Parents who have music loving children 8 or under but are afraid their kids won’t take care of a real MP3 player have a new option. Peapod toys announced today that it is now shipping its SweetPea3 MP3 player for kids.

The MP3 player is available direct from the PeaPod Toys website and via select retailers in the U.S. and Canada. "MP3 technology makes perfect sense in a child's music player. With no moving parts, small parts or removable media, an extremely robust music player can be built and safely given to children of all ages, including kids under three", says Peapod Toys President Dan Lemay.

The player ships with kid’s music pre-installed from Susie Tallman and Jim Weiss. The player features a large LCD that shows track info and has 256MB of memory. The player can be programmed with an automatic off time and a headphone jack is included, but not required because of an internal speaker. An AC adapter is included and battery power is optional.

Via PeaPod.