New parents in today’s day and age are under pressure from all sides – separation from the fountain of all knowledge, their own mothers - combined with more advice from all and sundry about what is best for baby. Added pressure comes from the wealth of medical “advice” and growing number of recommendations. It is with some trepidation, then, that I consider bringing a child into the world against what it seems are insurmountable odds.
Temperature is one of the big things these days, especially that temperature that you lay your precious bundle down to rest and medical advice that suggests that heat is a leading contributor to cot death. The Grobag Egg steps into the breach offering a solution in the form of a colour changing thermometer shaped like an egg.
Thermometers are two a penny these days, which is why Grobag have added a twist – it’s also a light. The egg lights up to tell you where on the scale you are in terms of ideal for baby sleeping. The range runs from blue for cold (under 16°C), through yellow for ideal (16-20°C), to orange for warm (21-24°C), to red for hot (over 24°C).
The balance of light is just about right and sleeping with the Egg in the bedroom did not disturb us; a cursory glance reveals the temperature. On the flipside, during the day you won’t be able to see it except in a darkened room.
In terms of design, it is a pretty funky thing, and you could just about get away with having it sitting on the mantelpiece whilst friends come round, without attracting too many wayward glances.
So what is the point? The real point is that Grobag’s main interest is in selling baby sleeping bags, and the thermometer neatly ties into this. From the temperature you can tell what you should be putting your baby to sleep in including the tog rating of your selected Grobag. My mother tells me that I slept in Arctic conditions wrapped in newspaper and smeared in beef dripping, but things have moved on.
Our quick take
Of course, an additional thermometer might be surplus to requirements as an increasing number of other baby gadgets come armed with them, such as baby monitors. With this in mind, we set the thermometers a challenge and lined up a number in a room to see if they all gave the same reading. Sadly they didn’t – the Grobag Egg held the same reading as our indoor/outdoor weather station, whilst the Tomy baby monitor was a degree lower.
Overall, the real selling point was one of aesthetics – it looks good and the wife likes the colour changing lights. Only problem is, she keeps fiddling with the heating to get the thermometer to change colour!
Grobag Egg colour changing thermometer - 4.0 / 5
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To recap
It looks good and it works, but you might not really need it