Is your child addicted to white noise to sleep?

[indimom]

I guess I'm still hoping for some additional suggestions from people who have older children....how have these older children coped on their own at a friend's house or camp when you are not there...


Thank you!

DD12 listens to music at night (just to settle down, it is set to go off after a while). She takes her Zune if she thinks she will need it (Girl Scout overnights, friends' houses, camping, car rides, etc.)
I know you said he can't bring an IPOD (is this because they think it will be broken or stolen?? Maybe they wouldn't object if you got him a really cheap $40 MP3 and explained the situation??).
DD wasn't supposed to take hers on the Girl Scout overnight, but she was discreet about it (kept it tucked in her pillow and just pulled the cord out for the earbuds) and they let it slide. (It might be safer to ask first though.)
Sorry, that's the only suggestion I can think of.

 

[Hawk]

We have never asked about what they did with our fans. I suspect that the mousekeepers took them home. We must have supplied half the staff with fans already.

When we first started going to POR (DxL) we would run the air conditioning fan and ceiling fan and get some noise, but never enough and the room would get either to hot or to cold. That is when we starting buying the box fans. If you have a car, Wal Mart has them for $13-$16. Well worth it as we stay for 14-20 days at a time. My parents were the same way - I guess it was to drown out the outside noise as they worked at night and slept during the day. All my kids (even my older ones) need to have a fan. I guess we started a bad habit.

Tim/Hawk

 

[DrummerBoy523]

I guess I'm still hoping for some additional suggestions from people who have older children....how have these older children coped on their own at a friend's house or camp when you are not there...


Thank you!

Our DS7 is usually so tired at friend's houses that he doesn't need a fan. Camp - we have a nice Coleman battery operated fan that provides a good amount of white noise that he takes with him in case.

 

[campingdawgs]

I think a small fan next to his bed would work, and shouldn't attract the attention of the other boys. I would also try to reduce the size of the fan at home, use lower speeds, etc. to try to wean him off of it. Do you turn it off when he goes to sleep, or does that wake him up? I always turn off my kids music after they go to sleep.
I understand about no ipod at camp - DD14 is not allowed any electronics at camp or any Girl Scout activities. The leaders will take it away for the duration of camp.

 

[J3nn78]

I can't sleep without my white noise machine! I got it for my oldest when he was 1 and having a hard time sleeping. Then we moved and we all share the same room. Now I cannot sleep without it at home, but I do just fine on vacation.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

DD12 listens to music at night (just to settle down, it is set to go off after a while). She takes her Zune if she thinks she will need it (Girl Scout overnights, friends' houses, camping, car rides, etc.)
I know you said he can't bring an IPOD (is this because they think it will be broken or stolen?? Maybe they wouldn't object if you got him a really cheap $40 MP3 and explained the situation??).
DD wasn't supposed to take hers on the Girl Scout overnight, but she was discreet about it (kept it tucked in her pillow and just pulled the cord out for the earbuds) and they let it slide. (It might be safer to ask first though.)
Sorry, that's the only suggestion I can think of.

Going off that idea...I know both of my daughters have pillows that you can tune to a radio station to, or plug in an ipod. They run on batteries or whatever so they can go anywhere and you can only hear them if you have your ear over the speaker area.

 

[deerhart]

We are a family needing white noise. At disney, the overhead ceiling fan is usually enough (though at home I sleep with a stand fan also blowing directly on me at disney I just crank down the ac).

For my kids, when they need it, we allow them to take mp3 players to bed to help them sleep. My youngest (age 7) does this ALL the time when we travel (especially to grandparents). He listens to music, but I am sure you could get some of more white noise type thing.

I do the same thing when I traveled alot and when I went to camp as a child (I just could not sleep no matter how tired I was). Once I got the headphones on and the music, I drifted off. I traveled heavily with my job a few years ago and music made it much easier to sleep in a strange bed without DH.

