Essie has always loved sleep aids right from birth when white noise (and rave music!) would calm her during the witching hour and heart beat sounds would reassure her through the night. And now, at 7 months old, I still use them with her! There are so many different sleep aids for babies these days and we have tried quite a few over the past few months. The latest is Betty the Bee from the Summer Infant Slumber Buddies range which we've been trying out for the past few weeks.
Summer Infant Slumber Buddies help to create a tranquil environment for little ones at bedtime and they're suitable to use from birth so, if you like, you can make it part of your baby's routine from day one. The soft, plush bee projects a calming starry night across the whole ceiling and walls in three different colours. The colours are red, green and blue and can be selected individually or be set to alternate. I prefer to use the red light setting as I find it the most soothing colour, plus red light is meant to be more helpful for falling asleep.
The sounds played by this soother are lullabies, heartbeat and waterfall sounds. You can set the sound to be played for either 15, 30 or 45 minutes before it will automatically shut off. The great thing about this toy is that the sounds and lights are activated with separate buttons so you can use them separately as well as together. There is also a volume button so you can control that as well, however I do find that the quietest setting is still quite loud when playing the lullabies or waterfall sounds. It's easy to counter this by just positioning it further away from Essie's crib.
Whenever Essie is struggling to fall asleep, I switch the red light on her Slumber Buddy and turn on the heartbeat sound. I have ours set to 45 minutes, just in case she needs it on for a longer period of time. She calmly watches the stars on the ceiling while sucking her thumb, before drifting off to sleep. Essie is the first of the children to go to bed, so the heartbeat sound also helps to cover any noise from the rest of the house. As she gets older, I'm sure she'll enjoy using this toy as a comforting nightlight too.
Summer Infant Slumber Buddies cost £24.99 and come in a variety of designs including a lamb, elephant, hippo, ladybird, frog and butterfly. It requires 3 x AA batteries which are supplied.
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With thanks to Summer Infant for sending the toy to review.
