is white noise recommended for babies?

White noise is commonly used to help infants sleep, but there are concerns about its impact on auditory development. Continuous exposure to white noise may disrupt the formation of tonotopic maps in the brain, which are essential for normal auditory processing. These disruptions could affect a child's ability to process sounds and, subsequently, their speech development 1 2 3.

Eddie Chang has highlighted that while parents often use white noise for convenience, its continuous use might delay the maturation of the auditory cortex 1. It's advisable to explore more structured and natural sounds that could be soothing yet less intrusive to a child's auditory development 2.

In light of these potential concerns, alternatives such as pink noise, which has a more structured frequency distribution, might be preferable as they may have a less detrimental impact on the developing auditory system while still helping to mask disruptive sounds during sleep 4 5.