
Show HN: Baby Buddy - cdubzzz
https://github.com/cdubz/babybuddy
======
vnchr
Tracking bowel movements and feedings became a necessity for us as my son had
a couple digestion issues when he was born. Collecting data not only helped us
manage the situation better, but it was crucial for us to communicate the
symptoms to our doctors to get referred to the right specialist for the care
he needed. Thanks for sharing this.

~~~
moomin
Only if medical professionals actually pay attention to the data you’re
gathering. My first daughter had a horrible first few months of life due to an
undiagnosed tongue tie. The evidence was right there.

~~~
mholmes680
100% this. I showed my doc some stats once, and she looked a) annoyed; b)
surprised; c) disbelieving. All of which i was not expecting.

By the second child i was too tired to keep stats, so we winged it and the
docs and I happily acknowledge that ignorance is bliss (sarcasm, i think).

~~~
moomin
2nd child I got gaslighted again until I went to the _specific person_ who had
diagnosed it correctly the first time. And yeah, exactly the same problem
(different symptoms, but children are different). Turns out she’d been
disciplined after the first time for stepping out of lane.

(You’ll note, not for being wrong, the diagnosis got independently confirmed
both times.)

Medical professionals like and are used to being the unquestioned experts. But
you are always the expert of your own child (because, like I said before,
every child is different.)

------
planetjones
There’s an excellent app called BabyConnect that we used for this with our
daughter.

Of course eventually we (like most parents I believe) learned to relax and not
obsessively record sleep, feeds and nappies. My friends who have more than one
child said after the first they didn’t do any recording like this and instead
just let things take their natural course.

There is a market for this. But I can’t see anything doing a better job than
baby connect.

~~~
eli
Agreed on all points. Though in the early sleep-deprived months I did find it
useful to have a big, dashboard-style display. I built one with a userscript
on top of the Baby Connect web interface.

Our daughter had feeding issues and medicine that had to be administered in
certain intervals so it was really useful to see at a glance what was going
on.

The feature I really wanted was Alexa or Google Home integration for logging
events or checking times.

------
cmer
This is awesome!

Fun hack to make data entry easy: Use hacked Amazon Dash buttons for really
quick data entry. ie: press a button when feeding the baby, press another
button when changing diaper.

~~~
IgorPartola
Shameless plug:
[https://github.com/ipartola/amadash](https://github.com/ipartola/amadash)

This is a general purpose daemon I wrote that monitors an arbitrary number of
Dash buttons and does whatever you want when they are pressed.

~~~
lpasselin
Is there an alternative to dash buttons in Canada?

~~~
malingo
Single-button app on your phone:
[https://ifttt.com/do_button](https://ifttt.com/do_button)

------
zrail
This is the app I wish I had during my kiddo’s first few months. Thank you for
writing it. If we have another kid we’ll likely use it :)

We ended up using WebMD’s baby tracker which was definitely not ideal, but it
let my wife and I use both phones for data input.

------
Amorymeltzer
Looks fantastic! One thing I've noticed is that most existing baby-related
apps aren't very well designed. Most have plenty of good-enough features, but
there always seems to be a slapdash effort that sleep-deprived parents will
commit to and never look back from. This is a real nice departure from that,
great to see the effort.

One suggestion would be to add an import option, for those of us who already
have some data.

My wife isn't CL-user, so this isn't for us. If you're looking for
recommendations, she and I are using Feed Baby
([http://feedbaby.com.au](http://feedbaby.com.au)) because it's got great
graphs and really flexible good features without the social crap of Glow.
Definitely worth the $6 for unlimited syncing.

~~~
nulagrithom
CL-user?

~~~
sugarpile
command line

------
codeulike
A few years ago we used BabyConnect by Seacloud, having it as an app that
worked offline and synced was very useful.

NB: On your screenshot it says 'Last Feed: Formula, Left Breast' \- that
confused me, then I realised you're probably doing both (maybe? some people
supplement breastfeeding with formula).

Is there a way to record how long a breastfeed was? That's pretty important.

