Hearing protection muffles teething baby wails

When Adrienne of Baby Toolkit passed along this hack, I admit I snickered a bit. Hearing protection? Really? But, you know? Those baby wails can set one on edge like nothing else, and the more I thought about it, the more I appreciated the idea. I can imagine myself wearing a pair of these to the next seven year-old boy's birthday party we're invited to.

During teething Baby Geek (who can readily impersonate a fire engine) would leave my ears ringing hours after a short session "soothing rocking."  So rather than continuing the fast track to hearing loss, we invested in rifle-shooting hearing protection from Remington.

$9.99 to my local Rural King lowered his cry 34 decibels which increased my patience immensely.

They are stylish bouy yellow and can easily be located in a sea of baby clutter.

Tags: Baby, Parenting, Teething

Comments

[Betsy]

Ear plugs are my #1 recommendation for dealing with colic. You can still hear the baby crying just fine, but it doesn't set you on edge quite as much.

[hedra]

My best friend gave me a set as a baby shower gift. I ended up with a baby with one of the sweetest, mellowest voices ever. No siren wail.

My second could rupture eardrums without half trying. Couldn't find the darn things! Eventually figured out other ways of coping, but... sigh. If they set you on edge, definitely worth it. Just don't sleep with them in. Harder to hear the smoke alarm. ;)

[Jack]

Amen on the earplugs. I use the cheap foam plugs that can be bought at any drugstore for about $1.50. I disagree with the comment about sleeping with them in... I especially like to use them when sleeping in the same room as my kids on vacation since I'm such a light sleeper and every little movement they make wakes me up.

[Jim]

Adrienne had considered ear plugs, but we were worried about a possible choking hazard if they got misplaced.

[Jill]

Factoid:
85 decibels is the average sound of a baby screaming.
80 decibels is the level of sound that you can listen to without hearing loss.

I should have used them, but the idea of not wanting to hear my baby somehow made me feel guilty. His screaming was so loud and so high pitched that my ears would ring. Not wanting to hold that scream near my ears made it harder to bond with him. Ear plugs would have helped tremendously. Fortunately, although still loud enough to compete with a fire engine, his pitch is now lower.

[Liz]

Hearing protection can be good for the kids too. We have these:
http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/ejuearmu.html
for the kids for when we go to concerts in the summer, as they are easier then earplugs to get on properly (and find). But they work well at home. When the younger one is too loud the older one goes and puts hers on.

Actually, they just love to wear them at home. They also like to put them on in the house and have dad turn up the music loud and have a dance party. Or put them on and try and talk to one another. Or to have a good excuse for not doing what mom or dad asked, "what, I didn't hear you."

[Betsy]

oh, I totally second the earplugs idea. My ears would ring when dealing with standard-issue crying with my new baby (I don't know how people survive colic). The plugs were a lifesaver.

[Kevin]

Earplugs have saved my sanity. Most of the time 1 earplug in the ear nearest the baby is enough. And if you only have 1 earplug in, sleeping or waking, you can still hear the smoke alarm or telephone.

[Jill]

And on this note ;) here is a link to the Sight and Hearing Association's 2007 Noisy Toys List. These are the obnoxious (and dangerously loud) toys of the year. Some are for infants, so take a look and talk to Santa before its too late! Shttp://www.sightandhearing.org/news/healthissue/archive/hi_1206a.asp

[Izzy]

This is an excellent idea that all parents should consider. I know from experience because my husband has tinnitus that was grossly magnified and made worse because of our son's penchant for shrieking when he was an infant. If your ears are ringing after a soothing rocking session or any time after the baby has cried, you need to protect your ears even more. Once you develop tinnitus from repeated exposure to high sound decibels, you cannot get rid of it. There is no cure and it can be torturous for some people.

[oddharmonic]

My ear defenders still have kiddie stickers on the ear cups so my friends who worked on a military flightline when my daughter was an infant wouldn't accidentally take my pair. If you don't like over-the-head models, Peltor makes a behind-the-neck model (H6BV) that's rated to 19db.

Now that my daughter's out of the age range where I would worry she'd mouth my earplugs, I keep pairs of 30db-reducing foam earplugs around the house in clear film canisters. I like the old clear canisters used for military earplugs, but they're increasingly hard to find since the US military uses opaque tan rectangular earplug canisters now.

[Adrienne]

For some time I was embarrassed to admit to this hack. My ears rang all the time before I started plugging my ears.

Finally, picking Graham up from Y childcare, his college student caregiver said, "We heard him cry for the first time today. He may be the loudest baby I've ever heard."

I smiled. Most people didn't see my baby cry, so when I reported that he had a horrific wail, they usually said, "well, every baby's cry sounds worse to their parents than anyone else."

This college student was obviously relieved that baby had been easy to placate.

"His cry has an especially piercing quality too."

It was negative commentary about my child, but I was so glad to hear it because few people recognized the ferocity of his screams.

That was the day I decided to post this publicly.

Because, parents with little banshees, to quote Red Green, "We're all in this together."

And, for a bit of good news, as his shrieking has a incrementally diminishing effect, he's beginning to discontinue its use.

These days he's more likely to be wearing them (for fashion and amusement) than we are.

[Eileen]

I found earplugs absolutely necessary when Dad was taking care of our newborn so that I could nap! If our son makes a noise it wakes me up so my cheap earplugs have been excellent. Now I'm using them when he wakes up at 4am and thinks it's time for me to get up too ;-)