Since becoming a parent, my wife and I have been grappling with the wide disconnect between science and marketing when it comes to products aimed at children exhausted, decision-addled parents.
Having the time, the money, and the choice to shop around for different baby products is a huge privilege.
But the decisions have to be made, the stakes are real, and the shops don't make it easy:
| Science | Marketing |
|---|---|
| The NHS says "sugars should not be added to food or drinks given to babies"¹ | The baby aisle in Tesco hawks items like Farley's Rusk "for all ages" which are 30% sugar. |
| The NHS says "do not use talcum powder"² on nappy rash | It's literally still sold as 'baby powder' |
| The World Health Organization sets time limits³ for volumes over 80 dB | Wirecutter⁴ tested 190 headphones marketed to kids. Only 9 of them stayed under 80 dB... |
Are any headphones really safe for my kid?
Having finally bought a pair, I can say firsthand: a quiet car journey, with an uninterrupted conversation, for the first time in 2 years... It's an absolute revelation.
I spent way too long down this particular rabbit hole, but 3 factors make it all too easy to give your kid a dangerous pair of headphones:
- The high cost of childcare makes 20 minutes of entertainment extremely valuable.
- Headphones are everywhere: the Sony Walkman is 46 years old, you can pick up a pair for £2 or less.
- Although plenty of headphones are marketed to kids, almost none of them effectively limit the volume to safe levels.
The World Health Organization sets a safe volume limit of 80 dB for up to 40 hours per week. Turning it up to 90 dB reduces the safe listening time to just 4 hours³.
Yet many 'volume-limited' or 'safe' kids headphones have limits that are either too high or trivially easy to override by double pressing a button or putting a cable in the wrong way.
Several of Wirecutter's tested 'kids' headphones went up to 114 dB. This volume can cause irreversible hearing damage before a single song has finished.
Wirecutter's top recommendation is the Puro BT 2200 Plus. Which, according to their own tests, can exceed 90 dB — unsafe if used for just 35 minutes each day³. They also cost an eye-watering £80.
These are for kids. They need to be cheap. We all know they're going to end up dipped in milk 'for science'.
So far, I've found just one pair of headphones that is actually safe for kids and meets all of my other criteria:
| Criterion | Philips TAK4200 |
|---|---|
| Cheap | £22 on sale |
| ~80dB volume limit | Configurable via the app on my phone between 75 and 85dB. And from my testing the limit actually works. |
| Audio sharing | Yes! Once the first pair is connected, a second pair can piggyback. |
| Good battery life | 45 hours advertised |
| USB-C charging | Yes |
| Bluetooth connectivity | Yes |
| Foldable | Yes |
| No but, as I discovered, wired headphones are often the worst offenders for misadvertising volume limits because they rely on the signal strength coming from the device. |
How is my kid going to transport her perfectly quartered grapes to kindergarten?
All food containers should be:
- leakproof
- nestable
- microwaveable
- dishwashable
- freezable
- BPA-free⁵
I've found precisely one range that fits the bill, and some you can close one-handed while you juggle a toddler! Bonus points if you pick different sizes with interchangeable lids.
What about keeping her pasta above 60°C till lunch?
Hydro Flask Insulated Food Jar 20oz / 591ml
A lot of good Thermos-style insulated food containers are annoyingly tall, making them only good for soup-slurping adults.
Hydro Flask make one of the few that a toddler can actually get their fun-size fork into. It is (of course) leakproof, dishwashable, and BPA-free⁵.
How do I get 20 drops of vitamin D into my breastfed newborn's mouth?!
Check the dosage! Breastfed babies need 8.5-10 micrograms per day⁷ (it's already in formula).
'Baby Ddrops' is concentrated so you just need a single drop on a nipple. We learned the hard way that, despite the name, 'Mini Drops' actually has a massive 1ml dosage, only useful if you're expressing and bottle feeding.