Less than 2 weeks before the opening of the 21st edition of Playtime Paris, we met Julia Sielicka-Jastrzębska and Zuzanna Sielicka- Kalczyńska to talk about their cute Whisbear The Humming Bear.

How did you get the idea of Whisbear?

Zuzanna: Whisbear idea is a response to our own motherhood needs. It was over 6 years ago when I had my first son. He was very unsettled and colicky I knew that using white noise with Baby was an effective way to help him settle so I spend a lot of nights sitting on a bathroom floor cuddling my new born and… settling him down with the sound of a hairdryer – neither fun nor pleasant. But at that time, I could not find anything that would replace that source of soothing noise. And then, during another sleepless night the idea of a product that could safely and pleasantly help parents with soothing unsettled babies came to my mind. But it took few more years and two more sons (laugh) for Whisbear to be launched in a shape it is now available.

Julia: We have done a lot of research, spoke to fellow parents and used our own experience as Mothers, to create the product that perfectly corresponds with what Mums, Dads and Babies need. Our own and our friend’s babies were the first one to ever test the prototypes. Even the choice of the sound, locked in a shushing device, happened in Zuza’s bedroom based on how herself and her boys responded the noise and, of course – how quickly they fell asleep!

What makes it different from existing teddy bears?

Julia: Whisbear is a state of the art product. As I mentioned before, a lot of research and analysis “stands” behind this little fluffy chap. We wanted to provide parents with something that will be at least as good as we, ourselves would want for our children, and believe me, with such a diversity on children’s market, our standards are high! We also wanted to create something not only practical but beautiful, multifunctional and most of all – safe.

Zuzanna: Yes, Safety comes first when It comes to babies – so Whisbear is made from highest quality fabrics, we also use hypoallergenic stuffing. Our high-quality standards are confirmed by TUV certificate. The other thing that makes Whisbear unique, is the fact that it is not only a highly effective sleep aid, but also a sensory toy - we use different fabrics, textures and rustling elements to make the Bear attractive for the baby.

Julia: And Babies really love Whisbear’s face! We receive so many messages from parents who say, that Babies faces lighten up when they see Whisbear! Maybe it is because we have designed him based on children’s drawing!

Zuzanna: We cannot forget that the main purpose of Whisbear is to sooth. And here we get to the most important and main feature of Whisbear – the shushing device. The noise we use in our devices, is specifically selected from dozens of different sounds and is set at a specific frequency and tone to suit babies best. The other feature and the biggest innovation, that has been acknowledged awarded number of times, is the CRYsensor - a unique feature that makes Whisbear specifically sensitive and responsive to the sound of Baby’s cry.

Can you share with us some projects for the future? Maybe a new addition to the Whisbear family?

Zuzanna: From the very beginning we knew we have one best advisor – our Customers and their Babies. We listen and most of all respond to the parent’s and Babies needs and we constant work on improvement. Therefore, we have just recently change the fabric we use to saw Whisbears to make them even more durable and easier to wash. But our biggest project now is the new member of Whisbear family and it will launch in 2017. We called him Whisbear Smart! The new fluffy Friend (let’s keep his personality a secret!) will open a new era of baby’s sleep aids. It will be a combination of intelligent sleep monitor and baby sleep tracker all operated from your smartphones! And we go even more eco-friendly as the USB charger will replace traditional batteries.

Julia: But there is so much to come as our brain storms and “new ideas” meetings in our Warsaw team and international team never end!

Whisbear, The Huming Bear will be at Playtime Paris - booth SH06 from January 28 to 30, 2017.

• baby
• teddybear
• interview