What is this witchcraft?!

[Carouselfish]

Screaming 4m old. Infacol, gripe water, feeding, calpol, nothing worked. Put on white noise on youtube. 0.3 seconds later, screaming stopped and baby asleep.
I've heard plenty of people mention it in passing but never knew it would be so eerily immediate and effective. Never used it with previous DD but occasionally put on the hairdryer for about 1/100th the same effect.
Why does it work? It sounds like a swarm of bees to me. What's the science?

Replicates the womb, doesn’t it?

Have to point out not all those medicines given simultaneously but over course of several hours in an evening!!

Yeah, but Ewan the bloody dreamsheep is meant to do that and I've never known him to knock a baby out so instantly. It was almost spooky.

3 second Google:

www.verywellfamily.com/the-wonders-of-white-noise-2504713

The hoover used to have the same effect on mine.

Yes, okay, I wasn't actually coming to MN for scientific advice, just wondering aloud and sharing the amazingness of what just happened after hours of screaming.

Could be the hours of screaming wore them out as well.

agree, hairdryer, hoover good but wouldn't compete with that level of scream, only if grumbly and hard to settle. This was like finding the off switch!

We bought a portable white noise machine and a plug in one as it was so effective! We found when our dd had white noise she would sleep through the days she didn't she'd wake up. Not ewan he's a useless prat 😂

I remember when my DD was about 3.5 months and would not stop crying.. tried everything like you until I walked into the kitchen and the extractor fan was on and she instantly fell asleep..

Next day I went and bought a sound machine.

It blocks out outside noise really effectively too. DS will be undisturbed by sirens outside, next door's dog and fireworks with the white noise on. He has it on all night long and for naps and he's 13 months now.

I would recommend a sound machine rather than YouTube because you don't get adverts/batteries running out/phone notifications disturbing it. You can get them on amazon for about £25.

Was it the “Colicky baby” one? Baby on a moon? If so I agree it’s witchcraft. Works every time where other white noises fail!

@CountryGirl36 This is the one we save for desperate times... Last night my 4 month old DS was absolutely hysterical at bedtime, screaming himself purple. Put this on and stopped within seconds. Sometimes it's literally the only think that will get him out of that mode when he's stuck in it!

*thing not think

@moonriver32 it’s crazy how it works 🤣

Wow! Thank you for sharing. My 12 month old takes a while to fully settle and I will definitely try this. Good to know it works on youtube too and isn't just a special machine job :)

We found love by Calvin Harris and Rihanna would instantly stop my eldest from screaming the second it was put on.

I can't even listen to that song now because I spent many a day with it on repeat for hours at a time. Trust me, when you have had Satan's screaming baby for three months solid, anything is preferable.

My theory is that babies can't multi task so if you give their brains something else to do they don't keep crying (sometimes). See also showing baby view outside window/getting them to look in a mirror

It did wonders for my DD. She’s 1 now and we have an Alexa in her room which plays white noise all night.

She’s slept through no waking since 6weeks old. We’ve been incredibly lucky.

I tried to use this on YouTube and had it on the loudest volume possible and baby was starting to snooze, but then a bloody advert came on it made us both jump it was so loud! Never attempted it again....

Agreed. It's a miracle. We put it on for every single nap and bedtime, there are lots of free apps too that you can use.

I found it easy to wean my elder daughter off it too, before she started nursery. Just kept turning the volume down day by day and it was gone within a week!

@greenemerald it’s on Spotify too! Just stick it on repeat - only prob is a woman talks for 30 secs but you’ll have 2 hours of it then!

Here they are

@CountryGirl36 ooh thank you for this!

I created an Alexa skill to play a few lullabies to help babies sleep. Lots of people seem to find it useful!

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0764L3T5F?tag=mumsnetforu03-21