Anyone Use a White Noise Machine to Help Baby Stop Crying/sleep?

I never did this with my children but know two moms who did and it worked great. They put a big fan (the big square kind)in the hallway near the door when the baby was taking a nap or going to bed for the night. i hope this helps and good luck.

my sister just uses a box fan. She jsut faces it the opposite direction so that it doesn't blow on him.

air cleaners are the best..hepa...any size and use the speed with the quietest noise or up it a tiny bit..I use white noise for me to sleep...also for refluz..target adn walmart both sell the bed risers...a plastic 6 inch square type molded thing to raise head of bed..if 6 inches is too highj try 4 inch block of wood and dig out center a tiny bit with carving tool or whatever to keep the leg from moving that will help reflux...I have bother issues..also a thin pillow under mattress head will provide some lift for reflux C. ____@____.com

Jeannie,
If you have a CD player, DONT buy a sound machine. Go to the website www.hushaboo.com. You can purchase white noise sound CDs that are awesome! They were created by the Sound Designer for the 'Lord of the Rings' movies, to help his own child sleep. I have the 'surf' and 'dishwasher' CDs and they are wonderful for kids & adults! Set your CD player for continuous play, and they'll play all night. BTW--the creator of these sounds is a central VA native! Good luck & give these CD's a try!!!
S.

We used the Homedics® SoundSpa™ Lullaby Picture Projection for a while untill I realized that it would pick up interference from my DH's cell phone. It would make this really loud screach and wake the baby up. So we switched to a plain old little desk fan. I think it was $10 at walmart. It works great!

We have a air purifier which I think serves the same purpose as white noise but also of course is good for the air. We have a hunter air purifier - you may want to try that.

We use an air purifier for white noise. It's a life saver, especially when we're traveling and there are more people around which can cause more noise. And the purifier has health benefits as well. Good luck.

The First Years Makes an excellent crib sound machine. We have used it with both of our boys and it is great because it helps them sleep and also blocks out noise. It clips right on the side of the crib and we use the "rain" option but it has womb, ocean, and lullabies as well. The "rain" is the loud noise you are describing but you can adjust the volume. I bought ours at Great Beginnings in Germantown MD....not sure where you live. Hope this helps. H. :)

Read Sweet Dreams by Dr. Paul Fleiss.

I don't know much about white noise machines, but I do think it is great you are being cautious in what you pick. Some people swear by them. My only concern with them would be that she will learn to sleep only with the machine. Keep this in mind as you move forward, because you want her to become a child who will fall asleep on her own without needing any sort of device.

She actually sounds like she is a pretty good sleeper for a 3 month old, especially one with reflux. I have a four month old and a preschooler. My daughter sleeps about 10 hours, occasionally still waking around 3-4am, and she has just established a 3-4 nap day in the last couple of weeks. This is similar to what my older daughter did, so I think you are well on your way.

My biggest suggestion would be to put her to sleep for bedtime much earlier like between 7 and 8. She might be too tired by 9 and thus not sleeping well at night. I bet if you put her down earlier, she might still get up once in the night, but might sleep all night. Also offer more feedings in the afternoon and early evening, even if she doesn't ask, so you can get her 6-7 feedings in during the day (before 7-8pm) and she is less likely to be hungry at night. She is too young for cereal, but additional breast or bottle feedings might help. So in addition to trying to get the feedings in earlier, try to feed more frequently (don't know what you have been advised given the reflux?). My babies have always done well with about 6 feedings, even at very young ages, but some babies are 8-10 feedings babies.

Good luck. Sounds like you are doing pretty well. Just try paying more attention to cues tha tshe is tired earier, and feed her enough that she has all her meals beforee her new bedtime. Let us know how it goes!

Good morning Jeannie. When my daughter was that age, I used a machine that had several different sounds. It had the sounds of the ocean, birds and a night scene. I found that if she got used to one of them, I could just change it and she would not be so fussy. My child particularly like the ocean one. Probably because it is not as repetitious as the others. I am not sure of the exact name, however, I will find it and give you the name so that you can try it. Hope this is helpful. Have a blessed day!