~~~
cdubzzz
Haha, shit. That's unfortunate in the screenshot. Just a symptom of the fake
data generation.

The app does keep track of breast feeding duration as well, but so far we (my
wife and I) haven't done much with that data so it's not well represented.

~~~
olau
12 solid diapers yesterday also seemed a little... impressive. :)

~~~
cdubzzz
Haha, I know. Our little guy has had 34 wet diapers and _one_ solid in the
past week (:

------
koolba
Looks neat but from what I've gathered a notepad and pen works best for this.
No app can compare with the speed of a quick scribble. Having the data
digitized is fun though (poop charts!).

Found a couple bugs:

\- The sleep pattern page gives a 500 if you haven't slept yet. Likely a null
pointer / empty list situation.

\- I think you may have some time zone issues. Some of the timeline pages
display histrical events that occurred in the future.

~~~
cdubzzz
Thanks for checking it out!

Pen and paper was our original plan as well, but I wanted to be able to
aggregate and graph information easily.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are some TZ issues. I'm still fairly new to
Django and had a bit of trouble wrapping my head around its TZ handling at
first. I probably need to revisit some of the earlier commits.

------
roryisok
cool app, but in my limited experience with newborns, there just isn't enough
time to input data into a system like this to get the cool reports.

~~~
ohadron
My experience is identical.

I think this kind of app could be really helpful but inputs need to be
automated for this to be feasible. Maybe using some IoT devices (baby cradle
sleep monitor, diaper box sensor, etc.).

~~~
giarc
Use Amazon dash buttons throughout the house. A poopy and a wet button near
the change station, a nap start and nap end near the crib, a left breast/right
breast near the rocking chair etc. Set them to make an API post request.

~~~
cdubzzz
This is a pretty cool idea! Currently the app only has a minimal (Django REST)
API, but expanding it to those sorts of functions would be really neat.

------
purephase
Back in my sleep-deprived days after my oldest was born I had an app idea
similar to this, but with an added dash of AI/machine learning.

Imagine a bunch of parents using a free/relatively inexpensive application,
tracking feeding schedules, sleep, food intake, play etc. and then ranking
each day as a thumbs up/down.

Taking that data, properly anonymizing it and then comparing it across babies
with similar characteristics (location, age, siblings etc.) you could suggest
a daily schedule (with alerts) that would trend closer to a thumbs up.

Started with a prototype, but it never amounted to much. I just imagine the
collective value of some of the data managed by these applications and the
potential to ease the extremely challenging (but rewarding!) experience of
being a parent.

~~~
cdubzzz
I thought about this along the way. It would be really cool to have some alert
that says, "Baby is probably ready for a nap" or "Baby probably needs a diaper
change", but the ML side of that is far outside my domain. Did you get far
enough to judge whether or not such a thing would be very feasible, given how
babies can develop so drastically differently?

~~~
purephase
I didn't get far enough, unfortunately. This was a number of years ago, and
not the panacea for ML/AI that we have now. The variance in data is certainly
a concern, but the free/inexpensive nature of the app itself was intended to
gather as much as possible (anonymity being absolutely key, given the subject)
and start looking at data points vs. positive ratings to find the correlation.

At the very least, that sort of data would be incredibly value for
academia/research etc.

~~~
cdubzzz
Shoot me an email (see HN profile/website) if you ever think about reviving
the idea. I would be very interested to colloborate.

------
sundvor
This is great :) Expecting a baby girl next year, so will give the project a
go. Wish I had something like it for our first. Have a big 65" in the living
room connected to a HTPC so the dashboard would be much loved.

Also a great opportunity to brush on my Py.

