Imagine a product that encourages your children to lick lollipops all day long, that makes the act of sucking itself a thrill, that makes your little darlings think they are hearing voices in their heads. You may think that you would somehow be able to resist purchasing such a gift, and would choose something educational and healthy instead.

You would, of course, be wrong. Sound Bites are on the way, and every child will want one. It is a hand-held plastic toy with buttons, into which any lollipop is placed. Press a button, and a cartoon noise or voice vibrates through the lollipop into the nerves of your children's teeth, and thereby into the inner ear.

The toy has already taken the US by storm, where parents were gratified to learn that it is based on an invention by Thomas Edison. Partially deaf, the great man designed a "bite bar", so he could hear his phonograph through his inner ear.

"Kids have never had it so good," says Hasbro, the manufacturer. Sound Bites, around £9, will be on sale in toyshops within two weeks.