Over the past year, my husband Daniel and I have been learning a bit more about kids toys.  Having been a teacher, I always like looking at the different learning tools that are on the market since I never know what I may eventually use when we have children, or can give little ones in our family for holidays. We have experimenting with buying quite a few toys for our little niece, as well as our best friend's son and daughter.  During one of our trips to Florida last year, we saw that my little niece was very happy playing with Daddy's smart phone and listening to kid music.  The only problem was that…well…smart phones aren't exactly kid proof! Since her birthday would be in August, we were asked if there was any way we could find an MP3 player that would be able to withstand a toddler.

Thinking this would be an easy task, I started looking online, going to nearly every toy manufacturer I could think of on Amazon.  Every MP3 player made for children was meant for kids older than a toddler, or wasn't safe for kids.  After awhile, I gave up thinking that such a thing existed.  How could no one have thought to create an MP3 player for toddlers, especially in this day and age?

Just when I was about to give up, we found it. While looking for t-shirts for Daniel on Think Geek, I saw the cutest little MP3 player – the Baby Bidou Bear. From what I was seeing, this was everything we were looking for and more! Having had our prime membership on Amazon, we looked to see if Amazon carried this toy, which at the time, they did not.  Even though it was a bit pricey, we were for certain that our niece would love this little bear, so we purchased it.  A year later, and a second purchase later, here is what we all think of the Baby Bidou MP3 player.

Installation

Almost immediately after our niece opened the Baby Bidou MP3 player, my brother turned to Daniel and told the computer engineer to make it work.  Luckily, Daniel and I saw this coming. On the way to my brother's house, we picked up a pack of AA batteries, remembering that we had read on the box that batteries were not included.  As anyone who buys kids toys knows, most kids toys do not come with batteries, so it's always better to air on the side of caution to make sure there isn't a meltdown over a dead toy.

While purchasing the batteries was very easy, getting them in the Baby Bidou MP3 player was a completely different matter.  To protect your child and the player itself, the Baby Bidou has a protective cap covering the USB outlet, parental controls, and battery case. While getting the screw out of the protective cap is a bit of a pain, it is worth it when you realize this is protect your child and the toy from unneeded injuries.  Remember, while it looks like a toy, it is a delicate piece of equipment, so it needs that extra protection around its most sensitive components. Once the cap was off of this toddler MP3 player, however, getting the batteries in and music installed was extremely easy.  Since my brother didn't have any music that wasn't on his phone, we purchased the 150 Fun Songs for Kids MP3 soundtrack on Amazon for $6.99.  Since the Baby Bidou MP3 player has two GB of flash storage, this gave her plenty of music to listen to while not even filling her bear with music. If you have a hard time visualizing how much music a 2 Gig hard drive can hold, this is roughly 32 hours of music.  To put the music on this bear, we just used the USB cable that was included and moved music into the folder on the bear once it was recognized by Daniel's Windows laptop (the box said it will also work with Macs and Linux machines, but we didn't test this) .  The hardest part was waiting for the music to transfer over, making it perfect for my not very tech savvy brother if he desired to put more music on his daughter's bear. 

Durability

Having spent some teaching small children, my first concern with the Baby Bidou MP3 player was how long it would last. Most electronics made for kids don't have a very long life, lasting about a month to three months.  The Baby Bidou Bear itself is built like a tank, designed to withstand a two story fall.  Our niece put this to the test by throwing it against walls and against the concrete outside.  While it may have a few scratches, it still operated well over a year handling the abuse of a small child. The makers designed it to last for years, and with how it is made, I could believe it! To clean the toy, all you need to do is wipe it clean with a damp cloth.  As well, this baby toy meets the CE safety standards for children below 36 months, making it safe for children of all ages.

Kid Friendly

One of the things everyone loved about the Baby Bidou MP3 player is that it is just so kid friendly! From the moment our niece saw this bear playing music she wouldn't let it out of her sight! If she wasn't carrying it around with her, it was in her baby carriage, getting wheeled around with one of her new baby dolls. This little bear even went to bed with her since she enjoyed going to sleep listening to her kids songs.  Since the Baby Bidou MP3 player  has a built in sleep time function, this made it perfect for lullabies or listening to music in bed. After a certain time of inactivity, the bear will shut off on its own to not waste the toys batteries.  As you can guess, this was a big plus for Mommy and Daddy since this made bedtime just a little more fun!

We were also surprised just how user friendly the Baby Bidou MP3 bear was for little ones to use. It has only 8 buttons (play, stop, sleep, record, volume, preview, and next) with only some of these buttons working if parents use the parent control option. The parental control options are also really nice since they allow parents to control the volume on the toy to make sure it doesn't get too loud.  If you do not want to use the built in hi-fi mono speakers, parents can also use headphone by plugging them into the bear's audio output jack. One other really cute feature that we loved about the Baby Bidou bear was that it has a built in microphone where parents can record messages for their children.  We unfortunately didn't have time to test this setting, so we aren't sure how well it works.

Since she loved this bear so much, we ended up buying another Baby Bidou MP3 player for our mutual best friend's daughter. Even though it took a bit longer for her to play with it (she is younger than our niece) she is just now starting to play with it and loves it as well.  Everyone who has seen the Baby Bidou MP3 player thinks it's the cutest toy and asks where they can find one for their own kids.  Right now, this toy is my preferred toy to send to anyone who is having kids since it is just so entertaining, useful and beneficial for developing kids!

What Others Think

I really couldn't be more impressed with the Baby Bidou MP3 player.  With how much my niece loved this little bear MP3 player, I have a feeling Daniel and I will likely be purchasing another one of these MP3 bears when we have children.  If you are looking for a toy for any child six months or older, Daniel and I highly recommend purchasing this adorable MP3 player.

Currently on Amazon.com, the Baby Bidou MP3 player has a 3.5 out of 5 star rating.  Since this player is still fairly new on Amazon, I expect it will have a higher rating before long (the only bad review is someone having problems getting it to work on a Mac).  This little player is really one of the best kept secrets for kids and can really be a lifesaver for busy parents!

Where to Purchase

When we purchased the Baby Bidou MP3 player, only one place had it for sale in the United States – ThinkGeek. It was originally an exclusive item for them, but now they are no longer selling it and the manufacturer recommends purchasing it from Amazon.com.  I really wish it was available on Amazon when we purchased both of our Baby Bidous since not only were they cheaper, but available in more designs and colors, such as …. 

• Green Flower
• Orange
• Nightime Blue
• Ivory/Brown (what we purchased)
• Pink
• Baby Blue
• Lime Green
• Chocolate Brown

If you are a prime member, this is an even better deal since you can have this shipped right to your home within two business days for free. We also learned from experience when we purchased my mother in law her Kindle Fire that Amazon has amazing customer service.  With amazing customer service and free shipping, why wouldn't everyone want to purchase items from Amazon?

What Others Think

Want to see what others have to say about the Baby Bidou MP3 player? Click on the picture below to read more reviews by others who have purchased this fun MP3 player made just for little kids!

About Susan Bewley

Susan Bewley is a professional writer and blogger who has been writing content online and in private print format for the past decade. When not writing for Budget Earth or Mew Review, she can be found busily working at her professional copywriting company - The Muses Pen.