My child is an awful pushchair sleeper. Whilst he sleeps (fairly) well in his cool, dark room at home, stick him in a buggy and he’ll be wide awake for hours. On the rare off-chance that he does drop off, the slightest noise will wake him and the cycle re-starts. Cue a stressed mum and an over-tired tot. Normally, I pop my phone in with him, playing a variety of calming white noise in order to mask distractions. But the truth is, I want my phone back. And I’m a little concerned I’m frying his brain every time. So when the people behind Lullaby Shade offered us the opportunity to review one of their pushchair shades, I jumped at the chance. And promptly hugged my phone. Reunited, at last!

Lullaby Shade Review

What is a Lullaby Shade?

Lullaby Shades was set up by Stacey back in 2016. Designed with busy parents (and poor sleepers) in mind, it combines the sun protection and sleep aid of a darkened pushchair shade with a built in MP3 player to provide background noise for your child. Available in three formats; Lite, Plug & Play and Premium, you can choose whether you’d just like the shade, the ability to play your own music through built in speakers or get the works – built in speakers and a pre-loaded MP3 player filled with sleep-inducing tracks. Prices range from £22.99 to £34.99.

Tell Me More…

The Lullaby Shade has won multiple awards for it’s concept and design. First and foremost it’s a safety based product. At the core of it’s functionality is a well-designed sun shade complete with unique cool vents to ensure air circulates well. These vents allow the heat created by your child to escape, which in turn creates a heat exchange and pulls cooler air in. What does that mean? It means greater airflow, making it 60% more breathable that the leading market brand. Alongside these ventilation measures, the Lullaby Shade offers a 30 UVF sun safety rating making it a no brainer when it comes to protecting your little one from harmful rays. Each shade offers a universal fit to any buggy or travel system with a hood and a zip operated viewing window so that you can easily access your child… great!

What’s It REALLY Like?

Whilst great for at home, a Lullaby Shade comes in to it’s own on holiday. Not only do you get great sun protection, it helps keep those pesky mosquitos (and other bugs) away from your child’s skin. The sunshade helps create a dark environment which promotes sleep, even in a brightly lit restaurant. We took the premium Lullaby Shade with us to Antigua recently and found it to be easy to fit, simple to use and overall, a great idea. The MP3 player fits in a small pocket on the outside of the shade, making it easily accessible to parents (unlike my phone which always seemed to end up under our son!). It literally was a case of popping him in to the buggy, zipping up the window, selecting a playlist and plugging it in.

Our Thoughts

I really liked the concept behind the Lullaby Shade. We’re big fans of white noise so often play it to help our son sleep in busy environments. The combination of that with a darkened shade really is a great way to promote sleep and ensure a nice peaceful meal for us parents. We often used our shade at night, meaning the built in SeeMe! reflectors were a nice touch. Whilst we were on a resort, it added an element of safety to the shade – especially important as both pushchair and shade were black!

The sound system was well thought out and easy to use; having an MP3 player meant it didn’t impact upon us at all. We didn’t use our phones but I love that the built in speakers are limited to 60dB regardless of how loud your phone is set – it means it’s never going to be above a volume that’s safe for your child’s hearing. Or the table next door.

One thing I would change is to add white noise as standard to the MP3 player. It’s such a popular sleep aid these days and easier to block out by other people. We did get a couple ‘is that your buggy making that noise?’ looks which I think we’d have avoided with a gentle buzz. That said, it’s simple to add additional tracks to the MP3 player or use our phones… I was just being lazy. But hey, I was on holiday so forgive me.

Overall

I loved it. My big fear was mosquito bites and sunburn and this helped prevent both of those. The dark space and the background noise would undoubtedly help soothe any child to sleep and keep them that way. Any child except mine, who chose to be wide awake every evening. Well, it wouldn’t be a holiday without a healthy dose of jetlag now, would it?!

For more information on Lullaby Shades, or to make a purchase, visit their website today!