Product Review: Fisher-Price Select-a-Show Soother

There are many different mobiles and musical soothers on the market. When my 8-month-old daughter began having trouble sleeping, I purchased the Fisher-Price Select-a-Show Soother to try to help her sleep with music and gentle light. I found it to be an overall good product with only some slight problems.

Basic Features

The Fisher-Price Select-a-Show Soother features a soft light show and three different soothing sounds: lullabies, classical music, or nature sounds. It can be set to just project light, or just play music, or to play music and show lights together. It has three volume settings and three time settings: you can choose to play sound and/or project light for 5, 10, or 15 minutes. You will need two "C" batteries, not included.

Sounds

The lullabies and classical music on the Fisher-Price Select-a-Show Soother are soothing, but they can be a bit repetitive. There are only two lullabies, and since they are rather short they repeat quickly. This can get a little irritating. But the music is gentle enough that sleepy parents can easy just tune it out, especially on the lower volume settings. The classical music is much better - still only two songs, but they are longer so it doesn't feel like just an endless loop. The nature sounds on the Fisher-Price Select-a-Show Soother leave something to be desired - they sound a lot like static with some frog croaks thrown in, and you'll need to use the highest volume setting if you want to hear more than the occasional chirp. There are two different nature sounds, accessed by simply pushing the nature button to switch them. The babbling brook is quite pleasant, but the other one with the crickets - what were they thinking? Nobody can sleep with a cricket in their room. It's obnoxious.

Lights

The light show is very nice. The Fisher-Price Select-a-Show Soother comes with three changeable light filters to project different patterns. The first is a set of high-contrast, simple patterns for newborns. The second is more complex patterns for older infants. The third is even more complex shapes for older babies. The light isn't bright enough to be used as a nightlight as advertised on the box, but it does create a nice distraction to help calm a fussy baby.

The light show can be directed to show either on the ceiling on the wall. Simply tilt the Fisher-Price Select-a-Show Soother to shine on the wall, or point it directly upward to shine it on the ceiling. The star can only be tilted to the left side, though. This can be irritating if you have only one table in the room and it's on the wrong side of the crib. You may have to turn the product around backward to get it to shine where you want it, and that will dampen the sound.

Bottom Line

All in all, for around $20, the Fisher-Price Select-a-Show Soother is a good product. It could be better, but it's an affordable product that can help soothe your child to sleep.