Another possiblity, though this might not work for you if your daughter hears the top-blown whistle, is to use Dennis Havlena’s design for a super-quiet whistle chanter. See here: http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~dhavlena/chanter.htm
The idea is to modify a tinwhistle to work with bagpipe fingering and just top-blow it when you want a whisper chanter. This might work as a stopgap when folks are waiting for the cash to get a techno-chanter.
I have and love a set of Walsh shuttle pipes. Lovely. I also have a little “medieval” smallpipe from Soundstream music. The guy who sells them starts with a pakistani pipe, replaces the reeds with a much more successful synthetic reed, puts in a new blowpipe valve, and apparently cleans the bores of the usual fuzz. Not as good a pipe as the Walsh, but my mother (grade 1 piper) was actually favorably impressed with them. I find either of the small indoor pipes a lot more fun than the highland for just noodling around. Of course, there’s nothing like a full stand of GHBs…
So, to sum up this rambling message, try seeing if you can find anyone who will let you try a set of electric pipes before you commit. The Degers cost almost as much as a 2-drone shuttle pipe. You’ll want to know for sure it is worth it to you. On the other hand, as a father of 2 kids under the age of 3, I sure know how hard it is to get in the practice time you need. Boy, do I know…
-Patrick