How smart can a baby changing pad be? (pictures)

The Hatch Baby Smart Changing Pad is a connected device that tracks your baby's development over time. To test it out, I brought in my 8-week-old son.

Used as an ordinary changing pad, Hatch Baby is pretty comfortable. The machine washable pad itself is made from a soft plush material, and my son could easily fall asleep on it.

The two features that make this device smart are the scale that's built into the bottom, and the touch screen that sends collected data to the Hatch Baby app.

By weighing your baby over time, you can see how he or she is progressing. You can even view the data in graph form, which provides an overlay of the average rates of growth for babies as a point of comparison.

You can also record waste, feeding and sleeping patterns with simple timers on your phone. If you aren't sure how much milk your baby got while breastfeeding, you can simply use the scale to calculate the difference in weight before and after the meal.

The Smart Changing Pad itself will fit on top of most dressers, and it has the size to accommodate even larger babies.

The Hatch Baby app is the real star of the show here. Using the app, you can track all sorts of data on your growing child. And it's all presented in an accessible format.

One useful feature is the feeding screen. It allows you to track which breast the child is feeding on, and for how long. If you're a new mother getting the hang of breast feeding, this information could be helpful.

As well as recording the core data on your child, the app also stores data on pumping, your baby's daily schedule and pictures that show his or her development over time.

The Hatch Baby Smart Changing Pad is a solid product with a stellar app. Its $250 price is only worth it if you really want all the information it offers. My advice: download the app to try out. If you love it and use it for more than a week, look into buying the Smart Changing Pad.