~~~
cdubzzz
Nice! Feel free to PR or hit me up if you think of features that might be
worth adding.

~~~
sundvor
If I can find some time, I will do. One thing I thought of was to be able to
log the extraction process for bottling milk - that was something that was
rather frustrating IIRC.

Cheers!

~~~
cdubzzz
We thought about that and figured it wasn't really necessary (for us). I think
it would need to be a new model, which could be used to track the status of
pumped milk (and may well be super helpful, particularly later on) but UX wise
that would introduce a bit of complication with the feeding entry process.
It's certainly doable, just not something my wife prioritized. Right now she
just pumps when she feels full and baby isn't ready to eat. Then I get to do
the night feeding and record it as a bottle feeding with Xoz of breast milk (:

------
matzy
As someone without kids and who has never been around babies, what the heck is
'tummy time'?

~~~
koolba
It's placing the baby on it's stomach ("tummy") so he can practice raising his
neck to strengthen those muscles. It's the first step to being able to roll
over and sit up.

~~~
andrewem
The reason tummy time is recommended is because now it's encouraged to have
babies sleep on their backs to avoid SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). The
down side is they don't get time on their stomachs to work those muscles, and
so you have to put them on their stomachs (and supervise them).

Edit: information from an actual authority rather than just me:
[https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sts/about/Pages/tummytime.aspx](https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sts/about/Pages/tummytime.aspx)

~~~
derefr
Fun other fact: the vertebrate digestive system evolved to "hang
downward"—i.e. for gravity to aid digestion by pulling matter toward your
anterior.

If you ever feel gassy, one of the best solutions is to lay on your stomach
and then slightly elevate your butt until you've created a pathway where the
gas can exit by _rising_.

Similarly, if you ever feel constipated or have acid reflux, try just getting
down on your elbows and knees (on your bed or another soft surface) and then
relaxing your core to let your stomach just hang down. Picture imitating the
body position of a cow. Everything should run in the right direction again
after 10 or 20 minutes of this (bring a book.)

I bring this up because, of course, babies shouldn't be any different. If a
baby—especially after weening—is colicky and looks to be in pain, it might be
gassy bloating that it has no idea how to resolve. Flip them over.

------
kelukelugames
Shit. I have a baby due next week. My first one. Help?

~~~
lostlogin
Develop an immunity to advice that is offered.

~~~
jakobegger
Yes! Read books, or trust your instincts, or do whatever you want, and feel
free to ignore all the drivel that people tell you.

Everybody in the world seems to know how you are doing it all wrong.

Even random strangers on the street have started giving me unsolicited advise.

People just can't shut up about how they think you should raise your kids.

------
TH3R3LL1K
I've got a newborn on the way. This looks like an ideal way to track data and
patterns.

~~~
cdubzzz
Good luck! Let me know if you give it a try, and if you think of anything that
could be added/improved. Having the data has been so incredibly help for me
and my wife.

~~~
pavel_lishin
I strongly urge you to make a mobile version - it's much easier to enter data
on the go, rather than having to walk over to your computer. UX is going to be
key here - dropdowns are hard, buttons are easy.

~~~
cdubzzz
Yeah, I really would have liked to make it an app with better handling of
offline data and such. But I simply didn't have the setup or experience to
approach it that way by the time I decided to start (I think a month or so
before our son was born).

On the plus side, the current app does have a pretty solid (I think!) mobile
UI. When in mobile, there is a special one-click button for starting a timer
and bigger "quick add" dropdown for entries. I actually have been meaning to
add a mobile version screenshot to highlight the fact that it is pretty
functional on mobile (with the caveat that it needs an Internet connection).
Mobile is how my wife and I use it about 95% of the time and has been a huge
driver in my development of the UI.

~~~
pavel_lishin
> When in mobile, there is a special one-click button for starting a timer and
> bigger "quick add" dropdown for entries.

Nice! I didn't check it out on mobile.

I'm incredibly impressed, btw, that you're working on something like this with
a newborn. The month before and after birth, I was basically dead to the
world. Kudos to you and her!

