Very handy if baby gets the sniffles and you need to monitor dosage times.

I particularly like the switch to help nursing moms remember which side they nursed on last. When you're tired, that can be very hard to remember.

If you can carry the ItzBeen baby care timer with your baby so you'll remember to push the timer buttons, this is certainly easier than writing everything down. Plus, unlike a notebook, you won't have to turn on the room light at 3 a.m. to log a feeding.

You could re-use the ItzBeen baby care timer after your baby is older to time other things, such as medication schedules or time-outs.

What I Don't Like About the ItzBeen Baby Care Timer

The plastic timer unit feels a bit cheap, and some parents complain that it breaks easily. The digital screen on the review unit I tested was shifted just slightly to the right, so the last segment of the numbers on the far right isn't visible. This isn't a huge problem, but it is annoying. Some parents have complained that segments of numbers don't work and they've had to return their ItzBeen timers for new units.

One advantage a notebook has over the ItzBeen timer is that you can also track things over time, and make notes about how much your baby has eaten or whether diapers were wet or dirty. Being able to have a nap history would be very helpful to new parents in trying to determine their baby's natural nap schedule. Once you reset the timer on the ItzBeen unit, that's it, there is no option to save data in any form.

A few parents report that the batteries on their ItzBeen timers run out quickly. Others say that the unit resets itself sometimes and eventually stops working. The review unit I've tested has not had those problems.

I've also heard from some parents who say the ItzBeen timer broke after falling on the floor once. I had fumble-fingers as a new mom, so I can understand the need for a durable product. When I dropped the review unit onto my tile floor, it didn't break, but the battery cover popped off and the batteries flew out, which meant I had to reset the clock and lost the timer counts.

Should You Buy an ItzBeen Baby Care Timer?

There are a lot of parents who really like this product for keeping track of their baby's needs in the first months of life. The people who are happy with the ItzBeen baby care timer seem to far outweigh those who have had quality issues with it.

This product costs about $25, which isn't bad for something in the parenting gadget realm. The relatively low cost makes me feel better about the somewhat limited useful life, and the potential quality problems.

If you have room in your budget for an extra $25 for convenience in tracking diapers, feedings and naps, you'll likely be quite happy with this product. If you want to keep long-term data on your baby's schedule, it may be just as easy to record it on a notebook or computer program.

ItzBeen Baby Care Timer Review Update

About a month after I last used the Itzbeen timer, I pulled it out of a drawer to show a friend who is expecting a baby in a few months. The timer displays were faded and really hard to see. I figured it was ready for a battery change, so I reloaded it with a fresh batch. It looked a little better for a while, but the numbers soon faded again. Whether that's a result of the ItzBeen timer being dropped once, or just something that might happen to some of these units, I don't know.
I think this product will likely last at least through the first few exhausted months, when you need it the most. Beyond that, it may not hold up.