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You Bought It: What ZRecs readers recommend with their purchases, and a request for product feedback

You Bought It: What ZRecs readers recommend with their purchases, and a request for product feedback
The high level of consumer expertise and inquisitiveness is one of our favorite things about regular ZRecs readers, and we've been reading into the Amazon purchases you make through our sites for a while now as a partial guide to what baby gear, sippy cups, kids' toys and books, and BPA-free water bottles you're thinking about, investing in, and willing to take a chance on. We realized recently that if we are able to learn so much from how our readers vote with their dollars, you could too - and we could learn more by asking you what you thought of these items now that you've tried them out.

That's the idea behind You Bought It, a new feature on ZRecs where we'll browse through the statistics of Amazon purchases made through ZRecs sites and invite readers who picked up some interesting items to discuss them. We'll highlight most-purchased items, products with strengths or weaknesses that seem to make or break products for some parents, and unusual items we only discovered thanks to your purchases.

In case it even needs to be said, all of the data we have on shopping through our links is completely anonymous. We have no idea who might have purchased what, or even what was purchased in combination with other items. Amazon works very hard to protect your privacy - what they maintain for us is a spreadsheet of what was purchased through our links. The sales of products through our sites helps fund our consumer research, advocacy, and independent product reviewing here on Z Recommends (as well as funding the care and feeding of our other blogs and the ZRecs Guide to Safer Children's Products) - without it, we honestly wouldn't be able to do what we do. So this is as good a time as any to say - although we try to say it often - "Thanks!"

For this first round, we'll cover the period from June 1 until yesterday - a period which, for the sake of context, covers 1,095 items shipped. Further installments of You Bought It will cover about a month at a time.

Sippy Cups, Straw Cups, and Adult Water Bottles


More than anything else in the past few months, readers picked up sippy cups, straw cups, and water bottles. Here are some hard numbers.

Spending of ZRecs readers and passers-by on sippy and straw cups tends to cluster around some brands that are probably a bit less widely available, giving them a boost over the biggest national brands. (At least, that's what we tell ourselves about the fact that so few of you snapped up the Contigo AutoSeal, or the Playtex Insulator Straw Cup, through our Amazon links.) But the way that spending is distributed is pretty interesting anyway, in light of the recommendations we've made in this summer's Sippy Cup Showdowns.

Here's the breakdown of the top seven sippy and straw cups we saw the most activity for in that period:



All of these but the Foogo and Safe Sippy were Top Picks in our Infant to Toddler or Toddler to Pre-K Sippy and Straw Cup Showdowns, and each of those middle-tier picks were voted up for inclusion in the Top Picks in our end-of-round reader polls.

What we most want to know is: How do all you Tilty shoppers like your super-cool, super cheap new sippy cups? Any complaints or surprises? Or are you as thrilled about them as we are?

By the way, at least a few of you also liked the look of the Rubbermaid Litterless Juice Box, which we named the World's Worst Straw Cup - 5 of those sold, too, a reflection of the disagreement among readers over our assessment of it. This is what they mean when they say "any publicity is good publicity," and why companies are still willing to send us products to review even though we don't promise to say only nice things.

For adult water bottles, the score was Camelbak 28 (for the BPA-Free Better Bottles - gotta love that bite valve - and Performance Bottles, with prices ranging from $8-$14 apiece), Thinksport 25 (a double-walled, fantastically-insulating, tank of a stainless steel sport bottle, selling for $16-$18 apiece) and Nalgene 8 (for their Tritan OTG bottles and wide-mouth bottles, $10-$12 apiece). A few of you bought Nathan stainless steel straw bottles, which we've never written about.

A couple of you bought these "Insta-Sip" screw-on sippy adapters for bottled water bottles. We were scratching our heads when we arrived at the product's page on Amazon and saw that fully half of Amazon shoppers who viewed these purchased them at $15 for two little sippy lids instead of the item suggested below the product image, a $3 alternative by Gerber. Then we realized the reason was probably because the Insta-Sip is labeled on Amazon in the product details as containing no polycarbonate plastic (and thus, presumably, being BPA-free) while the Gerber product description was silent on the issue.

