Thursday, January 26, 2006

Prenatal Education System

I’m sure you’ve all heard reports about babies that develop into geniuses because their mothers played Mozart CDs for them or read novels to them while they were still in the womb?

Well, I feel stupid and self-conscious doing that, but my child will have to compete for a spot in preschool against those kids, so, dammit, I have to do something.

I bought this thing called BabyPlus, which advertises itself as a “prenatal education system.”

This is the product description from their site:

BabyPlus is an audio device that introduces patterns of sound to prenatal children in the only language they understand—the maternal heartbeat. As a baby discriminates the heartbeat sounds of BabyPlus from those of the mother, learning has begun and the child’s brain has been activated in a way never before possible.

Basically you strap an electronic device in a fanny pack to your belly (stop laughing) and it plays sounds.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking. But it probably won’t cause damage (I hope). I mean, read this glowing testimonial from Amazon.com:

I began using the system when I was 18 weeks pregnant but could not keep up the schedule with a fast pace career. I stopped when I was about 31 weeks. I thought that my efforts went down the drain and did not try to look for any benefits from BabyPlus. However, when I went back to the testimonials to compare I realized that my son has accomplished many of the same feats other BabyPlus babies have. I cannot believe that only 13 weeks of using this system had such a positive impact on my son's development. He never had colic, has been extremely happy and expressive since he was born, laughs as if it's rolling from his toes since he was 4 months, latched on immediately after birth and today has a vocabulary of about 50 words, not including animal sounds he can make or hand gestures he's memorized for his favorites songs. I highly recommend this product!

Great, huh!

I’ll let you know in a couple months if product has had any positive effect.



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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The part she didn't tell you is that her son is 12 years old now. Heh.

Jardena said...

Interesting. Having lived the 'must get my child into the right school' game in NYC, I suppose it can't hurt to try to give them a head start. But yikes, of all the things to have to worry about while pregnant.

Hope it works and doesn't give your kid a messed up sense of rhythm for the rest of his/her life :)

Michelle Pessoa said...

Funny, Claude. :)

Michelle Pessoa said...

Word of advice....don't get sucked into the whole diaper genie. Just use use shopping bags instead.

I was thinking of getting one of those diaper pail things. They didn't work for you?

Michelle Pessoa said...

Hope it works and doesn't give your kid a messed up sense of rhythm for the rest of his/her life :)

It makes a thump, thump, thump sound like a tom-tom drum with a low pitch. Just when you start to get bored, the beat does the audio quivalent of a stutter-step and it changes slightly. I can see how that would get the baby's attention and make him/her wonder, what is that? ;)

Heidi said...

Diaper jenie's are not all what they are cracked up to be. My sister in law had one and it was a pain to deal with. I used plastic grocery bags in a covered waste paper basket, worked fine. I think it's great to stimulate a child's mind in the womb and I believe that it works to an extent. I was a parent aid for the county human services agency for a few years and let me tell you, a head start makes all the differance, but how far do you go. The first few hours of a childs life is critical. Breastfeeding and skin to skin contact with LOTS of talking and cudling is the best start you can give them. When I was pregnant with my kids, I always listened to music and at times the classical would settle them down if they had been very active. Sounds funny? hope you are feel well. :)

Anonymous said...

Did BabyPlus work for you? Curious as to what feedback you may have on the product. I'm 23 weeks and am thinking of purchasing... Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I just bought BabyPlus and have used it for three days. After digging into google for a few hours, it seems possible to me that the BabyPlus company is lurking on all these boards and entering in the testimonials themselves. They all sound oddly similar - with a similar structure and perfect grammar and end with a pledge to use it with the next baby. Having said that, I figure it can't hurt. It is not difficult to use. I just strap it on while I'm doing something else, like working on the computer. I even fell asleep with it last night. I put a pillow over it and couldn't hear it. I'm 23 weeks, and the baby seems to have responded to it about half the time. I think she may be bored with this lesson (ha ha).

My husband thinks it is hilarious. But he knows I am a early adopter gadget kind of person, so he is humoring me.

Anonymous said...

hello, i am using this babyplus thing and have the same comment, all the testimonials seem the written by the same person in all other websites...that scares me cause if its a fraud....people who do this may put anything in this silly machine and hurt the baby and feel nothing at all...in fact they say its developed by the "seattle prenatal institute" and i havent found such thing...this guy brent logan i think is a con....im scared but will continue using it...anyone have any comments about this thing?

Michelle Pessoa said...

I used it with my baby. I can't say if it made him who he is, but he's very relaxed and it takes a lot to get him upset. Unusual sounds don't bother him, which is great.