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What does the Lullaby Trust say to do when a movement monitor alarm sounds?

Updated · Checked · By MayTally research desk — Checked against official UK sources

What is the official three-step check?

The public page Baby monitors (reviewed 1 February 2025; updated 4 August 2026) is the version to share with grandparents and other childcare. The CONI coordinator factsheet adds a colour check and basic life support if you have already been taught it. MayTally does not invent CPR steps. If you have not been trained, the public page is the whole plan: check, then 999 on speaker.

  1. 1. Switch off the alarm and check Look for movement of the chest and/or tummy. Place your cheek next to the baby's face to see if you can feel or hear them breathing. Stimulate by talking, blowing on or touching their face, or tickling the soles of their feet. Never shake your baby. Coordinators are also told to look at colour — paler than usual or blue.
  2. 2. If there is no response Dial 999 straight away and put the phone on speaker so the operator can talk you through what to do until professional help arrives. The factsheet says: if you cannot carry out basic life support, take the baby to the phone, dial 999, and use speaker. The operator talks you through it. Further written BLS detail sits with the Resuscitation Council UK, not on this page.
  3. 3. If the baby responds, or you are worried Seek medical advice. The public page names NHS 111, your midwife, doctor or health visitor. The CONI booklet says that if breathing has stopped or pauses are happening more than usual, the baby should be checked by a doctor or paediatrician.

Never shake the baby. That line appears on both the public monitors page and the coordinator factsheet. Stimulation means voice, breath on the face, a touch, or tickling the feet — not a shake.

Who else needs to know this plan?

The Trust says to make sure anyone else who may be caring for the baby knows what to do if the alarm goes off. The coordinator factsheet names grandparents and babysitters. Write the three steps on a card by the cot: look, cheek, stimulate, then 999 on speaker. A brand's four-corner pad test is a set-up check; it is not this emergency sequence.

  • Show them where the parent unit is and how to silence the alarm so they can hear and see the baby.
  • Show them how to get the baby out of a sleeping bag or swaddle if they need a clear view of the chest.
  • If you are on CONI, ask whether local basic life support training has been offered — that is extra to the public three steps, not a replacement for 999.

What should I not do while the alarm is sounding?

  1. Do not start a four-corner mattress test or a sensitivity reset before you have looked at the baby. Those are daytime set-up jobs.
  2. Do not shake, slap or hold the baby under a tap. The published stimulate list is talk, blow, touch the face, tickle the feet.
  3. Do not spend the first minute hunting for the manual. The public sequence fits on one screen.
  4. Do not assume a previous false alarm means this one is false. Check this time.
  5. Do not add homemade CPR counts from memory if you have not been taught. Use speaker and the 999 operator.

What if it was a false alarm?

False alarms are listed as a disadvantage in the CONI factsheet: a detached sensor, movements too slight to detect, or (on mattress pads) the wrong sensitivity. After you have seen the baby breathing, then — and only then — check the pad, tape or clip against the maker's instructions.

If alarms keep happening and the baby seems well, still tell the health visitor or CONI coordinator. Repeated alarms can disrupt sleep and raise anxiety; they can also mean the kit is not sitting as the manual requires. A quieter setting that misses a true long pause is not the fix the factsheet describes.

What if the baby responds but I am still worried?

Step 3 on the public page is not optional. Colour change, a pause that felt longer than usual, poor feeding, or a baby who was hard to rouse are reasons to use NHS 111 or the GP the same day. The CONI booklet is blunt: if the baby has stopped breathing, or this is happening more than usual, it can be a sign of illness.

In shortIn short: look, cheek, stimulate — never shake — then 999 on speaker if there is no response. That is the Lullaby Trust sequence. Share it before the 2am alarm, not during it.

Questions parents ask

Is this the same as a brand's four-corner test?
No. A four-corner or sensitivity test checks that a mattress pad can see movement from each part of the cot. The Lullaby Trust alarm plan is what you do to the baby: look, cheek, stimulate, then 999 if there is no response.
Should I do CPR before I call 999?
The public Trust page says to dial 999 at once and use speaker so the operator can talk you through what to do. If you have already been taught basic life support on CONI, the coordinator factsheet says to use those taught techniques and call 999 as soon as possible. This page does not add counts or ratios.
Do I turn the alarm off first?
Yes. The published first line is to switch the alarm off so you can check the baby. Then look, use your cheek, and stimulate.
What if I am in another room and cannot hear well?
Go to the baby first. The Trust's position is that a monitor never replaces an adult in the same room for the first six months. If you cannot tell whether the baby is responding, treat it as no response and call 999 on speaker.

Sources

Official pages first. If this page and the official page disagree, the official page wins.

This is information, not a guarantee of any payment, and not medical, legal or product-safety advice for your home. Prices and rules change; figures carry the date they were checked. Recall status comes from official records only — a product we cannot find is not a safety all-clear. Tell us if we got a fact wrong.