LittleHippo Mella: Kids Alarm Clock, Ready to Rise Children's Sleep Trainer, Night Light, Sound Machine and OK to Wake for Toddlers and Kids - Blush Pink (Updated 2025)

Short version: We are very happy with this purchase and would highly recommend this product. We use it as intended for bedtime and “quiet time” (independent play in bedroom instead of nap time) for our three year old. Mella boasts many useful features and is easy to set up. Once you train your child on Mella’s cues, this product could give you back hours of sleep. Want more info? Read on. :) ———- Update 2 (July 2025, after 4.5 yrs.): Mella is so well made that she’s still running perfectly! Just a side note. The Little Hippo company is very responsive to customers, which I’ve been so impressed by. I needed to call them about buying a different product of theirs, and their customer service was very cheerful and helpful. They listen to feedback and make alterations, if necessary. One of which is that the “playtime” yellow light that other reviews complain is able to be turned off easily now, or set to different lengths of time. They made that update before I bought our Mella. Also, the red light is actually red, not pink. Update (April 2024, after 3.5 years): Mella has continued working great! The product is still so helpful with our oldest child and now our middle child, who shares a room with our oldest. We have a child with high functioning autism, and Mella has been a lifesaver with that child’s anxiety regarding bedtime issues (when to stay in bed, wake up, get up, etc.). Mella is a staple in our home, and we’re going to buy another for our youngest child’s room now. I still highly recommend Mella! ——— Original Review: As expected, we needed to teach our child how to respond to Mella’s cues, but once he understood that and we reinforced our expectations through reward and consequence, our son stopped waking us up at ridiculously early hours in the morning. Training our pretty stubborn and resistant-to-change son to use Mella took around three weeks or so, but it has been so worth it. In addition to waking later, he has mostly stopped the middle of the night wakes, which is great! Mella is also such a nice clock to keep him in his room for his post-lunch quiet time. It works like a charm! In order for the transition to go smoothly, we started the Mella wake time close to the time he was already waking and then slowly and incrementally made that time later to our desired wake time. After that, we taught our son about the “play time” feature which automatically turns on for thirty minutes before the green light, if you select that feature. Our son went from waking us around 5:30 AM to now waking at 7:00 with Mella and then playing quietly and independently in his room until 7:30 AM. AAAND because we use the setting with a quiet light cue (turns green), sometimes our son is so busy that he doesn’t even notice and keeps playing, allowing us even more extra sleep (or extra time with baby). We recently were away from home and didn’t bring Mella, and boy, did we regret it! We didn’t realize how often our son wakes at night, but looks at Mella and goes back to sleep. It gives him security and fosters independence through the “okay to wake” cues. Without Mella, he runs to us in the dead of night desperately asking if it is morning time yet (can’t rely on daylight because of our latitude and gloomy climate). We will be buying an extra cord (since we affixed the provided cord to the wall for safety) so we can bring Mella with us on trips. You can buy an extra cord on LittleHippo’s website for around $7 after shipping. All of the features are very useful and set up is intuitive. You can choose from quite a few nightlight colors, and the set colors that Mella uses are yellow for play time and green for “okay to wake/leave room.” We personally use red at night because it is a more sleep-friendly color and we can say, “red means stay in bed.” Mella has both audible and visual (green light) alarms (you can select either), various sound machine-type white noise sounds, and nap time features, as well as a child lock. Our son would easily switch off the lock though, so we just put Mella out of reach. Our son loves that “Mella” (we call it by its product name) has a face and a personality of sorts. Mella is happy when awake, playful during playtime, and asleep during bedtime. It is an endearing little clock that our son loves. We plan on using it for years to come and changing the settings as our son’s needs change. Maybe he’ll eventually need an alarm to wake him up? It is important to note that although this clock comes with batteries, they are only present to save your settings in the case of the clock losing its power supply (power outage or unplugged). Because of all the features it boasts, Mella needs to be plugged in at all times to work. I found this was the case in the majority of “okay to wake” clocks. Because our son is very curious and will not leave electronics alone, we placed Mella on a floating shelf and covered the cord with a cord protector (see pics). We have no complaints about this clock, and are so thankful that it exists. Our only suggestion would be that LittleHippo consider making a wall mounted clock that can run on rechargeable batteries (charge via USB-type cable). It could attach to the wall via magnets so it’s easy to take down and recharge every couple/few days. Perhaps it could have a simpler design so that it doesn’t use as much energy to run? Thank you, LittleHippo, for such a quality product! You’ve made our lives so much easier. :)

