White Noise - Norfolk,VA

I.,
I'm a big fan of "white noise"! I used it with all 3 of my kids and not only were they all great sleepers as a result, but I was a lot less stressed out about noise. This translated into a more relaxed mommy and when mom's happy everyone is happy. Even adults feel lousey when their sleep is interrupted and a disrupted sleep cycle can translate into a grumpy baby who has a more difficult time sleeping. As for becoming too dependent on it, I don't think there is any such thing for a 3 mos. old. I have 3 kids (9, 11, & 14) and only one of them still sleeps with white noise. Good luck and happy sleeping for all of you!!;)

LOVE it! try a fan too! me and my family sleep with them! can't sleep w/o a fan for noise! you don't have to face the fan on him but just for noise! Good luck with that!
Danni

try simplynoise.com its great, I use it when I'm at the library to block people out. You can set up a speaker to the PC and put it in his room. He won't become dependent on it.. you can always slowly fade it out in time. But nothing beats the traditional bath and stories to get them to sleep. Good luck

my opinion on white noise isn't good. In my opinion i like to move things around change things up. I give my children something to sleep with but it's not always the same the only thing i can say is the same is the bed. I don't use pacifiers i don't believe it's a good thing to make them reliant on things. It only makes things harder as time goes on. You have to rush around the house for a pacifier or certain animal or blanket at bedtime or when you leave the house for extended amounts of time. With my kids i use a fan when it's hot, it grab any stuffed animal or blanket. I don't use the same thing every night. That way anything will do. Babies will conform. They can't yell as loud as their counterparts. I believe in breaking in first and not having the prob. when they are older and can yell your name from bed and say i want this certain thing. It avoids alot of trouble when they are older.

We have been huge fans of the white noise machine since our 19 month old was born. It really does help drown out the noises of the house, and I think it's comforting to my daughter. My favorite is the Marpac Sound Machine, which I found on Amazon.com. It's expensive, but it's loud enough, and very simple to use. The other thing I like about it is that it's not a digital loop of sound that just repeats over and over again (and can be annoying, if you ask me) like some of the cheaper ones. Hope that helps!

Oh, and as to the "crutch" issue that the previous poster brought up, we've forgotten to turn it on before, and we don't travel with it, and our daughter still sleeps well. It just makes us more comfortable doing stuff around the house during naps and at night, because we're not afraid of making noise.

If it was me, I wouldn't get him used to the noise machine at 3 months, otherwise he may still need it at 3 years. I had the same situation when my kids were young and I found the best thing was to let the younger one take a nap when he was tired enough to fall asleep regardless of the noise his older syster made. If he wasn't sleepy enough to take a nap, I didn't force it.

Maybe try having your 23 month old daugher do a quiet activity (like looking at books or watching a video) as far away as possible from your 3 month old's sleeping area. If he doesn't fall asleep quickly, maybe wait for a later time when he will.

Also -- If you discover later that your child has ADD, white noise may not help at all and could even potentially keep someone with ADD awake. Just something to consider if you have ADD in your family, as we do.

Good luck!

We have a homedics sound machine and like it on Ocean Waves. I have always had the same sleep routine since our son came home from the hospital. Story and rocking, a CD played one time through of Good night my angel by billy joel and then the sound machine goes on. It really sets him up nice cos the whole experience says "Day is over - it's time to sleep" I even take it along when we travel so he sleeps like he does at home. Funny, our dog barking which was VERY loud and frequent never woke him. But the phone always does which is what I wanted to block out. I don't know if we have just had an easy sleeper - or if we set him up that way with the routine. But now that he's 4 and we've had alot of storms - it's great to mask those sounds so he doesn't wake up afraid. We adress the storm sounds in the day when it's not the scary night and he just thinks it's a cool sound and undertands where it comes from.

Hi I.. We use a large window fan to drown out noise. We used to have a clock/white noise machine, but I could always hear the pattern and it actually kept me awake. Good luck.

we have used fans in our kids rooms to help drown out the noise or they sell white noise makers which are small and portable(like for vacation). This has worked really well for us. We have 4 really good sleepers. You might be right that he might like it and want that all the time but maybe if you use it just at naps, when the house might be noisy?
L.

Hi, I just have a small fan in each of my children's rooms. They're perfect for white noise and they keep the air circulating as well. Cheaper than a white noise machine too. They don't seem to be dependent on them. We of course can't take them camping or pack them up when we fly across the country to visit relatives, but my boys do fine without them.

we use our humidifier.

