With the birth of a child, the newly minted mother has many urgent matters and worries, because the baby as ever needs the reverent attention from its parents. As a rule, numerous sleepless nights tire most of all when the kid every now and then arranges the next “concerts according to requests”. In such cases, the situation is saved by white noise for newborns, which, due to its monotonous multi-frequency sound, has a beneficial effect on the human nervous system.

The benefits and harms of white noise for newborns

White noise due to its monotony contributes to relaxation and faster immersion in sleep. This phenomenon is a multi-frequency sounds that have the same power. Experts have found that white noise affects the cerebral cortex, calms the nervous system, so more and more often this combination of sounds is used to conduct hypnotic sessions.

In a newborn baby, the nervous system is not yet fully formed, which means that causeless crying and anxiety in the first months after birth are a variant of the norm. However, the baby calms down almost instantly when, for a sound sleep, his mother whispers to him the monotonous “hhhhh”. This is also a kind of white noise with a uniform sound background.

Its benefits are as follows:

  • has a calming effect;
  • provides fast immersion in sleep;
  • causes the child a feeling of complete safety;
  • normalizes the functioning of the nervous system.

Important: so that white noise does not adversely affect the baby’s auditory receptors, its volume should be no more than 50 dB.Otherwise, a too loud sound can harm the unstable psyche of the baby.

Varieties for Kids

For children, white noise is of two types:

  • Natural. It includes sounds of natural origin. The most common is the sound of water - whether it is light rain or the sound of sea surf. Among the natural sounds also rustle of trees in the wind.
  • Technical. Published in everyday life through the use of various gadgets and devices. This may be the noise of a vacuum cleaner, hairdryer or lawn mower. Radio or television that are not tuned to a specific frequency are also a source of white noise.

In everyday life, a person is accustomed to the constant sounding of various household appliances, and complete silence, as a rule, causes excessive anxiety of the nervous system.

What is it for?

According to scientists, the child begins to hear extraneous sounds while still in the womb of the mother. At the stage of its development, somewhere in the second trimester, the embryo's auditory receptors pick up the sounds of the mother’s heartbeat, her breathing, blood circulation processes, etc. In addition, the child already hears outside noise, various sounds, the voice of his mother and strangers. It is not in vain that experts recommend communicating with the baby during pregnancy, listen to soothing music, and try to avoid any stresses.

Being a long 9 months in the mother’s womb, the child is accustomed to the constant pulsating vibrations that the body of a pregnant woman emits. This gives the developing fetus a calming feeling of complete safety and security. That is why babies are so afraid of frightening silence and fall asleep only under the sweet lulling of their parents. White noise, in turn, creates a sound identical to those sounds that the baby is used to hearing while being in his mother’s stomach. Already familiar vibrations of the same frequency help the newborn calm down and sleep sweetly throughout the night.

How to turn on the baby white noise for sound sleep and colic

So that artificially created noise does not harm the child, a number of certain rules must be observed:

  1. The noise emitted should sound monotonous without any sudden interruptions.
  2. In no case should you turn on sounds that are too loud or screech.
  3. Using a gadget or special equipment for playback, it is necessary to install them no closer than two meters from the baby's bed.
  4. The optimal volume level is the sound of the included shower head.
  5. Do not often include such vibrations in those children whose age has exceeded one year. There is an opinion that white noise can be addictive, but there is no scientific evidence for this.

Of course, white noise is not a panacea for any external stimuli that affect the duration of a baby’s sleep. And yet, with proper use, it gives a pacifying sense of comfort, and also contributes to the normal formation of the children's nervous system. We hope that our article will be useful for you and will ease the difficult everyday life of new parents, whose vain attempts to put the child to bed ended in failure.

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