S.

Hi Jeannie,
We use the homemedics one too set to waterfall. it's a nice consistant sound, we also use a humidifier. We keep the humidifier on all the time even if there's no water in it. It blocks out all other sounds so it helps them and us sleep better. we are addicted to it actually! If we are out of town and forgot it we have to go buy a new one! but it does work so great with babies!

We also use an air purifier in our dd's room. We bought it because we have cats and it turned out that it was a great white nose machine too. I'm glad we didn't go with the one that runs quite, that would not have worked. The louder the better. I just keep it on the High setting when she is sleeping. My daughter is not the best sleeper, she still wakes up 2-3 times a night at 7.5 months. Funny thing, when I went to visit my parents, they didn't have a white noise machine and it seemed she slept the same without it. Go figure. Still keeping the white noise machine though.

We bought the Conair infant sound machine.
http://www.conair-store.com/product_detail.asp?T1=CON+SU7...
It has clock/radio, white noise and other soothing sounds, i.e. waterfall, ocean waves, birds. My daughter (11 months) loves it. She actual listens to the ocean waves. It is something that can grow with her as well. Good luck.

Jeannie,
I use the one from brookstone for both of my girls, it has several different sounds including heartbeat. My youngest liked heartbeat for a little while first, then went to white noise.
My older girl (who's only 4) is so used to sleeping with her's we had to buy a second when I had the baby.
Brookstone makes several models and we like the ability to have several sounds. It's lightweight and has a nice cord that will allow us to elevate it. We don't let the girls touch them and its easy to keep out of their reach.
Good luck.

If it is only white noise she likes, I do not know where else to get that except maybe on a sound effects recording(?)... My daughter also had reflux and did not fall asleep easily or for very long. The doctor advised us to add rice cereal to her hypoallergenic formula so it would be heavier and theoretically easier for her to keep down. After we did that, she did sleep for longer intervals. (Not everyone thinks it is a good idea to add cereal to an infant's formula, and it may not be. We decided to try it due to sleep deprivation and desperation to relieve her from reflux symptoms.) She also slept in her car seat to help avoid the reflux.
As she got older and got over the reflux (thank God) she continued to have a hard time settling down to sleep -- she is an intense person. Since she is responsive to music, we have used calming music to soothe her at bed time. At first we found a lullabies tape she liked. Later, she decided it was too "babyish" and we bought some "Mozart Effect" CDs that work very well.
Congratulations on your little one! Though it is hard when you are sleep deprived, just keep trying things and you will either find what works for her or she will "grow out of it", whichever comes first! Becky

We like to use white noise just so the sounds of the rest of the house won't wake up our guys. My older son is 4 and we still like to have a fan in his room... my younger son is 16 months and we've always used an air filter. That gives two benefits... cleaner air and some white noise for sleeping. Just don't get one of those ionic air cleaners... they don't make any noise. Nice, but not for this purpose.

As far as the other noises you've been using, I can't believe they would be too loud for the baby... loud enough to hurt her ears, anyway. I used to mow the lawn while my little boy slept in a backpack... that's way louder, and our doctor said it was no problem.

Sleeping through the night? Good luck. If your sweetie has reflux, maybe she still needs the night time feeding -- to get enough nourishment. My first boy took until he was 3 to sleep through the night ... my second started sleeping through at 2 months old. The only time they wake now is if they aren't feeling well. Sounds like your daughter is somewhere in between. Point is, everyone is different and needs something different. I think the guideline for cutting out night time feeding is 4-6 months, if I remember correctly.

Good luck. Keep smiling.
~J.

My daughter turned two in April and we have been using an air purifier since before she was born. We had one in our bedroom because my husband needs white noise and when she was born, we bought one for her room. We bought ours at Sears and looked for the noisiest one we could find. They all advertise how quiet they are (like that is supposed to be a good thing--haha).

Good luck.