This is typical of Gerber's unilaterally asleep-at-the-wheel behavior when it comes to providing definitive, trustworthy information regarding the BPA status of their products. (In case you were wondering why the vast majority of the many Gerber sippy and straw cups on the market were absent from our Sippy and Straw Cup Showdowns, well, every time we call customer service they tell us something different, and no one else there will talk to us.) Memo to Gerber: The fact that a product priced at five times what you charge for a similar item is matching you on sales is proof that you are HEMORRHAGING MONEY by acting like no one has ever heard about BPA. Genie, bottle, out. Join us.

Other Stuff You Bought The Most


It shouldn't surprise any long-term readers of Z Recommends or users of the ZRecs Guide that our readers buy a lot of children's feeding items. Munchie Mugs, Boon Snack Balls, and BabyBjorn plate and spoon sets are all items we love that were frequently purchased. The Munchie Mug is the best toddler-accessible snack carrier we've ever used, the Snack Ball is the most fun and whimsical, and the BabyBjorn plate has a great design for making it easier for kids to self feed, thanks to its genuinely non-skid base and unique shape. We saw a handful of each of these items purchased in the last couple months.

If any of you BabyBjorn plate users haven't noticed yet, the white part of the bowl pops out of the base for cleaning. It took us a while to figure that out!

We also saw purchases of several Booginhead SippiGrips, which we had never seen before. The SippiGrip is a sippy cup tether (seen plenty of those) but for some reason these things sell. My question - for any of you who purchased these, or have used them - it promises that it has a "unique grip material," but does it work as advertised? Any chance it makes your child throw their cup more - and can they haul it back up themselves once they've done so? Inquiring minds want to know.

Several of you also picked up Munchkin snack catchers, which we've never reviewed but always planned to, because we really dislike them. (We did give it two stars in the ZRecs Guide, but a video of its failings would be much more illuminating.) So if you have one of these, tell us - do you like it? If you do, have you had it for long, washed it many times? We've found that the petals that are supposed to hold snacks in quickly lose a bit of their shape, and that it then leaks crumbs and even small snack items like nobody's business. How about you?

Several of you haven't forgotten about the Green Toys Tea Set, either, which is one of our favorite recycled plastic toys. If you have a cute photo of your child playing with yours, send it to us and we'll publish it (and link to your blog, if you have one). We'd love to hear what you and your child think of it, but we're pretty sure you love it too, right down to the packaging.

The Most Expensive Stuff You Bought


Three of you bought Avent Steam Sterilizers, which was an interesting outlier - no one bought any other bottle sterilizer by any other brand through ZRecs during that time. What's up with that? Is it because it's well-discounted, or was there some other motivating factor?

Ninety-four of you (!) bought 30-minute Flip digital video camcorders when they were on sale for $50-$60. Either that, or some of you bought more than one. Given the absurdly low sale price you paid for it, how do you like it?

Several of you bought Hamilton Beach food processors after we identified their BPA status; this food processor was the most popular, and is frequently on sale for around 25% off. We had never (and still have never) used Hamilton Beach products, so we'd really like to know: If you bought this, how has it performed?

ZRecs visitors also dropped some Benjamins on a Beaba Babycook, which we are currently testing for review; a few BabyBjorn Travel Cribs, which we loved but balked at the price of; and several Britax car seats - a Roundabout and two Boulevards. (Compare this with 18 Britax seat sales we tracked during their last semi-annual sale, and a bunch of Frontiers that sold after our in-depth comparison between it and its competition.) Any thoughts on these, users of very nice expensive products?

Interesting Baby Gear, Toys, Books, and Music You Bought


We'll skip the random items you added to your shopping carts to get free shipping or the really nice things that are totally non-kid-related that you clearly purchased through ZRecs to help give us a boost (thanks for that, by the way) and focus on a few on-topic purchases that caught our eye.

A couple of you picked up KidCo Adhesive Mount Magnet Locks, just the kind of product that usually makes our eyes glaze over. But these are a really great idea, a step above the kinds of cabinet locks we used with Z. A few reviews on Amazon seemed frustratingly surprised by the lack of keys in the set (yes, you have to buy the keys and locks separately) but I suspect the reason for this is that you just keep a couple of the keys around and use them for all the locks, which means you'd want to buy the locks separately. So if you bought or have used these, we really want to know: Do these work as well as you'd hoped?

Plan Toys has a really cute toddler pounding toy (they call it the Punch and Drop), with balls you knock into a box, and a couple of you purchased it, although we had never mentioned it.