~~~
cdubzzz
All those kudos can go to my wife. She was incredibly supportive of giving me
time to work on this before the birth and tweak it after. We also had lots of
good support from her family. Definitely would not have happened without that.

------
nyxtom
We did something similar for our newborn in the first few months of sleep
deprivation. It helped us with focus until we relaxed and could keep better
track of it on our own in our head. The key thing these things miss is keeping
track of yourself.

------
artursapek
Someone got too much paternity leave! :)

------
ThomPete
I love these services but I never used them for my kids and would never use
them. There is definitely a good market for it especially in the US where
everyone is paranoid and you have liability issues etc but I just learned not
to worry about it and that's with a son who was born 10 weeks too early.

But looks like a great solution for those who need some peace of mind.

------
andrewrd
I'll be recommending this app to a relative of mine. I really like the fact
you've open sourced it. Nice work.

~~~
cdubzzz
Thanks! I went back and forth on open sourcing only because I think there may
be potential for building a service like this for _daycares_ in addition to
parents. My decision to work on it stemmed largely from the ~20 different
daycares my wife and I visited. _All_ of them had a pen and paper tracking
system for infants so it gave me lots of ideas.

------
goodoldboys
As someone who is both an avid Django user and about to be a new parent, this
is awesome! Expect a PR or two from me :)

~~~
cdubzzz
Woo! My biggest hope with open sourcing this is to find other new or soon-to-
be new parents with ideas for making it even better. It is such a huge
motivator for me. Looking forward to your input.

------
catshirt
how come no one ever told me you have to change diapers 20 times a day. wtf??

------
Demcox
I'm so glad I do not need this....yet!

------
devdad
You shouldn't need these kind of apps. Listen to your child. They communicate
quite clearly what they need, and after a while you understand their patterns.

This is one of those areas where I believe technology will do more harm than
good

------
basdp
What the actual fuck... You can automate or collect data about anything, but
some things are going just too far. From experience I know that the
forecasting and predictions you can do with this kind of data is very, very
limited. The time and costs you need go through are way too high. I sincerely
question why anyone would use this, aside from the hobbying and gadget-ness of
this.

~~~
pavel_lishin
You got kids? Because you're factually wrong. When we had a kid, we used a
mobile app, and it was _fantastic_, especially since it synched between my
wife's phone and mine.

My turn to take care of the baby, while she gets badly needed sleep? I can
easily check when the kid ate last, when she last had a wet or dirty diaper,
without needing to check on the wife - and that kind of information is _very_
useful when she's crying, and you're trying to find out which one of a dozen
things is the problem.

It's also very helpful at doctor visits - you can quickly pull up information
on how often your kid pees and has a dirty diaper, how much she's drinking
throughout the day, and if you have a scale, you can record information.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
[3 kids, youngest a toddler]

A dozen things? Temperature, hunger, 'nappy', burps ... there's nothing else a
baby ordinarily cares about.

Also it's not formulaic, a key thing IMO that those caring for infants need to
realise is that babies cry. They don't decide to cry, they sometimes just cry.

Ever have a day when you feel sad/happy/emotional/excited/whatever and you
don't know why? Babies do too, and what they do is cry, because they can't
write posts on social media yet.

"They cry all the time, I'm doing something wrong", are they failing to
prosper (put on weight after the initial dip), then it's highly unlikely the
crying has anything to do with you at all.

Stick your finger in the nappy elastic to see if they've dumped, you now know
if they're too hot/cold too; give them a hug and a chat, offer them milk.

IMO you need to learn to read your baby rather than treat like a car with a
service schedule.

"Normally they wake at 3:13+/-12, not 3:50; and their median time to
evacuation is 80mins, not 115; ..." you're going to stress yourself out.
Babies are not machines.

~~~
codegladiator
Knowing something and using that to schedule something are different. The
primary value here is knowing what happened.

