Why You Can Trust CNET Withings Smart Kid Scale review: The Withings Smart Kid Scale offers overpriced precision
Withings' device boasts precision and weight tracking over time, but also a price that's too high for many new parents.
Tracking your newborn's growth is one of the best ways to make sure they're staying healthy. Many people use rough estimates -- stepping on the bathroom scale with and without the child and calculating the difference -- or frequent trips to the pediatrician. With the hopes of cutting down on parents' concerns and the medical bills that come with undernutrition, Withings is offering the $180, app-connected Smart Kid Scale.
Withings Smart Kid Scale
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
What makes the Kid Scale so smart? It connects via Bluetooth to your phone, so you can track your child's growth over time. The Withings Baby app not only tracks weight gain and loss, but also feeding patterns. This isn't as comprehensive an app as, say, Hatch Baby's. But using it is intuitive, and you can follow the progress of multiple children at once.
The Scale itself, despite a clever design, feels a little less smart. You can remove the attached cradle once your child can stand, so they can just step onto the scale like a grown-up. This flexibility means you can use the device for at least a few years. But the 55-pound limit means it won't last as long as I'd like. And that's about the extent of the device's smarts.
When you can buy a reliable bathroom scale for $30, it's hard to justify spending $180 on a scale for young children. The Withings Smart Kid Scale might appeal to parents of children with known health concerns, but most parents will be better off with the periodic pediatric visits they already have written in their calendars.