I don't know if it soothes the baby, but we like having something to drown out other noises in the house. We use the Homedics sound & projection machine. At night we've been using the vaporizer as white noise, but I use the rain setting on the sound machine at other times. DD also loves watching the projection as she falls asleep at night.
We have only had a teddy bear that plays the sound in the womb for 40 minutes and then it stops on it's own. We have used it since P was a baby and he still uses it for naps and at bedtime.
We will be buying the exact same one for the new baby as well.
I hear they are great, but there are mixed opinions on whether its actually good for the baby's development. Just a heads up--we're still registering for one, I think.
Yes, sound machines definitely work! Our children fall asleep almost instantly when we turn the white noise machine on. I recommend the basic sound of white noise instead of the other nature sounds which are available on some of the machines. We bought the Marpac SleepMate 980.
Re: White noise machines...do they really work?
We have only had a teddy bear that plays the sound in the womb for 40 minutes and then it stops on it's own. We have used it since P was a baby and he still uses it for naps and at bedtime.
We will be buying the exact same one for the new baby as well.
Our DD slept with the "ocean waves" sound on until she was 2 yrs old! It was awesome...she slept through anything with that machine on.