Remember that newborns just came from a loud womb and so sleeping in absolute silence, though it may sound appealing to an adult, may not be the best option for them. Often a little white nose in the background will help them sleep better. I know some people are against sound machines because they consider them a sleep prop, but I love them. I have one (DEX Products Sound Sleeper SS-01) that I bought for about 20 dollars that I use whenever my son sleeps. This not only keeps his room from being perfectly silent, but it helps to drown out all the sounds around the house. I like this particular one because it can either be left on for 30 minutes or for an indefinite amount of time, and the it is loud enough to drown out some noise, but quiet enough that it allows a little bit of noise to come through so your child gets used to some outside sounds. It is also very small and portable so you can take it on a trip with you or to the baby sitter's house. There are plenty of other sound machines available that I'm sure are pretty good too. Some are pretty pricey though.
Even though I like sounds machines, there are definitely some good arguments for having your child sleep in an environment where they can hear normal house hold sounds. Obviously this would be more convenient because you wouldn't have to worry about sounds at home or away from home waking them up. You also wouldn't have to worry about your child becoming dependent upon hearing the sounds machine to sleep, although from what I've heard most children that are used to sleeping with sounds machines still sleep without them, they just wake up more easily to loud sounds.
The most common time you are going to have problems with awakenings from noise is during partial awakenings. Some people figure out when these are and then make sure to be quiet at this time. Other people keep on with life like normal and try to get their child used to the normal sounds of daily life. This method may result in a period of time filled with bad naps and night time sleep but eventually pretty much any child should be able to get used to sleeping through a variety of noises. Like usual though, some children are going to be more sensitive than others and have a much harder time sleeping through noises. Many will wake up to a noise and then feel rested enough to start playing. Others will wake to a noise and want to take part in what is going on.
For those with a really young child you're probably feeling pretty lucky because your child will sleep through just about anything. Unfortunately, this often changes and it is probably only a matter of time before things that used to not bother your child's sleep start to cause some problems. This is mostly to occur around 3-4 months of age.
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Hello , my baby is 6 months old she is very sensitive to any noise and wake up and get a bad nap which makes her cranky and harder to be settled again , what can i do to make her more flexible , i don mean to put her in a really noisy place but i mean how can i get her to adapt with few noises natural daily noises outside her room , but i don want to disturb her sleeping that will hurt me much i don like to see my baby suffering and tired , is there any gentle method ? thanks
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately some babies are more sensitive to noise than others and while you can try to help them get used to noise, they will probably never be great with it, at least not until they get a bit older (most older kids will naturally do a bit better with noise).
To get her more used to noise you can slowly introduce a small amount of it. If you use a sound machine you could slowly turn the volume down over several days/weeks. You could also try putting a radio on very quietly and turn the volume up a little bit over several days. While doing this it is very likely that you will have some bad naps for a while until she gets used to the noise. Sorry :( But if you do it really slowly she will adjust the best. Most likely she will get get better with noise, it will probably take some years though--probably not what you wanted to hear!