Is living under a flight path bad for baby?

[PippasLondon]

I'm about to have first baby and moving to new area of London which I've just discovered is under the Heathrow flight path. The noise really upsets me, and I'm worried about how this is affecting the baby, but people tell me I'll get used to it. I'm also worried that it might be bad for my new born baby - does anyone have any experience or opinion on this?

I wouldn't worry - we lived in a heavy flight path area of London (and now in a neighbouring area where it's slightly less noticeable) and the first plane of the morning would always wake me around 4:45 but my son slept through. I sometimes use ear plugs - Bio Ears are quite good!

Baby will grow up thinking it's perfectly normal - it won't know any different

We lived in Hounslow when Concorde was still going - it used to fly over our back garden and make a complete racket. My brother and I had grown up with it so barely heard a thing but my mum was really bothered by it until we moved away. There is some evidence to suggest that living under a flight path, especially where planes are low-flying, can contribute to respiratory diseases like asthma. I have mild asthma, my brother is fine. It's no worse than living on a busy road.

Why would it be bad for a baby??

I think you need to lighten up a bit!

erm constant background of loud noise, thought it would be worth checking with other mums, thanks for the kind words of support in the last post.

I understand that with a first baby you want the best, but I suspect that when the baby comes you will (hopefully!) look back and chuckle at worrying so much about something that is out of your control. I am sure I was just as PFB with my first, but having watched friends try (and fail) to have children, miscarry or have terrible problems in pregnancy, it hits home that eating mayo, a prawn, dying your hair, having a cup of coffee, flight paths etc is all a bit irrelevant!

Enjoy your pregnancy and the more you relax, the better it is for your little one.

ps I live under a flight path (i.e. London!) and the only annoying thing is it wakes my children at 5am...I find playing white noise in their rooms helps to blur out the noise. hth

we live in south east london on the approach to heathrow and only issue was DH demanding to move within the first 2 weeks of living there because he thought it was too noisy (3 years later we are still in our lovely house there and just don't notice the noise anymore).

oh and one of DS' first words were plane.....

p.s. practically the whole of south london is under the heathrow flight path so there are lots and lots of other people in the same boat