Customer Reviews

Vtech - Soothe & Surprise Nature Light

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

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

We recieved this as a gift for our first baby. She loved watching the light show on the ceiling and soon figured out how to turn it on herself. When we found out that we were pregnant again, we purchased another one for our son's room. Now he too is lulled to sleep by the dancing fairy and soft nature sounds. We love it!

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.

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!

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.

My wife and I were looking for something to replace the mobile (for a 3-month old) that is less active. We were excited to see this type of product. After the first week with it - there were 3 problems with it. 1) The sound sensor doesn't work for our little girl. Apparently the baby has to be screaming for a full 7-seconds before it is activated - and fortunately - our baby isn't that loud to trigger it (so I have to get up to restart it when she sounds off). 2) The light projection onto the ceiling broke after the first night. Luckily the lights inside the bubble still work. 3) After 3 days, the moving parts inside the bubble developed an annoying squeaking sound. We still use it since the lights inside the bubble move in cadence to catch her attention, and the lullabies work - but am disappointed in the product quality.

This product was recommended by a friend after I expressed my concern about moving our son to his own room at 6 months. I saw the price here and said "no way!" I did some further research and found it at Walmart for $25! Definitely worth $25 and all the batteries. We have to get new batteries every 2 weeks or so, so that's about $10 a month in batteries. Our son loves it and we believe it helped to comfort him while we let him cry it out. It made me feel better too I think. The sound sensor works most of the time, but I think it varies depending on how long the baby has been asleep. Sometimes the lights and music come on, sometimes only music, sometimes after several hours it doesn't come back on, sometimes it does. Also, with the batteries, if you turn off the projector you can get more battery life out of it!

I love v-tech products. Most of my son's toys are v-tech. Unfortunately, I am very unhappy with this product. It is supposed to turn on when noise occurs in the room. It does NOT! Also, it would burn through batteries like they were candy. At least, we think it was a battery problem. The product didn't quit running, it would keep reiterating itself, like a broken record, instead of turning off or continuing the song. Changing the batteries fixed that be we changed them about once a week!

Another thing to take note of is that I have a crib with thicker rails-about 4"wide and 3"thick. The straps do not fit around the crib and we had to zip tie it (a problem with had with other similar products).

I think this price is wrong....I got it at Walmart for $25.

I actually purchased this from the store, not Amazon. It's been a wonderful toy. My son LOVES it. It has nice, soothing music he can control. It's been thrown across the room and it's still working beautifully. Have yet to change the batteries. For us, it was definitely worth it.