Whitney just sent me a link to this cuh-razy looking iPhone/iPod case for babies and toddlers. Whoa. Fisher Price makes it so that little slobbery children can safely handle my electronica. Clever. But evil.
When Milo was nine months old, he grabbed my old school cell phone and slurped it into his mouth. Before I could pry it away from him, he hurled it to the floor. I was never sure whether the saliva or the impact killed the screen. But the phone was no more.
I pride myself on my very strong opinions, but I’m torn on this one. For about $15, would you pick up this gadget? Love it or shove it?
We had something very similar for ipod touches by a company called ifrogz. We had them 2-3 years ago and it was AWESOME for things like plane flights and long road trips. They could watch movies without having to bring a DVD player and if it got dropped on the floor, it was easy to find. It was non-skid also, so if it got dropped on an airplane, it didn’t slide to a different row.
So… love it.
We have this and love it. My 22 month old daughter gravitates to our iPhones and most of the time it is ok, but on plane or at a restaurant we don’t want her slimy hands all over our phone. I have an old iTouch that I use in this case and it is great. Since she is forced to hold the case instead of the phone she is much better at navigating to what she wants to play with. I don’t think that I could use it with my phone though since it is a bit of a hassle taking the device in and out of the case.
It is great that you can link to it so that you can attach it to a stroller or on a plane we put the other end of the links to a belt loop and it makes for easy retrieval. It is definitely well worth the $15
I’m torn on encouraging directly the use of a phone only for baby, but that being said we don’t exclusively restrict our almost 2yr old from using the old iPhone clunking around the house. It is instead housed in an OtterBox, impact and water (or saliva) resistant and loaded with a small assortment of basic baby/toddler apps. As it is it’s not so alluring as a child-specific one that screams “i’m so babies will play with me!” but still protected should she decide she wants to play with it or eat it.
Nope, not for this family.
We used it on a long overseas flight. It works well to protect the device, but it’s a pain when your kid wants a different app or show. You have to have a coin on hand to open it up from the back, remove it, change the app, put it back, close it with the coin, only to have your toddler change their mind again. I’m going to keep it, but I’m not sure I would buy again.
Noooo. No way am I encouraging the kids to handle these expensive little devices, protected or not.
no way. sorry to be selfish, but my phone is for ME. my kindle is for ME. i dont have any kid apps or kids books on either thing and i wont ever.
@Liz, the video reviewer on the amazon page suggested that you put the device in upside-down rather than having to unscrew the case every time.
@CM and @Heather Believe me, I appreciate a hard line with electronics but I wonder how old your babies are that you haven’t been a little tempted to hand over the devices.
@Kirsten, that’s sort of what we do now. Only for trips. In a plan black protective case that doesn’t scream MY KIDS HAVE THEIR OWN IPHONES.
not for us. no screen time until he was two. now that he’s 3, we do a little bit on weekends. I don’t think apps for babes are appropriate at all
(Almost) 1 and 5. I sometimes take videos of my older son on my phone and let him watch them, but I try not to hand over my phone otherwise. I’m going to hold out for as long as possible — while he’s old enough to actually use the devices on his own, and we don’t object to screen time in general, I don’t want him to get the idea that he’s allowed to touch our phones.
Um, no thank you. My baby can play with plenty of toys that are not-electronic, but still intriguing. Why in the world do babies neeeeed screens?! And here I thought sophie the giraffe was an expensive baby toy… My (nearly) 2.5 year old is still not allowed to hold the iphone herself. Because the moment she gets access to that, I will NEVER be allowed to use it for myself again!
My preschooler plays Angry Birds on our tablet, but no electronics for the baby.
My child (15months) carries my iphone around 🙂 She taught me that you can start the music without unlocking the phone.. was surprising. But, all she does is carry it – she doesn’t play on it. I’m torn about if and when she will be introduced to games. but, I’m quite certain that by the time I would let her mess with it, that this looks a little too baby-ish? I dunno.. it looks like a rattle, so it looks like a toy for the under-1 crowd. I think I’d go for something like a PP mentioned – the otterbox.
My husband works for Verizon and our son got this for Christmas from an aunt. When my husband took it into work all his co workers agreed it was a great way to end up with a broken iPhone.
I thought it was a great idea at first and even bought one for a friend until I realized how difficult it is to open and close.
We got a coupon for one of the baby stores and got it for $10. At a few weeks old while hanging with daddy on his chair LO was glued to the ipad screen. I’m sure with daddy being as techy as he is the LO will be playing with and itouch so might as well try to be careful with it.