SensorySoothe just might be the ultimate anti-"sad beige baby" tech.
Launched this week at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, SensorySoothe is the latest offering from the children's products company Evenflo. It's a first-of-its-kind car seat handle with built-in speakers and a color-changing light bar, and it's supposed to distract and calm infants on the go when Mom or Dad are busy driving. It's also plugged as a new alternative to traditional car seat toys, which can turn into dangerous projectiles in the event of a car crash.
SensorySoothe will be available on some of the company's premium car seats and travel system strollers this February, and we got to check some of them out at Tuesday's ShowStoppers media showcase. IRL, they looked like the perfect places for one-baby raves.
Geared toward preemies and infants from three to 30 pounds, SensorySoothe seats and systems can be controlled using on-device buttons, voice commands, or with the Evenflo mobile app. The light bar has presets for a variety of different colors and effects to suit infants' preferences and specific developmental stages. (As newborns, for instance, we really only see red.) Evenflo Product Manager Matt Lewis told Mashable that the app can send parents push notifications to change a setting if their baby may have grown out of one. There's also an ambient nightlight option.
Speaking as a 386-month-old, I liked the rainbow preset the best — it made the car seats Evenflo was demoing look like Razer Chroma gaming devices.
Parents are also able to pick different pre-loaded sounds for the SensorySoothe to play, including white noise, lullabies, bird chirps, and common children's songs, which can be synced to the light bar's patterns. (Spoiler: There's no "Baby Shark." You're welcome.) Lewis said the speakers meet standard regulations for safe levels of noise.
The SensorySoothe is powered by four AA batteries and should last 15 to 30 hours before it needs new ones — great for road trips.
For parents interested in adding one to their registry, SensorySoothe products will start at $259 for a car seat and $649 for a travel system. Look for them at retailers like Babylist, Amazon, Target, and Walmart in a few weeks.