I use the Homedics® SoundSpa™ Lullaby Picture Projection for my twins. It works for their naps & at night. It has three soothing natural sounds: heartbeat, rainforest, and ocean, 3 lullabies: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Rock-A-Bye Baby, and Brahms lullaby. When they are cranky I use the rainforest. It also has a gently rotating image projection with 3 interchangeable disks which is perfect for night time because I put it on just before I leave the room and their eyes are fixed to the ceiling and they don't see me leave the room. It also has a variable auto-off timer which is nice so you don't have to listen to the noise all night long on the monitor.

Good luck!

we used a cd player with a baby lulaby cd. It worked great, and then we could use the cd player during the day.

So we tried a couple white noise machines my finance brought home from work, but I couldn't stand it through the baby monitor and I didn't feel like it was really working that great. Then we got out a little fan we had, pointed it away from the bed and ran that, all winter included. It circulates air, so it isn't as dry feeling (and circulates the humidifier) and is the perfect white noise, I can sleep through it and my son who is now 3 still sleeps through the night with it (we started when he was about 5-6 months old). Try it you may be surprised, and if not, well you can always use a fan (ours is ~8-9 inches in diameter, so not a real tiny one). Good luck!!

Sorry I missed the acid reflux thing the first time, my son had this very bad, and so does my dad, my dad sleeps on several pillows to help keep him elevated, well can't do that with a baby, but we talked to the pediatrician who approved us raising the head of the crib one notch from the base. So if you put your bottom crib slate in, instead of being flat, the head is elevated 1-2 notches (we did one until he was about 9 months old). It looked like he was going to fall down the crib, but I put him in in any way, he never moved and we quickly notice an improvement (it wasn't gone, but he was sleep better and less fussy). I would try that!! Also, you could probably hope to move that feeding to 5 pm if you moved the last night feeding a little later, but she's so young my guess is she still needs those feeding, I would talk to your doctor before you try to phase that out too aggressively, it may not be time yet!! good luck!!

We had luck with regular music CDs, from folksy Irish instrumentals to Sarah Brightman, and my baby's favorite, Bruce Springsteen (sounds odd, but all his songs have a regular beat that seemed to relax her!).

She had nasty reflux for the first 4 months, but it did eventually go away and she's now a beautiful 8-year-old bottomless pit!

Good luck!

Jeannie, Personally I didn't like "white noise" machines, because it always sounded like static over the baby monitor and I was constantly checking to make sure the stupid thing wasn't "between channels". Instead, we used a small, ordinary house fan (not pointed at the crib -- didn't want her to freeze). We put it on the lowest setting, and the steady hum of it was apparently very soothing. In fact, she's almost 11 now, but I've noticed that if I put a fan in her bedroom she still falls asleep more quickly and sleeps longer in the mornings.

Be careful of vaporizes -- they make a great sound but can be breeding grounds for bacteria.

I am I big believer in the white noise machine. The one from Brookstone is a little expensive but worth it in my opinion. It made my live MUCH easier during the reflux days when all you can do is wait for them to grow out of it. Good luck!

Any small white noise machine will work, set on the Waterfall or Rain setting. My little one loves it, and it helps drown out our moving around the house while she's asleep. As far as eliminating the 4 am feeding, this is how I did it (and my baby's sleep routine was very similar to yours): reduce the amount by 1/2 an ounce every 3rd night, until you get to about 2 oz. So, 4.5oz for 2 nights, then on the 3rd, go to 4oz for 2 nights, etc. Once you get to 2 oz for 2 nights, substitute a pacifier just to satisfy that sucking instinct that she has (all babies do). She may fuss a little, just comfort her however you do when you give a bottle. Hope it helps!

Have you tried a fan on the other side of the room turned away from her?

Hi Jeannie,

Being a very proud grandmother of 5, just thought you might find this of interest. My 2nd grandson had acid reflux and just cried all the time. He finally did have an operation, but before that my daughter-in-law had a cassette tape recorder and taped a vaccum cleaner, a washer, the TV snow noise over and over so the tape was quite long and placed it beside my grandson's ear. It worked every time. It was so sad to watch him cry, but as long as she had the tape recorder by him, it worked. This could be a cheap solution.

