If you use / used white noise to help baby sleep..

[Enigmasaurus]

...how / when did they stop needing it?

DC3 is 2.5 months and not a great sleeper. I have noticed things are easier if I play a little white noise from an app on my phone. Not currently doing this consistently but considering a white noise toy / machine as it seems so effective.

However I’m a bit worried about creating some sort of dependency! Those who have used it, have you ever managed to stop?

We used the sound sleeer app - it has a listen function so it comes on when they cry. We used it from birth until about 3 - it worked amazingly, if she ever woke in the night it would kick in and she’d just go back to sleep!

I love Ewan the Dream Sheep! Even if DS is out I’ll use it myself to help me have a nap.

Used the hairdryer in the early months

Err... my 5 and 3.5 year olds still have Ewan! Had to buy a new one for the new baby 😂.
They only have it at the beginning of the night when they go to bed though, and it’s just part of the routine rather than actually being needed.

@Enigmasaurus I agree myhummy is expensive for what is essentially a tiny plastic noise box inside a teddy bear. What sold it to me to start with was the remote sensor, but as time has gone on we use it on the constant setting. I haven't looked into any others but I suspect there might be similar options about, maybe a CD that you can leave on constantly?

Also it eats batteries, so if you get one I'd get rechargables.

I guess it's one of those things that if it works for you it's worth every penny, but you don't know until you try it. We use it for naps and at night so the price per use is pence - if it didn't work it would have been an expensive trial and error!

We use an Avantek white noise machine, we got it off Amazon. My children share a bedroom so the 3 year old is still listening to it as her younger sister likes it on. It’s been one of our best buys as it means that if one of them is unsettled and making noise, it doesn’t usually wake the other one as there is low level noise in the room anyway. Our house is very open plan and the noise of my DH and I making dinner and watching TV in the evenings carries really badly so it also stops them being woken by that. We went for a plug in machine as I liked the variety of noises, and the fact that we wouldn’t have to buy tonnes of batteries anymore (we had a Ewan and a Slumber Buddy and both cost us a fortune in batteries). I actually really like white noise myself, I’m considering getting another one as listening to rain or waves really relaxes me.

We have a myhummy. I dithered about getting one initially because of the price but I can honestly say it's been worth every penny. My ds still uses it now at 16 months. He cuddles it which is cute. It's quite funny though because he knows how to turn it off now so he squeezes it off some mornings when he's ready to get up. I did worry about having to wean him off it before I got it but now I'm not concerned. He likes it so much it has been worth it to have good sleep I'm sure he'll stop using it when he's ready quite easily.

Hmmm. Battery life certainly seems to be an issue!
@secretuser can you just use normal rechargeable batteries? Do you have a battery charger for them?

@Enigmasaurus yep just normal rechargeable batteries with a charger. The battery cover has to be unscrewed so we've just left it off because we're changing the batteries every few nights.

I don't leave it in the cot because DS is inquisitive and would have the whole thing apart in moments, so for us effectively the teddy bear part is pointless and we paid £50 for the little noise box - but it works, he sleeps 12+ hours at night and goes down for naps like a dream so as far as I'm concerned it was £50 well spent!

We use a white noise app on an old mobile phone that is left in her room (she's 2 and a bit). We haven't even attempted to give up because we live in a very noisy area of a big city and the constant white noise helps lessen the sudden-ness of passing cars/horns/sirens/people shouting/etc.

I'm not too bothered. We plan to move somewhere quieter eventually, but even if she still wants/needs the white noise, that's ok with me.

We had a battery operated cassette player and 2 cassettes from a baby catalogue.
It was fantastic, she would sleep anywhere.
We moved on to harp music when she was about 3 I think.
She doesn't take it on sleepovers or to camp and has never had a problem.

I’ve stopped worrying about sleep dependency tbh. Dd feeds to sleep nearly always, however if she’s tired but not hungry I can also rock her to sleep, she can also sleep in car and baby carrier. I use Ewan the sheep for naps but we don’t need it at night.

Most babies have some things they need to sleep, particularly once they get past newborn stage. We can wean her off when we need to, and babies often surprise you. The other night so put her down ‘drowsy but awake’ and we watched her on the monitor happily drift off to sleep on her own.