I used to run a fan in my daughter's room for white noise, and because the room seemed hot to me. Also, we have Navy jets flying over our house at any time, so the fan helped to cover the noise of the jets a little bit. It was no big deal, if we went somewhere overnight she could still sleep without the fan. Then, one day this summer she decided she didn't need the fan anymore, and we haven't turned it on since. She's six now and a very good sleeper.

Do what helps you to keep your sanity. If your son is restless because his sister is noisy, try some white noise for him.

I use a fan for my youngest son. My other 2 don't sleep with them but trying to keep 2 kids quiet while 1 napped was really hard. So, at about 7 months I put a fan on low in his room and just turned it away from the crib and that really helped. We just went on vacation and I didn't bring it and he still slept fine so I don't think he's dependent on it, and he's 14 months now.

We also had a white noise sound for my daughter during nap times and such. It is hard when you live in a smaller home, or have an older child. I looked around at noise machines, or even maybe a fan, which are good choices, but I ended up going onto iTunes and purchasing, for Only .99!!, a water fall sound. It was great, and cheap. You can get different tones, and burn them onto a cd. You could put them on the cd repeatedly to fill it up, then put the cd player on repeat. Then, when your little one is older and enjoys music, you wouldn't have to purchase a cd player. Luckily, our daughter shared a room with the office, so we just had the sound on the computer on repeat, and never had to do the cd thing, but it would work.
GOOD LUCK,
KATIE

I think Rachel makes some very good points. Every child is different though....
If you need one, we would highly recommend the Bose system. Ours has 20 different noises from traffic, to foghorn, train, water etc. But the best part is, it's also a CD player and, from the age of 3 1/2, he knows how to put his own stories on CD in there and play them himself at quiet time. Makes absolutely NO FUSS going up for quiet time because we always have fresh and new stories from the library rotated thru his room! He loves them! Also, it's an AM/FM system as well so he chooses classical sometimes instead of noise.
Works awesome. One of the best buys we've ever decided on.

My husband insists that he cannot sleep without his "white noise". He uses a small fan and turn it on near the bed each night. It drowns out other night sounds. It was a cheap fan he bought at walmart. AF

I have a CD clock radio that I've had in my son's room since he was born that has nature sounds like the ocean and rain and crickets. He loves it and we don't have to worry about every little noise from us. It's ok if they need it while they are young. After all, they had all those gurgly sounds when they were in the womb. It will make them feel comfortable and secure.

Oh, I just loooove my white noise machine! I've had white noise in my 11 month old's room since she was born, and she sleeps like a dream! I couldn't care less if my daughter needs it every night til she's 40, as long as she sleeps!!

I still use a noise machine with my 5 year old...only to block out noise and he can sleep without it. I think they are great!

We use the static on our alarm clock/radio. Just set it to a non-station, and voila! Instant white noise!

We started using a noise maker (rain setting) when our little one was tiny. At the time we lived in a small place and needed the background noise for her. 2 years later in our house she still uses it but she doesn't have a problem sleeping without it unless it's nap time and we're mowing the lawn. That will wake her up -it'd wake me up too! :0) Personally I think they're fine.

It should be okay. Its good to teach them to sleep while there is noise. My husband's family used to make the house completely quiet for him to sleep. Now he can't sleep if there is the tiniest bit of noise. Complete silence or no sleep! It kills me.

i guess if you've got a kid with some sort of sensory processing issues this might be a necessary thing, but i think kids are healthier and happier if they learn to live in the world as it is, which includes noise. obviously sudden sharp loud noises aren't a great thing to have go on around your sleeping baby, but the everyday sounds of voices, siblings playing, tv, traffic and dishwashers ought to be incorporated into babies' entire experience, not have their world artificially silenced (or whited out) when they sleep.
i agree with the advice to try and tone big sister down a little, maybe, shouts and shrieks are disruptive. but at her age that's hard too.
khairete
S.

Yes, he'll become dependant on it. How do I know? Because my 19 year old daughter, my 7 year old son and now my hubby and myself all sleep so much better with the white noise than without. I say YES to white noise. Just buy a couple of the ones that you pick...or even a loud fan works as well. Drown out the other noise and you can go about your life in the house without tip toeing around!!

for my daughter we got a kid friendly cd player and a clasical music cd and played it very quietly. She's now 4 and didn't become dependent on it, and it worked like a charm.

I know a lot of people who swear by white noise machines. But my own personal philosophy is that you shouldn't add in things you don't want to become a crutch or habit. Ask yourself if you want him to only be able ot sleep wwith a white noise machine. I fhe were older, I would say go for it as a last resort. But at 3 months, he is still learning to nap and setting a schedule. I would just plug away at letting him sleep in his crib as much as possible, and eventually a 20 minute nap will be 2 hours. That usually happens by teh end of 4 months. Good luck either way.