Our 3 month old is still in his bassinet in our bedroom and we sleep with a fan on. It's an oscillating fan that we point at the wall so as not to freeze ourselves out and we don't want the wind blowing on the baby, but the noise really helps. It's actually a habit I got into when I went to live with my parents after my first marriage ended -- my bedroom was right next to the kitchen and family room & I needed something to block out the sounds of my parents puttering around at 5 in the morning!

I play a thunderstorm CD during my son's naptime -- he naps in his crib during the day and the thunder booms don't bother him at all, so it's great when we get a real thunderstorm because he sleeps right through it. And then at night I put him down in the bassinet while he's still awake (barely)and turn on the fan. That way we can leave the bedroom door open but not have to worry about our talking, TV, and my older son's video games waking him up.

The good news though is that he's not dependent on any of it. My mother-in-law keeps him while we're at work and she doesn't use any kind of white noise over there and he sleeps just fine.

Keep with the vaccum though! She doesn't run hers while he's over there during the week at all and now when we try to run it at home while he's awake he screams terribly! He's terrified of it so we have to vacuum while he's sleeping behind closed doors at 9 at night! I wouldn't run it too often with your LO in the room because of the noise level, but you definitely want her to be used to it!

Good luck!

Oh, and as for sleeping through the night -- everything I've read says they just do it on their own when they're ready. My son just started sleeping through the night recently and he'll sleep 10 hours straight through till morning some nights. I started out by letting him take a LATE nap and then keeping him up till 11 so I could give him the last bottle of the day and he'd sleep till about 4. Then one night he just started sleeping through the 4 am feeding and now he usually doesn't wake up till 6 or 7, and this is even when his last feeding was at 9 or 10.

My son was also a reflux baby and we used a sound machine from the time he was about 4 months old to help him fall asleep and stay asleep. It seemed a lot of little noises would wake him up because he didn't sleep soundly because of the reflux. I would recommend the Marpac sleepmate sound screen 980A. It is a nice one because it has two settings, and the top moves around so you can choose a bunch of levels of sound that you would want. Also, it's just straight white noise, which is better because the sounds don't loop around and start over again which can bug a baby because they can start predicting the different noises and it can hinder their sleep. It sounds like she's doing great on sleep though and getting enough of it! Have you guys tried any meds for the reflux. We finally put our son on Prevacid twice a day and it was a life saver! Good luck!

Hi Jeannie,

We have very squeaky floors in our house, especially just outside the nursery. My husband would walk by our son's room & inevitably he would wake up almost everytime so we started playing a classical music CD in his room & now he can sleep through anything. The one that worked the best for us was a random find--Music for Calm Babies. If you go with the music approach, make sure that the songs are all about the same in volume so there aren't some that are very loud & others that are quieter, because when the volume on some CDs we tried changed drastically, it would wake him up. And I've discovered that even on 'sleep music' CDs, there can be fast-paced music in there which would also wake up our son. Maybe he's just very sensitive, but I think it would wake up most people with the significant changes on some of them. Also, make sure you find something that's not too irritating to you if you'll hear it on the baby monitor (we usually turn ours down low so we hardly hear the music). My husband & I couldn't stand hearing the static sounds & preferred music.

I've traveled a lot with my son & taking the CD (or the music on an iPod) has helped him sleep in unfamiliar environments. That way he's had something that's familiar wherever we've gone. The only downfall is that he's gotten hooked on the music & has had trouble falling asleep without the music unless he's super-tired. Those nights last month when we lost power were not easy for him (or me!). I wish we could transition him from needing background music to sleep but those darn floor squeaks are too loud! Maybe after we move...

--J.C.