Update on 5Jul2018- FANTASTIC CUSTOMER SERVICE (also, a solid product) So, I'm updating my original review (shown below). I should have done this a couple of months ago after I received a letter from Mella in response to my first review. After my original 3-star review with the "good and the bad," Mella sent me a personalized letter thanking me for my review, apologizing for what I found frustrating, and averring that they were already working on incorporating some fixes to the next version. Honestly, I was shocked but super IMPRESSED that they took the time out to do this. I even showed my dad the letter (who had just launched some goods on Amazon himself), and told him that this is what customer service is all about. I meant to update this post at that time, but since I suck, I forgot. Anyway, we've been using the clock now for several months now, and even though it was a little louder than we expected, the clock itself is rock-solid with the features and performance. While my original review for 3 stars hinged on the volume, we have grown quite accustomed to it and it doesn't bother our daughter one bit. I'm honestly so blown away by their customer service; a young start-up that takes the time to personally address my "concerns" when it would have been way easier to just ignore it is a great way to start out. Best of luck to Mella. You've made a great product. The GOOD: -super sleek design, very fetching -sturdy and well-made -multiple adjustable functions (sleep-wake light cycle, alarm, sound machine, night light) -multiple night lights -alarm sound options are great The BAD (and the reason for 3 stars instead of 5): = The sound function is incredibly loud. I know a lot of people exaggerate on reviews, but seriously. The sound-machine has three volume levels, and the lowest one can be heard down the hall (we listen to the "ocean" one). Maybe if this clock were on the other side of the room instead of the night-table by my daughter's bed, it might be better...but it's still audible through the door. = In a similar vein, the night-light brightness is not adjustable. The light options are great and soft and soothing, but honestly are too bright (in my medical opinion) to promote healthy somnolence when trying to put down a 4 year old who "isn't sleepy yet." = (Preface, this next point did not weigh-in for my rating, but is a suggestion for the "next model" if anyone from MELLA is looking in.) I wish there were an easy night-light button, so that when my kid wakes up in the middle of the night she could easily press it to get another 30 min or whatever of night light. As it is now, all the buttons are on the bottom of the clock. There are six buttons which are identical, but in the dark you can't see what each are for.

