Should I Use a White Noise Machine to Put My Baby to Bed?
Sleep is the main concern of most young parents. They won’t always be able to sleep when the baby is asleep, with all the bottles to wash and the laundry to be done, but if they ever want to rest, the baby needs a little rest. also a little. Some babies enter their normal sleep patterns early enough and stay there. Others don’t.
You pull down the curtains that darken the room, you set the room to the right temperature, you wear out the carpet with all your walks and bouncing, but the child still does not sleep. So maybe you think it’s time for a little white noise.
There are many white noise and other sound machines (and applications) on the market for getting babies and children to fall asleep and sleep. But there are a few things to keep in mind before diving into the soothing sounds.
They work?
Certain sounds soothe, relax, and help you fall asleep (such as rainforest sounds or ocean waves). But white noise, or even something like soft lullaby music, can also serve to block out noises that can interfere with children’s sleep, from city noises on the street to the sounds of older siblings playing in another room.
Many babies fall asleep faster, have white noise in the background, and sleep longer. In particular, babies who are accustomed to making a lot of noise or sleeping through noise may find that the complete silence of the night is a more difficult environment for falling asleep. On the other hand, other babies simply won’t like white noise. If you do decide to (safely) try a sound machine, you can start with the free app first to determine if they fall into the “hurray” or “no” category when it comes to white noise.
About
The pros of using white noise are pretty obvious and also quite unusual: if your child is a child who likes white noise, you will soon get enough sleep. Whether they need noise because they just enjoy it, or because it blocks out sirens or squeals of other kids, kids who advocate white noise are more likely to get more and better rest (so you can too) …
Anyway….
Minuses
Even if you are reveling in some better sleep now, if you are not careful, white noise use can create other, more problems in the long term. As Healthline reports :
In 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) tested 14 white noise machines designed for babies. They found that they all exceeded the recommended noise limit, which is set at 50 decibels.
In addition to increasing hearing problems, research has shown that using white noise increases the risk of speech and language development problems.
Another possible “disadvantage” to consider is that if white noise works particularly well, they may actually rely on it to get them to sleep. If you know that they won’t always have access to a sound machine (because they need to take a nap in kindergarten, go to visit grandparents at night, or you know that you travel a lot), you may not think about risking forming habit in the first place. As someone who has regularly traveled with a sound machine for their child for this reason for many years , I will say that this is a slight inconvenience (and I used the app on a tablet as a last resort), but I really worry that we created too much reliance on him.
If your child sleeps normally, without too much noise, there really is no reason to put a sound machine into this equation. But if you’re still struggling to get enough sleep and want to give it a try, follow the advice of researchers from this AAP study : keep the volume below the maximum level of the car and position it at least 200 centimeters (about seven centimeters). feet) away from where your child sleeps to protect their hearing.