Jeannie: We've had success with the Homedics kind found everywhere. It has different settings and our now almost 3 yr old son goes out to the ocean waves. We are in a tiny apartment right now and we also use the air cleaner in the room at the same time to mask the noise of us still being up.(That's been great during storms too - to mask the scary storm noises) When we don't have it on trips - we've never had a problem with him falling asleep without it. Sweet Dreams, S.

3 month old babies still wake at night. Many babies don't sleep through the night this young, it is quite normal, I've read many theories that it is more of a neurological development than anything else.

Studies have shown that doing things like putting cereal in a bottle don't work (and also pose a choking hazard).

Waking to feed at 11pm and then again at 4 sounds normal to me.

If you are going to 'sleep train' I would suggest the NO CRY SLEEP SOLUTION book.

Most sleep training cry it out acvocates won't even suggest it until 6 months of age.

As for white noise machines, you can certainly try it. I've used them for my older babies and still continue with the children sometimes. They have a volume control so you don't have to have them on loud.

Ours has sounds of heartbeat, ocean, rain, crickets etc

The Happiest Baby On the Block has a CD that supposedly sounds like the womb. It's a nice one.

good luck!

Hi Jeannie!

We use the conair noise machine. It is fairly small so you can take it with you if you need to and it costs around $20. You can leave it on all night or set it for a specific amount of time. We've had ours for over a year and couldn't live without it. I wouldn't get a CD just because 1. it stops eventually and 2. you may not have a cd player elsewhere.

Good luck!

We have the "sound sleeper" from Babies-r-us and love the ocean waves. It sounds like your baby is on a pretty healthy eating/sleeping schedule despite the reflux. We watched "the Happiest Baby on the Block" and my son responds immediately to shooshing and rocking even though he's grown out of his swaddle blanket. Best of luck!

Hi Jeannie! I had very similar issues with my daughter, now 11 months old. She had reflux too, and it definately impacted her sleeping. I tried a few things- here's what worked:
1 - put her to bed earlier. you really can't expect a 3 month old to sleep more than 5 or 6 hours in a row, sometimes 6 or 7 if you're lucky. they just aren't ready to go that long without eating on a consistent basis. however, you can make it work with your schedule. feed her around 6pm, and then put her to bed for the night. she should sleep until about 10 or so, then feed her again before you go to bed. hopefully you'll get a good 4 hours out of that or more, then she might need one more until it's time to get up. In about a month she should be ready to drop the 10pm feeding (if she's still asleep she really doesn't need this one). you may have to let her fuss a bit and see if she's actually hungry (she'll wake up) or if she can go longer. She should be able to go longer without eating very soon.

2- white noise. I used a sleep sheep, that makes ocean sounds, or you could by an ocean waves cd (my mother did that). for my daughter those ocean waves made a huge difference and the sleep sheep was pretty cheap. also, it only played for about 45 min, so if she woke up later on, she had to learn to go back to sleep on her own, without it, which is a very important skill to learn (one that she didn't get until 6 months)

3 - the next few months are when you start teaching her to sleep through the night on her own, without you. At 5 months my doctor said kate was big enough and developed enough to not need any feedings at night, which we pretty much dropped cold turkey. it took two nights before she accepted it. I did do a variation on the "cry it out" method, going in only when she was really hysterical. i started doing this at 6 months- before then i really don't think she was ready. I pretty much just worked around her schedule until then. Getting her to sleep through the night was excruciating, but only took about a week. For your daughter, i think she's really too young to expect it, but you can try to move her schedule around so that her longest stretch of sleep is during yours.

I don't have any advice on white noise machines but I do for acid reflux. My son had a severe case of acid reflux that went undiagosed until he was 5 weeks old. At that time we put him on medication and he pedi recommended a book b/c I was so sleep deprived. My husband and I took shifts through the night b/c he was either nursing or screaming and would only sleep for 30 minutes in between. Once the reflux was handled I implemented the Babywise method. And contrary to the below responses...my 6 week old was sleeping 9 hours every night. The method isn't for everyone but the method worked well for my son and I am a much happier person and better mother because of it. AND we don't have to coax him to sleep....I simply lay him in his crib and he goes to sleep within a matter of 5 minutes. "On Becoming Babywise" by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam. Good luck!!!