For my concise opinion scroll to the last paragraph. Otherwise, I have a very in depth review of how we used this machine. I purchased this light alarm clock for my daughter (who turned 2 in August) in November. A little background on my toddler. She is very stubborn and strong willed. Has big emotions and very clingy to me (mom). I was having issues with her throwing huge fits and wanting out of her crib early in the morning. She would scream nonstop “get me out” until I would come and get her. Needless to say, I was not about to let her get up that early or allow her to “scream me into submission.” First transition: sleep function set for desired “time to get out of crib.” The first morning we used this she woke up early and was yelling to get out. I told her over our camera microphone to look at “Mella” (we just kept the cute name of the clock). I told her, “Mella is YELLOW. That means ALMOST time to get out. When Mella is GREEN, mom will come get you.” The clock stays yellow for a total of 30 minutes, but she had to wait about 15 for it to turn green. I had to remind her, “mom will come when Mella is green” a few more times over the camera, but when it turned green I opened the door and exclaimed, “Mella is GREEN! It’s time to get out!” I acted very excited and kept reinforcing that GREEN means time to get out. That system worked SEAMLESSLY for the next few months. If she woke up before the clock turned green she would wait quietly until it turned. Once it turned green she would yell, “Mom, Mella’s green!” The clock stays green for one hour after turning on, which was great for when she slept in. Fast forward to January. We transitioned her to a new room and “big kid bed.” I was very nervous about her staying in bed/her room. Second transition: keeping her in her ROOM until the light turned green. Since she was already used to the “Mom will get me when the light turns green” method, the transition was a BREEZE. She would play happily in her room until the light turned green and then would knock on her door and tell me it was time for her to get out. So great! Then, about a week later she started getting out of bed at night, turning on her lamp and playing when she was supposed to be in bed. It was a struggle. Third transition: keeping her in bed for bedtime. We used the red light function as a night light and told her, “When Mella’s red, stay in bed.” I told her over and over at bed time and had her repeat it after me. After I left the room I watched her on our camera. She went to the end of the bed, but did not get out, looked at the light for a little bit and laid back down. I WAS SHOCKED! Especially after such nighttime battles before! Our most recent transition: we now use the clock for “rest time.” Since transitioning out of a crib, it was difficult to get her to take naps. She quickly figured out how easy it was to get out and play. I had to accept that maybe she wouldn’t nap anymore, but wanted her to have a “quiet time” for an hour in her room. She can nap or play, but she needs to stay in her room. So, I used the nap function. I set the light to blue and again tell her that, “When Mella’s green mom will come get you.” Sometimes she naps, sometimes she plays during that time. But the best part is that I get a break and she has a physical indicator of when mom will be back. Overall I have absolutely LOVED this method for my toddler. I was shocked that given her strong personality it would be a long struggle to get her to cooperate. But it honestly worked so great! So lastly, I want to talk about why I gave 4 stars instead of 5. I wish I could give this machine a 4.5. Here is why: - light functions: 5 - light brightness: 4 (A little too bright in my opinion, but doesn’t seem to be an issue for our child) - sleep mode: 5 - nap mode: 5 - child lock: 5 (my toddler did figure out how to unlock it, but we just put it on a high dresser so she can’t mess with it. I give it a 5 because it’s there and isn’t glaringly obvious to operate to a toddler) - set up: 5 (super easy, didn’t even read directions, very intuitive) - cuteness: 5 (my daughter loves the little face. Especially when it “blinks”!) - Sound alarm: N/A (We haven’t used this, yet) - Noise functions: 2, at best So this would be my only truly negative opinion on this machine. The noise is very quiet and not very pleasant sounding. It’s not a huge deal for us though because we just use a different white noise machine for our daughter. If you‘ve read all the way to this point, congrats! The last paragraph is a short summary of how I feel about the machine overall. Overall, this light clock method worked WONDERS for my stubborn, emotional, wonderful 2 year old daughter. Great for naps/playtime and bedtime. Lights are a little on the bright side (which may or not be good for your child) and the white noise/soothing sounds function is subpar. Would recommend to others!

I bought this clock for my 2.5 year old boy who kept getting out of bed before 5:30 am, and I wanted him to have something in his room to let him know when he could get out of his room so he wouldn’t wake up his younger brother. The setup was simple and very easy to work through. It is a lot easier to get my son to sleep as well. The clock face will go to sleep at bed time and wake up when it is time to wake up. There’s been a couple of times where my son would not want to go to bed, but I will look over at the clock and look back at him at your clock and sleeping so you need to go to sleep and when clock works except you can wake up. And it helps a lot with the visual representation. The readability is really simple and easy to see. My son really loves his new clock.