We love almost every Plan Toy product we've handled (with one disappointing exception). The natural dyes they use, the way they sand stuff down, and the way they incorporate any other materials needed to enhance a product - in the case of this wooden toy, it looks like they have plastic or rubber seals that give the balls a resting place and provide some friction for pounding - is really top-notch. This design in particular makes a lot more sense than the wood-on-wood pounding of standard tool-bench style pounders - it's just so hard to get the wooden pegs and holes to match up at just the point of friction, and then they swell or shrink in different climates. We like the look of this toy almost as much as we like Plan Toys' Hammer Balls set, which is truly the standard-setter for this type of toy as far a we're concerned.

Someone also bought Plan Toys' Shape and Sort It Out set, which looks like a really nice version of a cheap Melissa & Doug version of the toy we had when Z was an infant and toddler.

A few of you are still buying Fred Party People Chopsticks, which we found to be one of the better inexpensive options for chopsticks for children in our Toddler Chopstick Showdown - a six-pack costs about $10. And a few of you have been picking up rattles from Sassy's cute, relatively new Earth Brights line, like this one. We like the way they're combining brightly-colored fabrics and wood in some of these infant toy designs.

You picked up some interesting books for your own perusal, including Home Comforts (our own family's favorite go-to guide for "the art and science of keeping house"), the intriguing The Complete Organic Pregnancy, The Top 100 Baby Purees, a nice alternative to the standard baby food cookbook, and A Child's Garden, a book offering "60 ideas to make any garden come alive for children." Somebody got a great-looking Eric Carle growth chart.

As for kids' books, we love poring over our sales summaries because our readers help us find great kids' books all the time. First, though, a couple we recommended seemed to go over well: Several of you bought Margaret Wise Brown and Leonard Weisgard's seminal The Important Book or Wendy Pfeffer and Robin Brickman's astonishing, beautiful A Log's Life - the former after we mentioned it as one of our Ten Favorite Kids' Books (you should check out the rest!), and the latter likely because we wrote that "there really isn't a more beautiful introduction to life cycles, food webs, and ecological niches than this lovely book." If you did buy either of these, tell us: Do you and your children love it as much as we do?

Several of you jumped at the chance to buy books in Jessica Spanyol's Minibugs series after we reviewed one earlier this week, or one of you bought every single one. Are they what you expected, based on our review?

Speaking of seminal, if there is any child who does not need ready access to The Monster At the End of This Book, which several of you bought in the past couple months, it is really the single most important Sesame Street book you could buy for $5. Michael Smollin's illustrations are fabulous and the story is a crack-up for anyone who has ever been afraid of anything, or wished that a character inside a book would try to destroy it.

Books you bought that we hadn't known about include the Skippyjon Jones books, which we are pretty sure Z is going to flip out over, and Arnold Lobel's Mouse Tales on CD. Lobel is a great reader of his own stories (we own his Frog and Toad stories on CD) and it was cool to discover this one too, which we'll probably spring for if it isn't at our local library. You also bought What's Alive?, one of so many well-conceived and surprising books in the Let's-Read-And-Find-Out Science series that we must, must, must get our own hands on. Seriously, we should own stock in this publisher.

ZRecs readers are big, big fans of Putumayo Kids CDs. The music series is good enough that if you have heard any, you are probably a fan too.

If You Bought It: What Did You Think Of It?


One of the best things about the community of readers that has developed around Z Recommends is their interest in sharing the pros and cons of kids' stuff they've tried. So if you own any of the products above, tell us what you think of them! We'll collect some of the most interesting feedback we get and highlight it in a later post, or even quote you in the ZRecs Guide listing for the product, where we're working on adding opinions on the products we cover from several additional sources. So browse the post above and take a moment to give us your two cents on products your fellow readers are probably thinking about buying right now! (If you're reading this post in your email or an RSS reader, click here to visit the post and comment.)

Like what you read on Z Recommends? You can have posts delivered for free every day via RSS or email, as well as occasional summaries of our links to other blogs, news articles, and websites from our Delicious feed (our alternative to published link roundups). If you're already a subscriber, please click through to this post if you like it, to let us know you'd like to see more content like this.
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Categories: baby gear, babyproofing, behind the blogs, educational toys, kid and baby accessories, kids' books and audio stories, kids' music and audio, kitchen, maternity, organic, toys, water bottles, You Bought It

How Babylegs got broke

How Babylegs got broke
Photo by girlonthewire, shared via Flickr.
Manufacturers who sell big wholesale orders often rely on credit to bridge the gap between sending goods out for sale and getting paid for them. Now that lending has dried up (one of the core economic problems the bank bailouts were intended to solve) companies like Babylegs are being hit hard. My brother, Joshua McNichols, interviewed Babylegs founder Nicole Donnelly and reports that the company is now down to nine employees, from 26 last year, and despite earnings of $4 million last year, Donnelly recently had to borrow $125,000 from a friend to stay in business.