Hi Jeannie -

We also use the Homedics one set to the waterfall sound. It works great. My second child had reflux and we put two (side-by-side) folded bath towels under the head of the crib, raising his head a little bit. This helped with the sleep a lot. Good luck -- this time with your baby is so precious but can also feel so long and you are usually so tired! But it won't last long and you have some amazing stuff to look forward to.

A. T.

Hi Jeannie,

Just want to back track on the Acid Reflux issue?

Acid reflux will keep the baby from sleeping. Do you know if the baby has acid reflux for sure?

here is a web site to determine if your baby has Acid reflux?

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/719595/baby_acid...

There is a website for a white noise machine.

www.soundmachinesdirect.com/

Hope this helps. Good luck. D.

I have not had a lot of time to read all the responses, so if this is repeat sorry. I used white noise machines with both my kids! I got mine from sharper image and bed, bath & beyond. My children also had reflux and a wedge to sleep on was a lifesaver! This kept them propped up, so it was not so painful. As for sleep suggestions I always recommend a book called Babywise and it talks about the importance of routine to get your child to sleep through the night. It worked well with both my children. Let me know if you have any questions about any of the suggestion.

Yes, we use lots of noise makers in our house because we have a busy street behind out house. BY FAR, the best out there is made by marpac. You can order them at marpac.com. They are not cheap--about $65, but worth every penny. You do not need to get the fancy ones with ocean noises, etc. You can get the basic one, and I would recommend getting the one with two speeds so that you can choose what works best for your situation.
Good luck!
S.
PS. They also repair them should they break. Very nice people that work at marpac.

we just put an air cleaner in her room and turn it on before we put her to sleep and she seems to sleep right on thru the night! it makes some noise and helps her out :)

we also have a daughter a little over three months, and the machine we use is actually just a humidifier fan with the water tank detached, although it would also work just fine if the tank was attached. we already had a humidifier, used it in our bedroom when she slept in her bassinet next to our bed, and then the machine really helped as we transitioned her into her nursery, where she is now. she's sleeping great, and i think the machine really helps. just wanted to let you know that you can be creative and won't necessarily have to buy something new! :)

I have a little girl who will be turning 2 at the end of August and ever since I can remember I have played white noise in her room for naps and bedtime. She was always very very unsettled as a newborn and an infant and she was not colicy at all. I really do believe that white noise does calm and soothe them.
In the beginning I just used a regular CD player and I put in a CD that had different environmental sounds, one being white noise. I just kept it on repeat all night. I used it so much that I killed two CD players. Now I have invested in a white noise machine. I love it. I purchased mine online at JCPenney. You can find it, I believe under the "spa section" online. If not type in the words "white noise maker" and it should come up. It was not that expensive, about 55 dollars. I paid for the extra year warranty so that was an extra 4 dollars. It has varying levels of loudness that you can adjust so I would not worry about hurting your baby's ears. Professionally, I am an audiologist and I work at an ENT office so I am protective of my daughter's ears also!
I hope this helps or becomes a staring point for you. Good luck.

White noise machines are just another thing for parents to spend (waste) money on. I used a fan -directed AWAY from baby- which obviously can be used for something else at other times... I also used the noise from our exhaust fan in our bathroom on occasion as well. The air purifier idea is great as well!

I only used the fan for the last baby I had. Not to necessarily "calm" her, but to help drown out the toddler noise in the house while the baby took a nap. She loved it, and transitioned from using the fan noise to not using it very well.

ALSO: don't worry about hurting your child's hearing. In order to actually HURT her ears, it has to be "ear-splitting" level, or if it is over a constant period of time much louder than a hair dryer would be for instance (there is actually a more technical explanation involving how many decibels at which pitch and for how long, etc...). constant noise that is somewhat loud CAN'T damage the ears (not my opinion, but doctors).