Introducing white noise for 23mo?

[SarahDay1990]

Hi all my LO is 23mo and is generally a good sleeper. However my husband gets up to go to work at 5am and even just slight movement around the house at that time wakes her. Recently when it was really hot I put a fan in her room and she didn’t wake at 5am when my husband got up. I don’t know if it was a coincidence or whether the fan masked the noise? I don’t know if it’s too late to introduce white noise to help drown out the early morning sounds or whether it’s a habit I don’t want to start at her age? I should point out She’s not a naturally early riser and is a complete misery when she wakes so early! She’s very tired! Any advice? Can the noise actually be worse and distracting if the toddler isn’t used to it?

I don't think white noise is a bad habit tbh, if your baby needs it to be settled I'd do it, anything to survive really. I mean why not, it's never going to do her any harm so how can it be labelled a bad habit?

We use white noise with 23 month old DS, it's great and I wouldn't hesitate to use it in your case!

I’ve put some white noise on tonight and it did take her a little longer to settle and she seems a bit restless - not crying etc but moving around her cot a lot. Could this be that the white noise is a bit distracting?

It's unlikely the white noise is distracting, the whole point of white noise (as opposed to background noise like TV or radio) is that it is just sound, not a distracting sound.

Not sure why you're worried about white noise?

I started using a fan for white noise when I was going through a difficult phase of sleeping in my 30s. It's not exactly a problem to have a fan on all the time at night - both the noise and the air circulation is relaxing, even in winter.

Three of my four children all have a fan in their rooms for the same reason. One just uses her fan for cooling down, rather than white noise.