Tomy Baby SShh Bee > Reviews (2)

It's quite amazing how many toys children end up with, even more so the amount babies end up with considering how little they can actually play with them in the beginning, Jack is no exception to the rule and one of his many toys is the Tomy Baby Shh.

The Tomy Baby Shh comes in 2 designs, a green frog or a bumblebee, it is a soft bodied toy which features vivid colours and different textures to stimulate baby, it has a 10 inch strap which threads through a loop in the back of the Shh's head that has strips of Velcro at each end, these allow you to attach the Shh to babies buggy, cot, play gym, even around your wrist. The Baby Shh's head is actually a pouch which is sealed by a Velcro strip, within in the pouch is a circular box which features 2 buttons, when concealed in the head pouch the buttons lie under "x" that mark the animals cheeks and each button has a different feature the left playing a tune and making fun sounds, while the right has to be held down for several seconds before it will play a "melody"

They toys are sweet looking, we have the bumblebee who is made up of bright, bold colours, his cheeky face is very appealing and he is complete with crinkle effect wings, his antennae and 6 feet hang from soft woven rope and give the toy an added feeling of movement. He feels very well made, the soft fabric is well stitched together and it feels like a very good quality toy, capable of dealing with whatever your child can throw at it (literally!) the box featuring the buttons is completely removable, meaning that the toy can be washed in the machine, but the batteries (3 lr44) are within a screwed down compartment so there is no risk of baby getting them out.

The sounds the toy makes are crisp and very audible, the sound box within the head does have 2 sound levels but we've always found the lower level loud enough. The left button has 3 sounds which are meant to catch the little ones attention, this includes a short tune which is made up of quite pleasant tones rather then be flat and monotone. The right cheek is a bit more unusual, after being held down for around 3 seconds you are treated to the oddest version of "Twinkle Twinkle" which is backed by an assortment of strange sounds and also speeds up and slows down throughout the length of the song.

Apparently the toy is scientifically designed to turn a crying baby into a happy baby and "Features powerful "curiosity triggers" designed to make baby forget the reason for crying" (Amazon product description) the changing tempo and unusual sounds are in some way meant to distract baby and cheer them up. Now while I agree that it is a eye catching, stimulating and sweet toy I can't agree that it changes a crying baby to a happy baby, it is suitable from birth and I don't know about anyone else's newborn but mine would usually cry through hunger, tiredness, the need for a clean nappy…….no amount of funny noises or odd music will cheer up a hungry 1 week old. Jack is now 6 months and quite enjoys the toy when he's in a good mood, however if he gets upset the Shh is the last thing he wants to play with, the music and noises just seem to upset him more.

While this is a cute toy, and very well made it's clearly not perfect, it fails in its mission to cheer up my crying baby and I personally find the sounds quite irritating. The Velcro strap is handy for fixing it to the buggy etc…. but I tend to make sure it's high enough that it can be seen by Jack but not pressed, he doesn't like the sounds, I don't like the sounds so why bother with them, it can just be stimulating for his vision instead. The removable box is also a good design but can be tricky to get back in the pouch and be sure the buttons are correctly aligned with the cheeks.

The Shh retails around £14.99 which is insanely expensive for how little it actually does, I suppose if it worked for your little one and soothed them when they were upset it would make it seem better value but currently I have an awfully expensive soft dangling toy for our buggy which could be easily replace by a £2.99 pram toy which would be just as appreciated. Fortunately this was a gift, admittedly chosen by myself when I had higher expectations of it, but I would not pay £14.99 for it myself, what I would recommend is you test it with your little one in the shop before spending so much.

---

Also on Dooyoo (Butterbear)