Have I damaged my baby's hearing??

[Disingenuouscere]

I usually play white noise for my LO (11wks) during the night and some naps.

Today I completely stupidly and absent mindedly left the white noise machine right next to her head during a nap. My husband noticed after about an hour and moved it away.

I was freaking out and measured it on a decibel counter and it came in around 80db. I am terrified I have caused permanent damage. What are the chances of this? Has anyone done anything similar? I am beside myself and can't stop thinking about how I could have done such a stupid thing that might permanently affect my poor baby.

I had 2 older children, including a toddler when I brought my baby home, I can guarantee they were louder than the white noise machine, don't stress!

She’ll be fine OP. Honestly, you’ll look back at this and laugh at how worried you were about it. We used a white noise machine too and I don’t think I ever checked how close it was to my son so I may well have also done this!

as a PP said, just get your child’s hearing checked out if you feel you’re really worried about it, but I doubt it’s done any damage.

How close to her head? Did you measure 80 dB at the position of her head when the noise machine was on? 80 dB shouldn’t be damaging over that time scale, although babies may receive greater exposure because they have smaller ear canals, so you should err on the side on caution. I don’t think it’s a silly thing to worry about, but it doesn’t sound like it would have done harm.

I have no idea why my message was deleted. I was actually trying to be helpful.

I also did this when my baby was born, I used to turn it up so loud just to try and help her sleep. She’s 2 now and has really super hearing, so I’ve definitely not damaged it in a bad way! Almost the opposite effect though I know it’s not down to the noise. I was also worried like you.

Thanks all I have booked a hearing test mainly for my own sanity so I can hopefully stop worrying! Glad to know others have done similar things. Will be much more careful with the noise machine from now on