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I normally don't really do a lot of reviews on the blog, but honestly this experience was so hysterical I just had to share.
As anyone who knows and talks to me for more than two seconds would tell you, I don't get a lot of sleep. I'm normally walking around looking like a glorified zombie most days, I can't remember the last time I really looked in a mirror to see how bad that problem has gotten.
The lack of sleep is due to my son. See due in part to undiagnosed food allergies when he was younger (not for certain, but it's my theory) and the autism as he got older, my son has been on the newborn sleep cycle (two hours sleep, up one hour if I'm lucky, down for two more hours, etc) since he was born. It has not been fun.
The result of this sleep deprivation has resulted in me buying pretty much anything mentioned on any autism site that says it MIGHT help autistic children to sleep.
Thus how I found out about the Cloud B Ladybug Twilight Constellation Night Light. They recommended it as a means to help autistic kids to sleep (other than Melatonin,which didn't work with Alvah when I tried it, and I'm worried about trying different forms of it due to having to give him allergy meds every day. Don't want any weird reactions occuring).
My husband was going to be going out of town for work this week, so I ordered the nightlight with a good week and a half to spare time-wise. And waited with baited breath for it to come in.
The funny part comes in when my brain synapses finally connected AFTER I'd gotten and tried the light and I realized how very badly I'd misread my son.
First, I'd like to give my impression of the night light itself. This night light is awesome. Seriously, I'd have loved to have had this night light as a child. The night light comes in the form of a stuffed lady bug (you can also order it in a turtle form I believe) and when you turn it on, which is easy to do, it projects stars all over the ceiling and walls.
Not only does it project said stars on the wall, but there's actual constellations that are projected, so you can teach your child about Leo the Lion and some other constellations (I'd name off the constellations for you, but my son chewed up the booklet it came with). You can also choose between three colors: red, blue or green. The red is the most subdued of the colors, but the green and blue are very nice and bright and it's lit by LEDs so it stays cool.
My son was throwing a tantrum about going to bed the other night, so I turned the night light on (it even comes with batteries by the way) and left the room for a second to field my daughter. The light completely freaked my son out at first because he didn't know where the lights were coming from. When I heard the freaked out screams I quickly rushed back into the room to check on Alvah and placed the night light beside him on the bed and showed him how to turn the night light on and off and how to switch the colors with the easy to use buttons. He immediately calmed down when I did that, so I went and read my daughter a bedtime story and figured that when I went back into his room he'd be asleep.
Dumb me.
See my son loves movement and colors. So, of course, I go back into the room and he's switching colors on the night light from one color to another, bouncing the lady bug on the bed by his hyper active movements, which made it even better for him, and he was laughing like a maniac. Since then it has become a favorite night time toy of his, but I can definitely say with utter certainty that it does NOT put him to sleep in any way shape or form.
On the other hand, my daughter has always been afraid of the dark and has slept with a light on most of her life (night light or other). The first time she saw the lady bug night light she was enthralled and fell in love with it almost immediately.
So, in short, my son gets to play with the nightlight about an hour before bedtime and then it's put into my daughter's room to lull her to sleep at night (it's got a 44 minute auto shut off function on it too. Very neat!). So, while this experiment definitely back fired, it has helped my daughter's sleep be more peaceful so I can't really complain.
So, for non autistic kids I'd say this nightlight is a keeper. For autistic kids...well know your autistic kid before you order this out of desperation or you might end up like me and having a new and interesting toy to play with instead of a sleep aid *laugh*.
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