White noise

[mishkamoo]

If any of you have seen my previous posts, you will know that we struggle with sleeping!! DS is 16wks and ebf. He was settling for naps and bedtime quite well, but now is struggling and still waking anywhere between 2 and 6 time in the night. Sometimes he will settle without a feed. The thing that seems to really help is white noise. Now I am being very lazy and using it to settle him for naps/bedtime/in the night and sometimes end up leaving it on all night (if I fall asleep!) Am I creating a rod for my own back? Is this going to become a crutch for him and something he will need to get to sleep/stay asleep?? Is this a problem??! (except for the electricity bill?) Will I be able to wean him off it and if so how??!!

[anotheryearanothername]

Oh mishkamoo, I could have written your message myself! Our DS is now 15mo and we have been using white noise for yonks. It works so beautifully I could not resist it, but at the same time I had all the same concerns you do. But I have good news for you!

As DS has got older and begun to understand more about sequence of events, what is going on around him etc we have had more and more success at teaching him to self settle. He now goes to sleep for naps and at the beginning of the night with no white noise and often goes all night without it. Sometimes if he is restless in the night we put it on and it helps him stay asleep, although less so all the time. It's just amazing how much they change, so don't panic about the future, just do what helps now and he'll grow out of it.

It has not been a rod for our back- it has been a crutch for our tired bodies and I'd recommend it to anyone- in fact I regularly do but no one ever seems to take me up on it!

[Milsy]

We did that too - it worked! He just grew out of it - maybe at about 16 months I think.

[Sariska]

We used to use hairdryers and extractor fans to help settle my DS, who was a truly shocking sleeper right from the start. Someone then gave us a CD of white noise, which we left on loop whenever he actually was asleep. It really did help and I loved loved loved it. Could even sleep through it myself. Eventually, when he was about 5 months old I started replacing white noise with a bedtime song. It was a long slow process but it did help with the learning to self-settle process. However, if we hadn't done this, I reckon he'd have grown out of needing the white noise at some point anyway because his sleeping habits have never stayed still IYSWIM.

[mishkamoo]

Yay! That all sounds good-thankyou!!!

[Shhhh]

dd has had an air con unit in her room since she was around 6 mths old..its used every night on fan mode.dd is now 3.6 yrs and still has it on....
although last week she started with nightmares and is now not so keen on it..says it keep moving .

Do it..if it works..!

btw, we have done the same with ds..he is 23 months and also has it on at naps and bed time.

[calaminecovered]

I have used white noise with all three of mine and eventually they just stopped needing it with no problems. Baby now 6 weeks and using it again for her long nap and night time sleep.

[NotQuiteCockney]

I like white noise - it keeps my two (and me) from waking up from fireworks etc etc. We have little white noise generator things we got from Amazon. We take them on holiday.

Thing is, I think sleeping in silence is weird and artificial, so white noise is always a good thing.

[Verso]

White noise is brilliant - the only thing that would settle my DD1. She slept with it for about a year after we discovered it (up to about 19 months). We tried stopping it one day and she still slept - and hasn't needed any other sleep aids since. I was really worried about the rod/back thing, but really it's fine - do whatever makes your baby happy!

I'd forgotten about the white noise this time round (my baby is nine weeks) then suddenly remembered the other day when she was resisting a nap - put it on and it worked like magic!

[whitenoise]

you called??

[anotheryearanothername]

lol!