Donnelly: "So in December we shipped product to what Target considers all their stores. 1517 stores. So we tripled our business with Target."

Donnelly placed a huge order with her manufacturer.

Donnelly: "So I had to pay for the inventory, pay for the shipping, everything, and then sent to the stores, and then I'm cash strapped until Target pays me."

Before the economic crisis, that was pretty normal for small businesses. They pay for everything up front. And the bank covers them until the money from sales starts coming in.

Donnelly: "We knew we wouldn't have money. And that was in the plan, to not have money at that time and borrow from the bank. Because the next month we'd have the money."

But instead, the bank froze Donnelly's line of credit. Suddenly, BabyLegs was broke.


Head to the KUOW website to listen to the full story (4:33) or read the transcript.

My assumption is that any company like Babylegs is in trouble during an economic downturn for one simple reason: Knee-high socks are cheap and cute ones are easy to find, and if you aren't a perfectionist, you can make your own Babylegs in the time it takes you to grab the scissors.
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Categories: kid and baby accessories

Pediped: Flexible shoes for kids don’t get much cuter

Pediped: Flexible shoes for kids don’t get much cuter
We see a lot of cute baby shoes go by in the kids' product marketplace and rarely dip our toe in. But Pedipeds caught our attention. In addition to being extremely cute - with nice designs, tight stitching, and a clear focus on quality - their older kids' pairs come with an extra insole so you can swap them out for a longer-lasting shoe. We'd also heard that their shoe soles were very flexible, which is what shoes for the youngest children should be all about.

We asked the company for samples, and got one pair at the infant size, and another in a child's model, and they lived up to their reputation. Pediped infant shoes have a sole that is very padded yet still as flexible as a pair of Robeez or Isabooties making them great for walkers venturing outside. They have Velcro closures and stay put on tiny feet. You can see these baby shoes above, which we gave to Z's infant cousin (the foot model above).

The pair we got for Z to try is still too big for her, but they're adorable. (We misjudged her size. Use the PDF sizing chart!) But the quality is clear. Even the older kids' shoes (the "FLEX" line) are flexible enough for running and jumping but strong enough to hold up to the more active preschool years, and they have skid-resistant soles (a feature you'd expect from a kid's shoe that many brands actually lack). Velcro closures encourage kids to put them on and take them off independently. And the look, at least while scuff-free, dresses up and down well; Pedipeds can easily transition from nice event to playground fun or the other way around.

Their new Spring and Summer line is out, and they've already run out of a couple of styles, including the Giselle Chocolate Brown Mary Janes above, which were the ones we received. Pediped's Originals (for kids 0-24 months) run $32, the boots $41, and their FLEX shoes for kids ages 1-5 cost $39-$45, with some really cool boots running $57. You can order them from Pediped's website.
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Categories: kid and baby accessories

Ten predictions for the CPSIA’s effect on children’s products in 2009

There is a lot of fear about what will happen on February 10, 2009 - the day provisions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act go into effect, and the day many in the small-business community are now calling National Bankruptcy Day. (Read this Christian Science Monitor article if you have any doubt about what's at stake here.)

As the CPSC muddles through these issues in the weeks before they drop the "Feb-bomb" on the entire children's products industry, many of us have lost confidence in their ability to work with Congress to make the needed adjustments that will offer the best consumer protection available under a saner set of rules. Instead, they have elected to selectively interpret sections of the Act and offer minor concessions that do little good. Exempting a series of natural materials, for example, comes with the stipulation that they not be painted or dyed, even with substances proven to be of little or no risk to consumers (plant-based pigments, beeswax). Reassuring resellers that they are not required to test products comes with the warning that they will be liable for big fines if a product they sell is discovered to violate the standard.

We'd like to go ahead and make some predictions about what the CPSIA will do to U.S. businesses and consumer choice in 2009, in addition to helping protect children from lead and phthalates, if the law stands as currently written. These predictions are offered in the hopes that any we'd like to avoid could be avoided, especially if enough consumers take action.


