Children don't hear fire alarms

[Motherwell91]

Did anyone catch the interview on this morning about children not waking to fire alarms. Found it really intresting wondered about others views

Missed that, it sounds like valuable research.

My colleague told me this, her DH is a fireman.

Yes I knew this, it's so important to get the message out.

I saw a trial where they had mothers and fathers record their voice calling the child instead of the alarm sound and they were more effective.

We were in a hotel where the alarm went off. It was ear piercingly loud and dh and I both jumped up. It turned out to be a false alarm but dd1 who was 3 slept through it all.

And that did worry me.

I saw this on the news a few months back. One fire brigade were trialling smoke alarms with a voice saying 'there's a fire' (or similar) rather than a siren to see if children were more responsive.

Thinking about it, if it's a question of pitch, people who are hearing-impaired have strobe-lighting fire alarms so maybe these would work for children?

Our fire alarm had a fault one night and went off 3 times. Neither of our children woke at all despite the alarm being outside their open bedroom doors.
Following that we actually took part in the recorded voice alarm trial. Again neither woke.
At least we now know that in an emergency we would have to go and get them and will have to assume they just will not wake. They are age 6 and 9.

Missed this. Is it just a question of pitch and at what age do they start to hear it?

DS(12) seems to sleep through everything. We had a massive thunderstorm a few months ago and he slept through it. Also he never hears the dog if it barks in the night.

He also doesn't seem to hear his alarm clock on a school morning, but does on a Sunday morning to get up to watch Match of the Day!

I remember a BBC article about this: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38918056

Makes sense to me that (young) children aren't tuned in to warning beeps/sounds the way adults are. Worrying though. Reminds me of the time I was a child and slept straight through a car catching fire outside our house, fire engine with sirens and everything.

I think that might be it, that sub-conscious awareness of what's urgent that develops as you grow up. I never sleep through my alarm, but often sleep through thunderstorms even with the windows open.

Last week our house alarm went off during the night which woke me up immediately, DS slept right through.

On holiday in my 20s my friend and I both slept through the fire alarm despite being above the kitchen where it was I hope I have better subconscious awareness now!

Also weirdly it affects boys more than girls, there's a research news article here. This is why we have Nest Protect which is a woman saying "there is smoke in the landing" etc with a loud noise too. It's a lot more likely to wake my boys.

So this probably relates to that "sound" that is played in some train stations that is at a pitch that only young people can hear and stops them from congregating. My DD sleeps through alarm clocks. I have to wake her.

I don’t think it will be related to pitch as most children’s high pitch hearing would be better than adults’. Maybe it’s more to do with depth of sleep.

We had a night in Center Parcs where our alarm wouldn't stop for 3hrs and it didn't even make my child flinch. This is interesting.

Children are weird. I can literally walk right past a pneumatic drill with DS in the pram and he doesn't bat an eyelid, one sneeze on the landing at home though and he's awake straight away.

Neither DH nor DS would hear an alarm. I went for an NCT mums night out and came home to find the fire alarm blaring and everyone soundly asleep, thank god it was a battery failure, but if I'm out in the evening now and DH will be going to bed before I'm back, which to be fair is not often, he and DS go and stay with my mum just in case.

That's really interesting.
I don't know why but feel more comfortable about this tbh.
In the case of a fire I don't like the thought of her waking up and possibly wandering into danger before we get to her.

We have frequent fire drills in our house (work accommodation) and my children NEVER wake up.