Getting the temperature right in your baby's room is of utmost importance to any parent. Too cold and your baby may be chilly and unable to sleep. Too warm and your baby can get too hot and this can increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome - every parent's worst nightmare. The ideal room temperature is 16-20ºC. With this in mind, and not being a good judge of temperature at all, I knew I needed to purchase a thermometer for the nursery and opted for this Gro-Egg Room Thermometer.

THE EGG

The Gro-Egg is from the Gro Company who became known for making Gro-Bags that babies sleep in and have since expanded their range to various other baby products. This is, as you'd expect, an egg shaped thermometer that can be placed in baby's room. The egg plugs into an electric socket and contains a digital thermometer and a back lit LCD screen that displays the temperature to one decimal place.

The majority of the egg lights up and there is a colour coded system to indicate the temperature of the room. This doubles up as a nice nightlight for baby's room and means that you can see, at a glance, what the temperature in the room is like. The egg glows blue if the room is too cold, yellow when it is at the right temperature, orange at slightly too warm and red at too hot. The LCD screen also displays a simple face - sad if too cold or hot and happy at the right temperature.

The thermometer prices between £17 and £22 depending on offers etc and is available online as well as in stores such as Boots and Mothercare.

MY OPINION

The thermometer appealed to me for a number of reasons - it's extremely easy to use and you can tell the temperature level at a glance. I liked the fact that it also doubles up as a nightlight and thought it was a really novel concept - my research showed there was nothing even similar on the market. It had also been recommended to us by friends who had loved their Egg, and that is always a good indictment of a product.

I did feel that the price of the thermometer was very high and it was only really because there was nothing similar available and I had fallen in love with the idea of it, that I paid the £18.99 that it cost me.
The thermometer sits nicely on a flat surface and the lead is of suitable length to stretch some way to an electric socket. The push button on the bottom of the egg to switch it on and off is easy to use and not stiff at all. It is really easy to use and I can tell the temperature in my son's room from a glance at the door at any time without having to disturb him. I'm not convinced of the value as a nightlight as it is quite a gentle glow but it is nice none-the-less.

I do find the colours used easy to differentiate - I was initially worried that orange and red may be hard to distinguish between but there is a definite difference. I do find the red colour can be quite dramatic and it can be hard to not become ruled by the Egg! The minute the egg reached red in the summer months, I felt quite panicky and worried about the layers my son was dressed in - I think red is quite a bold, dramatic colour (associated with danger, after all!) and this intensified my panicky feelings! I also feel that, as is probably true with most baby thermometers, it errs on the side of caution and says the room is too hot when perhaps it isn't that bad.

Overall, this is an expensive purchase but it does give me, as a mother, great peace of mind. It is a fabulous concept and I would definitely recommend it.