The mass market


  • Fewer choices from fewer brands. The big companies in infant care, children's toys, and apparel will begin reducing the variety of "styles" of individual products, and cut some less-profitable lines entirely rather than pay for redundant testing. This means a single model of sippy cup will suddenly come in two color choices instead of six, a pacifier in one style instead of four, and a lunch box in two licensed-character lines, one for boys and one for girls, instead of a half-dozen different characters plus a couple of generic models. Your local big-box store's sleepwear section will have half the number of fabrics, and you'll suddenly have trouble finding that yellow or green onesie to welcome a baby whose gender isn't known, and go with white instead. Brands that produce some kids' products but don't rely on them exclusively (high-end designers, furniture makers, and small companies with a range of small-batch products) may abandon the children's product market completely. Parent companies will shuffle their holdings. Startups will thin out, with fewer new entrants into the market, even than in past periods of recession.

  • The 8-to-12 toy gap. Although it is illegal to claim that a product intended for children is only intended for adults, a major gray area exists in the 8-to-12-year-old market. New products that would traditionally be marketed as "8 and up" will suddenly be labeled as "13 and up" or "over 12." The CPSC will challenge a few of these claims, but only the most egregious cases, because those are the only fights they can win. Other companies may choose to strengthen divisions offering products for older children at the expense of those for younger children. Either way, parents will face fewer choices as well as diminished rights for those they buy for "off-label" use.

  • Increased prices. Safety costs money and is worth our investment as consumers. But companies, at least initially, will be more concerned with protecting profits than competing on price. Depending on company strategy, these increases may be gradual or may hit in about six months.

  • The green purge. Consumers and retailers will remain confused regarding which product types can still be sold from current stock, and for how long; as a result, more products will showcase non-plastic materials, undergo stricter voluntary materials testing (Oeko-Tex), and promote themselves as "free" of banned chemicals. Book publishers will shy away specifically from synthetic covers, vinyl infant books, and integrated toy-book gimmicks. Meanwhile, vast quantities of unsold children's merchandise will be exported or destroyed. Companies doing business in the developing world will dump products there at cut-rate prices. Those that don't will send them directly into landfills, where they will slowly leach their banned substances into the environment. Non-compliant products will be retired as quietly as possible to minimize customer complaints and attempted returns.

  • Booby traps. Manufacturers who believed the CPSIA had no bearing on their product area will have a rude awakening. Congress will pass new laws to exclude them.



The used market


  • Online reselling will get safer. eBay, Craigslist, and other peer-to-peer sales services will see fewer listings of recalled items as top sellers are investigated and a few prosecuted, resulting in an overall increased safety level for cribs, high chairs, and toys offered through such services.

  • Online swapping will get more secretive. Many small and hobbyist forums for swapping between parents currently permit the viewing of posts by outsiders. Most of these will go fully private, often in response to requests from members, to help decrease participants' chances of being targeted for prosecution. Moderators will develop new methods for vetting members or require referrals for new members.

  • Thrift store profiling. Resellers are not required to test products, but are liable for the products they sell. This will likely result in product "profiling" strategies that vary wildly from store to store, but products obviously made from softened PVC (backpacks, play yards) will become difficult to find used and will go directly into landfills without being reused or passed on. Painted and plastic toys by unknown brands will also be broadly rejected. Few, if any, will conduct any testing.



The handmade and craft market


  • The handmade industry will contract and undergo a broad cultural shift. Consumer options and volume will both be significantly reduced as work-at-home artisans are forced to choose between going out of business and flaunting a law they feel is unjust. Those who stop selling will tend to be older, and have more to lose from the risk of prosecution - homes, assets - while those who remain will tend to be younger, and will absorb the new business while pressing the "handmade movement" into more pointed political service. The most active agitators will help articulate the movement's goals using techniques from edge communities and will improve their skills at drawing media attention, which will protect them from prosecution to some degree. DC-area crafters will hold crafting sit-ins at public hearings and agency meetings. Sales of Civil Disobedience will rise. Those who leave may find other work, or may wait, and even produce goods, while they wait for a fix.

  • The mass media will speak up about the issue. An ill-informed spike in television news coverage will miss much of the point and overhype the rest. Oprah will get involved, Martha might, and when they do, they'll nail it.


A few questions for you, any of which you're welcome to respond to in the comments:

  • What do you think of the planned CPSIA regulations?

