Electronic and paper diary recording of infant and caregiver behaviors.

Objectives: To assess (1) preference of parental use of an electronic diary (e-diary) over a paper diary to record continuous infant and caregiver behaviors over 7 days; (2) whether e-diary recordings would differ in systematic ways from those obtained by paper diaries, and (3) frequency of diary entries when parents provide entries when convenient.

Methods: Mothers of normal newborns were randomized at 5 weeks infant age to a paper diary first (n = 34) or e-diary first (n = 35) group. With 3 days between, mothers completed 7-day recordings on both the paper Baby's Day Diary and an analogous personal digital assistant e-diary for infant (sleep, awake alert, feeding, fussing, crying, inconsolable crying) and caregiver (carrying/holding, moving) behaviors, and completed post diary ease-of-use ratings and poststudy preference ratings.