Noisy NICUs - Page 2

[hippiemum21580]

Wow, that is interesting....my first son was in the NICU for 9 days with CONSTANT sound all around him (we have video of it to prove it......everytime I watch it I still cringe.) As a result that kid would never sleep unless it was noisy. We used to keep him in a basinette RIGHT NEXT to the tv with it on fairly loud (not ear busting loud of course!) so he could nap during the day.
He hears just fine now.

[aris99]

I wonder if some of the differences in our kids reaction to sound also depends on where they were developmentally when they were born....very immature nervous system vs more developed nervous system?

[momz3]

Wowww...

Whats weird is my daughter was in the Nicu (for about a week) for sleep apnea and she also failed her hearing test. We thought she would be deaf, but a repeat test several weeks later proved otherwise.

Interesting.

[DocsNemesis]

At the hospital my friends twins were at, the very preemie babies get their own, sound proof rooms. While in the room, people are asked to use whispers and lights are kept low. I thought it was great, since my ds was in a typical, bright, noisy nicu. As they get older and more stable, they are moved into the general nicu, but even there its like pseudo rooms-3 walls and a curtain-seperating each family from the others. Noisier than the other rooms but not bad at all.

[janasmama]

When we were in the NICU it was at a learning hospital so groups of people would come in and stand all around the beds of the babies and talk across them and across the room in a normal to loud tone.

I was in the room pretty much every minute except for shift change...one day I was a little annoyed by it all because I felt so overstimulated myself and I knew that the babies must feel this way also even if they couldn't respond...my DS woulnd't wake at all for anything for 4 days and had to be on an ng tube.

I spoke with the nurse about it and asked them to be considerate of this. They were totally open to hearing that and it did change the sound level of the room. I think it's important to have a quiet room for the babies so they aren't stimulated with loud noise when they are sick and trying to get healthy.

[momoftinyhayden]

Hayden was the same way... He was on the end of the row, where nurses, dr's and even new babies coming in passed by him. He too did not respond to sound when he came home. He had a hearing test just a couple weeks after he came home and passed as well. It's been about a month and a half and he still rather be in a noisy room to sleep even doesn't sleep well in the quiet, but he responds to sound now a little. It gets so he reacts a bit more each day.

Remember if your preemie is in an isolet the sound is amplified.. there was a chart on the wall in our NICU
something like a nurse writing on a piece of paper setting on top of the isolet is like a jackhammer. So they are use to extreme sounds

[sbrinton]

The NICU at our hospital has almost entirely private rooms in both the Level III and the special care nurseries. There are one or two triage rooms where babies might spend their first day or two, and these are a little busier and louder - but as a whole the unit is quiet and peaceful. They also let parents room in (there are 2 beds in the private rooms, along with bathrooms with shower, comfortable chair, fridge, television, and built in closet/cabinets. I have to say that if we end up there again (good chance, I've been on bedrest with contractions for 9 weeks and we're at 21 weeks), I'm also thankful that it is quiet for the parents. It's nice to only listen to one monitor!

[McNic]

We found ourselves weaning our son off of noise when he started sleeping in his own room. We knew he couldn't sleep without sound so we put a clock radio in his room tuned into a talk radio station in his room. Every few nights we turned it down another notch until he got used to the quiet.

It worked!

On a side note...private NICU rooms...wow, we would have killed for that. Although I must say that on the whole, the nurses, doctors and other parents were quite respectful of the babes. I have a naturally loud voice so I was every nervous everytime I opened my mouth to converse with a nurse, doctor or DS. (I always whispered to our son...for his comfort and because I didn't want others overhearing our indepth convos! )