  • What do you think of the CPSC's handling of the public concern and confusion surrounding these issues?

  • Do you have any predictions to add to the list, or any of ours you think won't come to pass?

  • What have you done, or could you still do, to make an impact on this issue?


Photos, from top, by Hey Het, photophonic, and tegurity. ZRecs.com cover image by phlora. All photos shared via Flickr.
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Categories: CPSIA, CPSC, crafts, kid and baby accessories, kid and baby clothes, safety, toys

The Baby Bjorn Travel Crib

The Baby Bjorn Travel Crib
The Baby Bjorn Travel Crib had us at "hello" with its lightweight design, and as veterans of the heavy Graco Pack 'n' Play, we appreciated how easy it was to set up and break down.

Here's a video of me opening up and closing the travel crib for the first time - I managed to screw up a step, but it's still a piece of cake.



When set up, the crib is quite sturdy and stable. The size should be good for kids up to three years old. Fabrics are certified to the rigorous Oeko-Tex standard for toxicity.

We took the crib with us on our Seattle trip in October, and it traveled well, although the carrying case could really, really use a shoulder strap - it just doesn't carry well as a giant briefcase, and its light weight would make it perfect for slinging over your shoulder. Other users on Amazon seem to almost universally love it. But the truly amazing thing about it is its weight - the thing is 11 pounds. This is a huge advantage over other travel beds, the best-selling (and very functional) Pack 'n' Play included. The only disadvantage to the design is the splayed legs, which might get in the way in a small room or during nighttime tasks.

The one big drawback to this product is its price - $280 - which we just can't get over. A Pack 'n' Play is heavy, yes, but it costs runs from $100 to as low as $60. A PeaPod offers the portable bed for $55-$85, but not a place for an awake baby to hang out. Baby Bjorn's Travel Crib lists at $280 and sells for at least $240 most places we've seen it, or $235 on Amazon (although the free shipping helps). A $100 price tag would result in Baby Bjorn putting its competition permanently to bed in this market - the product is clearly better. I think they could even pull off $150 without raising too many eyebrows. But $280? I'd hate to see travel crib prices go the route of strollers, with an ever-heightening price ceiling and parents seemingly willing to support the increase.

We are truly wowed, but simply would not pay this much, even for this level of quality and convenience. How about you? Could any travel bed merit this price - now, or in a rosier economy?
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Categories: cribs, kid and baby accessories, reviews, travel

OXO’s cute, functional night lights

OXO’s cute, functional night lights
I recently spent a fair amount of time preparing for the landfall of a hurricane and the possibilty of power outages that came with it. As I was trying to find candles in case the power went out, I remembered that a year or more ago I had I tossed out all my old paraffin candles to replace them with soy ones, which burn cleaner and are non-toxic, but I'd never actually replaced my old candles. So I went to Target at 5:30 p.m. the day before the hurricane was scheduled to hit and was not at all surprised to find the entire store cleaned out of both D batteries and flashlights. I really wish that I'd seen these little gems when I was searching for something for Z to carry around in case the power went out.

The OXO Candela Tooli night lights come in a set of two with a recharging base that serves as a nice home for them. When you set them on the base, they automatically turn off and when you take them off the base (or when the power fails), they automatically turn on. Each light also has its own on/off button on the bottom for more control.

With a single charge, they will stay illuminated for eight hours and they are always cool to the touch, making them safe for little hands and a great nightlight for a child or baby's room. They are LED lights so there are no bulbs to change or break. With two lights, Z has decided that we can share the night lights - each night before bed, she secretly brings one into my room and leaves it on my nightstand for me to find when I go to bed - the other stays in her room. They give off enough light that I can light my way in my bathroom (whose only power plug is inexplicably wired through the light switch, which means that in order to power a night light, I'd have to turn on the room light) or I can use them to make last minute adjustments in Z's room when she's sleeping without waking her. Z, at age four, can easily carry the lights around, set them on the base and turn them on or off manually. They'll also be perfect for emergency preparedness and are so pretty that I won't have to keep them in storage until we need them.

There's a magical quality to these lights, a combination of their automatic on/off functionality and their strange, organic forms. This makes them a special object of interest for a child as well as a functional night light or emergency light.

If the colors of the Tooli aren't to your liking, you can try the Candela Glow which comes with a white lamp but has a variety of colored tops that you can use to coordinate with your home decor.
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Categories: kid and baby accessories, reviews, sleep
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