St. Louisan Bob Steffen invented a very interesting product for St. Louis Dad to try out. They sent over this little device called Driver’s Little Helper. Essentially what it is is a bluetooth enabled device that connects to your smart phone and can send you notifications about your child while they are in their car seat.
There are news stories every week about a parent or guardian who has left their child in the car, or a car being too hot, or a child managing to get out of their car seat because they were not buckled in properly. Driver’s Little Helper is set to make it easier for you to know what your child is up to while you are paying attention to the road. The install and setup is really easy. Place the batteries in the device, connect the device to your child’s car seat, place the padded sensor under the fabric of the seat, power on and connect it to your smart phone.
Immediately the devices begins calculating temperature and pressure. The device works with children of any weight so even if you have the tiniest of little ones you can be sure this device will alert you if your child manages to get out of their seat. My son Alex didn’t even realize he was actually sitting on the padded sensor. He is oblivious to the data being sent to dad and mom’s phone and just goes about his day looking out the window or playing with a handful of car toys.
So along with temperature and movement, the device also can let you know if you somehow managed to forget your precious cargo in the car. I’m not exactly sure how someone can forget their kid in the car but if you are one of those types of parents or guardians, then picking up this device can save your child’s life. We tried it out parked in our own driveway with mom still in the car with Alex and it worked. My iPhone alerted me that I had forgot Alex!
The device itself works exactly as described. It does an excellent job at notifying you if there is a change in weight, temp, or if your car is idle and you had not removed your child from the car seat. I have no complaints about how this product works except for one thing and that is the fact that this relies on you to use an app and to respond to the notifications while in a car. I understand that there wouldn’t be a good way to get a parent this data in another way but I do feel like us as parents bury our faces in our phones far too often already, combine that with driving and you have a deadly mix.
So what do you do if you were to get a notification that your child is out of their seat or is just a little too warm? Do not get flustered swiping and looking at your phone, there is more risk created now that your child is out of their seat and you’re not paying attention to the road. My recommendation for this is simple, be careful. Stay focused on the road and if you need to, pull over if possible. Don’t let the notification be something that takes your attention from the road. Let it be a head’s up that you need to pull over and take care of your baby. DriversLittleHelper.com recommends pulling over to respond to the notifications as well, but sometimes pulling over may not be the safest depending on where you are when you receive the notification. Just remember to be safe when using the device and to follow all rules of the road.
All in all I think this product is definitely a positive step in the right direction for our technologically connected society. I can imagine that parents would find Driver’s Little Helper to be exactly what they need to make sure their children are safe and comfortable strapped into their car seat. St. Louis’ cold winters and hot summers can be hard on a little one and this can be just one more way to protect the most important thing in your car.
Check out the video below to learn more about Driver’s Little Helper and see what it can do for you!
Your little one grown out of their car seat? They have sensor pads for toddlers!
Connect with Driver’s Little Helper on Twitter and Facebook and download the app from the Android and Apple store today!
St. Louis Dad was provided with a sample product as compensation in exchange for an honest review. Check out the Driver’s Little Helper website for additional information today!
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