![]() Like many of these low tones, white noise is another pattern-less example of something that keeps baby’s brain busy while sleeping.īut patterns provide something for the brain to hold onto-a way to group information together in blocks, which is less taxing. Traffic, the hum of air conditioners, machines, computers, lights these all make sound without any patterns for the brain to find. We live in a world where there is a lot of sound without patterns. However, if we understand how to manage it, our babies can still build neural pathways during sleep and get the rest they need. Processing sound through our entire body, especially for infants, can be exhausting (the brain is constantly trying to make sense of auditory input). Mother nature does help us filter out sound that the brain deems unnecessary, but for babies, these filters are very immature. We can hear through walls, around corners, even while we are asleep. But for our auditory system, we have no earlids – we can’t shut it off. If we want to rest our visual system, we close our eyes. Unlike every other sensory system we have, our auditory system cannot turn off. When listening to a recording, it is just through air conduction, and we usually don’t recognize it as our voice. When we speak, we hear ourselves through both bone and air conduction. Have you ever thought “Do I really sound like that?” The best example is listening to a recording of your voice. ![]() It is through both channels (air and bone conduction) that we interpret our world. However, our whole skeletal system also resonates with sound, providing bone conduction. When sound travels in through the ears, it’s called air conduction. While auditory information comes in through our ears, our brains are the ones that interpret what we hear and make sense of the sound.īut processing sound doesn’t just use our ears, it’s a whole-body experience. So, when your baby is born, they already have 5 months’ experience in processing sound.īefore we look at why soothing, patterned sounds like music are better than white noise for babies, it’s important to understand how the auditory system works. It is almost fully developed at 16 weeks in utero. Our auditory system is the first to develop and the last to stop. Research tells us no, and here’s why – your baby’s auditory system is hard at work, and sleep aids like white noise can send it into overdrive. The biggest take away is, don’t allow white noise to stress you out in those first 6-8 weeks focus on bonding, feeding, and recovering.Everyone loves to watch a sleeping infant, but is white noise for babies the best environment for these peaceful moments? With all this said, if you want to implement white noise from the very start, you most definitely can! With my own newborns, I played white noise during the night from day one, and introduced white noise for naps around the 6-week mark. ![]() I would like to encourage you to focus on adjusting to newborn life, using white noise to help SOOTHE a fussy baby (as mentioned before), and aim to implement the white noise for BOTH nap and night around the 6-8 week mark, when you begin to see your baby’s social smile. The purpose of the first 6-8 weeks of life is for developing a bond with your baby, for figuring out and establishing feeding, and for YOU to recover from child birth ! The importance of blocking out external noise isn’t necessary just yet as newborns can sleep through A LOT, and using white noise as “cue for sleep” can begin around week six. White noise can technically be used right from the moment you bring your baby home from the hospital, however, here is why I recommend holding off.
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