We have had a variety of night lights and Beth is only just 2 1/2 years old! We started using a monitor base station as a night light when she was first born so there was just a gentle glow in the room for night changing and feeding. Now Beth is in her own room she has to have a brighter night light on as she wants a bit more than a gentle glow – fear of the dark has definitely kicked in! But when you buy a night light you’re never too sure just how bright it’s going to be.
Simple Night Light Design and Safe
When we received the Babytec Autofade Bedside Light the first thing I noticed was it’s simple design and as the bottom is secured to the top using a screw it is definitely tricky for little fingers to get inside to the bulb. There are also vents at the back of the light to allow for airflow.
Due to its simple design it would fit in with any nursery colour scheme and we actually had it in our front room for a night or two to test out the brightness and auto fade setting.
Simple Functions and Buttons
I like the fact the functions are useful and simple: on / off, bright, dim and autofade. There are just 2 buttons so it is super simple to operate:
Top button: touch it once and the light will very gradually dim to off – it’s so gradual that you don’t even notice it changing. It takes 15 minutes to fade completely.
Bottom button: on / off if just touched momentarily.
Bottom button: from dim to bright – once the light is on, just hold your finger on the bottom button and it gets brighter and brighter. Once it’s at its brightest it will then start to dim right down to the lowest dim. You simply release your finger when the light is at the brightness you desire.
As the buttons are so simple by the next day Beth knew exactly how to turn it on – although she didn’t realise that night lights aren’t really needed during the day, but at least she liked her new light!
Autofade
This is a great feature if you don’t want your little one to have the night light on all night, but they still need a light on when they first go to bed. Once the light is on, if you touch the upper button once it will gradually dim the light all the way down to off over a period of 15 minutes. Beth does take a little bit longer than this to drift off to sleep, so for me I would have liked the autofade period to be 30 minutes perhaps, but I think that 15 minutes would probably be long enough for most little ones.
Everything in One Box
I really like the fact that everything you need is all in one box – you just need a long Philips screw driver (or as I would say … a cross screw driver!) to secure the screw in place. It even comes with a bulb (a small 25w screw in bulb) so you’re ready to go from day one. I also like that it comes with a 2 year guarantee, giving you extra reassurance that it will last a while.
Compared to Other Night Lights
Apart from using the Angelcare Monitor and now Tomy Digital Video Plus monitor, we have also used a couple of night lights from IKEA – a wall mounted flower night light that comes in a variety of shapes and colours and uses a low energy bulb as well as a rechargeable Animal Night Light that changes colour.
Using the monitor base stations as a night light is fine if you really only want a gentle glow so you can just about make out what is what and the Animal Night Light from IKEA is much the same except it’s rechargeable so you can unplug it at night and move it a bit closer to your little one as there’s no danger of leads.
When it came to purchasing a proper night light for Beth I was very conscious that I didn’t want it to be too bright, we had already tried a very low lamp for a night or two and very quickly realised that too much light = too much play time! We had to find something that was somewhere in between. We have been using the IKEA flower night light for a while now and it does look really pretty and can be wall mounted, but I do feel that when I check on Beth before we all go to bed that her bedroom still does feel just a little bit too bright.
The Babytec Autofade Bedside Light has such a brilliant range of brightness that I can’t imagine you won’t find a brightness / dimness that doesn’t suit you and I think this is probably the best feature of the lamp. Also, as it can sit on a side table or chest of drawers and there are no switches it is so easy for a little one to turn it on if they need to in the middle of the night for example … although for some maybe this is a disadvantage?!
As the lowest dim level is really very low I would also suggest it for a night light that can be used for new born night-time feeds and changes as it’s not bright enough to startle them!
Where to Buy a Babytec Autofade Night Light:
These night light can be purchased through BabyHuddle.