 

[tam626]

We all use a sound machine. Me & the 4 yr old use rain to sleep by. My 18 yr old dd uses the cricket sound but she can sleep without it.

 

[mrs.sammich]

I never needed white noise until a college internship- crazy roommates! Anyway, the fan quickly became my best friend, until the power went out- I had disposable earplugs for work in my room. They worked for me, you only focus on hearing your breathing, and if there was a fire alarm or if someone tried to wake me, I could still hear them. I could hear my radio alarm when it would go off too. If caught wearing them, he could always say someone's snoring was keeping him up!

 

[Tricia's mom]

I am also addicted to white noise... I travel with white noise machine. I have over 50 or so different sounds.
It started because DH snores and it drowns him out.

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

Fan addict here as well! For one of our vacations, I actually found a "white noise" cd. I brought a small cd player and set it on repeat...worked great! I don't remember where I got the cd, but I know that I googled and found it somewhere online.

We used the cd at home for my ds as well. I burned a few copies of it just in case I lost one since he couldn't sleep without it. Eventually we managed to change to the fan noise instead. Of course now that the kids are a bit older, I seem to be the only one still addicted to white noise! LOL

 

[MusiqChic99]

We sleep with a fan. My sweetie and I both have slept with a fan since we were little. In fact he was SOOOO happy to hear that about my addiction to white noise because there were times dating other girls that he didn't sleep well because they wouldn't let him have a fan. We both wake up if the electricity goes off and the fan turns off. It's like an alarm clock. You want someone in our house to wake up, you just turn off the fan!

Saying that...we have carried on the addiction to our son. He sleeps with a fan too. I dont really know if he is addicted or not since we've never tried without a fan. My whole family is this way though. Going on vacation with my parents was funny because we were all trying to find ways to get the air conditioner to be louder. LOL

I wouldn't be able to sleep without it for 5 days. I wouldn't sleep well at all.

 

[mousebymarriage]

This is another one of those things I would probably do differently when raising DS11. Just like my DH and I, DS11 is used to the hum of a box fan when he sleeps. For him, it started because we lived in an apartment, and the sound of the fan would help drown out the noise of the tv or kitchen.

Unfortunately, the sound is very addicitive. He can not sleep with out it, and the few times he has slept over a friend's house, he was awake most of the night and only drifted off for an hour or two. He toughs it out since it is only one night. Well, DS11 will be going to summer camp this year for 5 nights. There is no way he will cope with no sleep for that long.

For those of you with kids who are used to sleeping with a fan or other white noise, how have you (or they) handled it when away fior a night or two, and then also at camp for a longer period?
I have told him not to worry, that he will be so tired he will sleep, but I'm really not convinced and I know he is not either. I also told him we could reduce the fan noise between now and then, to get him used to not sleeping with the fan, but he is not willing to try it.

Any experiences you can share? Thank you!

I had to laugh when i read your post because both DD13 and DS8 as well as myself are addicted to using a fan for "white noise". We all have small fans on our dressers that we use every night. When we go away I always take a small fan that I bought at walmart for about $10. We even took the fan with us to Disney a few weeks ago.

 

[ZeroMyHero]

We also are a fan-addicted family. We all sleep to the noise of a fan. Right now, DD6mos is upstairs snoozing with her trusty fan running.

It's been mentioned before, but your son could take a battery-operated fan to camp with him. We have one we bought just for Disney trips at Target. It is very flat and the stand part folds so it is easy to pack in a suitcase, and it either runs on batteries or electricity. Your son could just he gets warm at night if the other boys ask about it but I bet they won't. At camp, though, he might be so tired that he doesn't need it, but I'd have him bring a fan along for insurance especially if he's worried about it.

 

[tgeorge0207]

All three of my children are addicted to white noise!!! It started when we lived in an apartment. Doesn't help when mom is addicted to the fan either. I can not sleep with out it. At disney my kids are so tired they fall right to sleep. Mom on the other hand will toss and turn with out it. I think I might look into the coleman fan. Sounds like a great idea.