I was very pleased to keep my mitts on Ray (the funky little bath and room thermometer from Brother Max). Until now, we used a Gro Egg in Dexie’s room and trust it about as much as I’d trust Keith Lemon to babysit. For some reason Dexter’s nursery is the warmest room in the house. Not just slightly warmer either, if you go in there with a sweatshirt on you’ll wind up looking like you’ve been on a 5 mile run! Dexter sleeps in a loose-fitting vest even in the winter and we have a humidifier in there in Spring. Yet the Gro Egg rarely reports it is over 20 degrees.

Meanwhile in the rest of the house, a £400 quarterly gas bill in the winter months saw Craig becoming self-appointed thermostat guardian. I can be swaddled in a duvet with goosebumps and he won’t pop on the heating! I’m not sure if this is because the downstairs of our home is open-plan with oak flooring, or because I’m in fact descended from pond-life - either way I’m always freezing.

So Ray was a welcome play-mate for Dexter, and the excuse I needed to wrangle back control of the thermostat. As the recommended ambient room temperature for babies is 19 degrees, Ray helpfully lets us know when to open a window in our nursery (…or put the radiators on downstairs… Yay!).

As regards bath-times I’m about to lose serious mummy points by admitting to have never having tested the temperature. As I bath with Dex, I’ve always just used instinct and not the elbow-test. Apparently the recommended bath water temperature is 37 degrees and I was pleased to discover that Ray’s display didn’t blink a ‘HOT’ warning at me (he does you know, he’s a clever little thing).

Aside from being incredibly helpful, he’s also bright, easy to grip, and fun to play with. Dexter only has two squirty frogs to keep him happy in the bath (again, I’m dropping mummy points) and otherwise likes to play with shower gel empty bottles. I should point out that if they’re not quite empty, Dexter makes a point of making them so (he recently decided he wanted to smell like mummy and helped himself to the remaining half a jar of Laura Mercier honey bath that I forgot to hide from him). Ray is therefore a great new bath buddy for him to splash around with!

The Brother Max Ray Room & Bath Thermometer is available at Boots in the exclusive tangerine, pistachio and lavender colours at an RRP of £14.99. For further information and to view more innovative parenting solutions from Brother Max, you can visit the website or keep up to date on Twitter and Facebook.

DISCLAIMER: I was sent Ray for the purposes of this review but all opinions are my own.