VTech - Soothe & Surprise Nature Light

Please see the added edited ending of this review! I originally gave this a one star rating and said 'Don't waste your money', but I have changed my mind! Amazon won't let me change the stars, but I'd give it 4, only because I had to fix it myself with no help from V-Tech...

We already have a battery operated soother on all three of our kid's bed-rails and yet, when I saw this on sale, I grabbed it up as well, thinking I would replace one of the older models (in particular, a Leapfrog star-shaped soother called the 'Dreamscapes Soother' which is just kind of boring and a real battery eater).

Anyhow, my 19 month old son just loves this new one, and clearly prefered it to the Leapfrog one, but the thing quickly began to emit these awful squeaks that grow louder and louder each day and cause my boy to go from sort-of sleepy to wild-eyed in under a minute! At least the boring-non-squeaking-or-shrieking Leapfrog actually soothed him to sleep!

I called V-tech, and after much inquiry and time spent on the phone I was finally told they no longer make this (obviously problematic) version and so would be getting a completely different replacement if I paid to send mine in to them. Good deal? Not really, plus all of the 'help' from Vtech on the phone were so nonchalant and uninformed (three different people) that I actually don't think I want another Vtech product! And the reviews here all confirm my worst suspicions; that this is a cute but worthless piece of junk. (old opinion. Check out my new opinion at the end of this)

However, Do buy the older (4 yrs old? and still going strong!) Fisher Price Aquarium Soother (the one with actual water in it, that has a 'mama fishy and baby fishy' that 'swim' around maybe try eBay?). This one keeps my daughter well 'soothed' every night, with no piercing squeak/shrieks and no creepy voice and pleasant music(!) and also the still available Fisher Price Flutterby Dreams Soother (with sweet Mama and baby blue birds and the cutest overhead light show) is my eldest son's favorite one of all.

NEW OPINION: Added Nov. 8th, 2007: If you take all the screws out of the back, including one hidden inside of the battery compartment, you can open this thing, carefully keeping wires intact! Then, pretending you are a bank-robber/safe-breaker, turn the machine on (re-insert batteries for this, obviously) and LISTEN for exactly where the squeak/shriek comes from...I actually used a paper towel tube to 'listen' through to better isolate the noise...and FOUND that it was coming from an over-tightened screw that holds a tiny piece of plastic against the revolving light disk. I simply loosened the screw and IT WORKS GREAT NOW! So, sorry about the stars, Amazon won't let me change those, but we use this soother every single nap time and bedtime and Really appreciate the way it turns itself on if our baby starts to cry loudly enough....it does actually soothe now, now that it has stopped shrieking! YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!

This was bought for our son when he was 6 months old by a friend who swore by crib soothers. I would not have bought it on my own but thought we would give it a chance. It is amazing. Our son loves it! We take it on vacation and it helps with the transition. It has been used every night for a year and it hasnt broke. The batteries need to be changed about once a week and it acts broken when it needs new ones, so make sure to check that before you assume it is broken.

Pros:

It has a good variety of songs and sounds

It is cute

Good volume adjustment

Can change to go off after 3,5 or 10 minutes

easy for baby to operate

Helps babies relax and get to sleep

Cons:

Goes through batteries quickly

Says "I love you" and it seems creepy

Buy VTech - Soothe & Surprise Nature Light Now

I purchased or was given 6 (yes 6!) different crib toys. This one is the best. The smiling bee calms my daughter before I even turn it on. If she's crying and she is in a spot where she can't see the bee, then she looks up and sees the cool projections on the ceiling. The music has cute lullaby/nursery songs, OR classical music, OR nature sounds, which includes crickets, bubbling brooks, and even a womb/heartbeat (these play consecutively; not at the same time, of course). You can choose to combine the sounds with three types of lights-stars blinking, just a background light, the projector, or no light. The edge of the clear cover acts like a prism and make the light sparkle. The sensor DOES work even for a very quiet baby like mine and it's volume can be set soft enough so neither my baby, nor the toy wake us.

Furthermore, it is nice and small, so baby isn't as likely to hit her head when she is learning to stand.

I can't say enough good things about it except it should be available in more places.

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We have purchased 3 of these for babies in our family. They hang in the crib and they love them! Sometimes you'll hear music in the middle of the night.....I don't know if it's accidental or if they want the music to lull themselves back to sleep! It takes no time at all for them to figure out how to make music with it! Even the littlest ones!

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We recieved this as a gift after we already had the Ocean Wonders aquarium. I wasn't going to keep it at first, but I am glad I did. I like everything about this better than the Ocean Wonders music, lights, motion. My daughter especially loves the projection on the ceiling.