TLDR: If your kid wakes up way too early, buy this clock and get a routine going. It works. Picture this: You're snug in your end, it's 4am and you are in a deep sleep, when suddenly you ar jolted awake. It must be an emergency, right? No. It's just your 5 year old, up before the sun. "Mom, I'm hungry." Those were the first words I heard every morning, like clockwork, around 4am. Who TF wakes up that early?! We'd been trying "You sleep when the sun sleeps." That worked for a while, but the sub stays out late in the summer and comes up early. So we got this clock and never looked back. This clock is very simple to set up. There's a settings button, use it for setting up most everything. You can set it so that a light comes on at a certain time. We set ours for 6:30am since we have to get up around then to get ready for school anyway. When it hits that time, the clock turns green. It also has a night light, you can have the clock face be a certain color during the night. We changed this color to red and told our kid, "When the clock is red, stay in bed." You do have to turn the nightlight on manually every night, but we made it part of our bedtime routine. If you've set it right, the clock will have a sleep face and your night light color of choice (trust me, red is good for this). We also opted to use the white noise sound. This sounds will stay on until you turn it off (now part of our wakeup routine). When it hits your wake time, it will turn green. It stays green for about an hour, then turns off. If you're just starting with this clock, that should be plenty of time. We told our kid if it was green, it was okay to get out of bed. Now that's she's older, she will sleep in a little more. So we tell her as long as it isn't red it's okay to get up for the day. Around this time she also started sharing a room with her little sister (2 at the time). Since we started this so early with her, we never had any trouble with her waking up at the crack of dawn. I cannot comment on battery life, as we leave this clock plugged in. I can say this, even when we unplug it, it keeps its time when you plug it back in. It has survived being knocked off a dresser quite a few times, so it's pretty durable. And not one weird little glitch has popped up. It's also easy to read from both of my kids beds ( they're older and in loft beds now). We have had this clock for almost 4 years. It works and it works consistently. It brought some sanity and much needed sleep back into our home. And it didn't cost a lot to do it. "Mom I'm hungry," are still the first words I hear every morning, but at least it isn't so early now.

Easy to set. Easy to read. 4yo loves the smiley face. Yellow and green lights in the morning are very bright. We did have it by the bed but moved it to the desk because of that.

I want to give the product more stars but I feel like it has so much more potential! What I like: Light weight, can set awake and sleep times, can set the light to be on or off, can lock it. What I wish it had: More customization; I wish it connected to an app on your phone so you could control it from there. My son leaves Mella alone right now (3) but he is so smart and I can see him figuring out the buttons on the bottom of if I am not careful. Also we taught them if mella is red to stay in bed but the on week days we wake up earlier than weekends and we have to go in and manually turn her off so he does not argue with us that mella is red so he has to stay in bed. I also wish it had more nap time settings. Overall I really like the idea and it works for what we need now but I do think this product has so much more potential!

Look I’m an adult and I thought this was cute, and didn’t think it was super useful and it took me by surprise. You can set the time yourself and there are different options for the alarm sound and there is a sound button to listen to ocean waves or white noise. Theres a setting to where the face lights up in the morning and it lights up when it’s around bed time, it’s super helpful to cue me to wake up or go to bed. The alarm itself is loud. I set it across my room in college and I would always wake up to it. Not sure how the snooze function works. I literally know it’s for kids …. Man this alarm clock is literally better than most I’ve had that are actually for adults

Leí muchos comentarios de padres respecto a cómo había ayudado a sus hijos a dormir mejor, obviamente que esto no es algo que sucede como por arte de magia pero finalmente la rutinas siempre son importantes en el sueño. Mi hija de 4 años LO AMA! Y si ayudo a que durmiera mejor, algunas veces aún despierta en las noches y le cuesta conciliar el sueño, empezó a encender el ruido blanco ella sola si despertaba a media noche sin necesidad de que nosotros fuéramos a verla a su cuarto. Si bien no sucede siempre, que lo haga a veces ya es ganancia. También le ayudó mucho a entender cuando ya era hora de dormir porque “su reloj ya estaba dormido” Es muy fácil de programar encender y apagar la luz, alarma o ruido blanco incluso hasta para ella. En conclusión, vale totalmente la pena

Amazing product for sleep training

The clock looks good at first until only after 6m of normal usage, it cannot go to sleep at night, and the sleep time and wake up color doesnt work at all. very disappointed. so pricy.

The light and sound options are great. The sleep and wake function is great for letting kids know when they should get out if bed and when they should stay in their bed/room.

It’s actually very expensive for what it is… it’s just a clock with basic LED functions. Like more toys or accessories for children manufacturers and selling ramp up the prices knowing parents will buy it to help their children and hopefully themselves. Mine arrived without a UK plug which was very frustrating. Luckily I used an iPhone charger plug to let my daughter set it up and start to use it. The clock and light setup does work though and my daughter likes to wait until it goes green. Instead of this you could just purchase a smart colour changing lightbulb for £15 from Amazon and use Alexa to set up a morning routine. At least then you can dim it and let the child chose a colour.