- October 24, 2019
15 Best Sleeping Aids for Infants
Having a baby boy or girl can be quite rough when it comes to getting good sleep. You probably think you’ve tried everything there is to try, and your baby won’t go to sleep no matter what. However, there may still be a few things you haven’t tried, and we’re going to present some of them to you here.
We’re not going to say that you can buy your way to a good night’s sleep. If that were the case, parents would be going broke worldwide. But we are going to say that there’s hope.
There’s hope that one or more of the products on our list might give you just a few months of uninterrupted sleep, and if that’s not worth a shot, we don’t know what is.
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Researched Sources
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Reviews Considered
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Hours Researching
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Products evaluated
Award-Winning Baby Shusher
This is an amazing device that had to find its place on our list. It uses a combination of recorded human voice and white noise to create a calming effect on your baby. The sound that is created as a result is similar to a natural shushing sound you create when you try to put your baby to sleep, but it is augmented by the white noise, creating an incredibly calming and comforting sound for your baby.
It also simulates sounds that your baby would have heard while they were still in the womb, which helps immensely. It is no secret that white noise has a very helpful effect on trying to get babies to sleep, and this product proves it even further.
Benefits:
- Created for parents by parents
- Scientific
Cloud b Sleep Sheep Sound Soother
We’ve all heard of counting sheep, but this is some next-level stuff. The Cloud b Sleep Sheep is a cuddly and cute little lamb that has a sound machine hidden inside it and plays white noise to relax your child and get them to go to sleep quicker, as well as to have a more soothing and restful night. It is very soft and cuddly, which means it should quickly become your child’s favorite toy during the day, as well as their favorite sleep aid.
The box contains an adoption certificate along with a storybook, as well as 2 AA batteries. The toy also has a heartbeat setting which is intended to mimic the sound of a mother’s heartbeat in the womb in addition to the other three white noise options.
Benefits:
- Batteries included
- Includes a storybook
- Easy to use
Tranquilo Mat
Being a newborn is a stressful time, and the Tranquilo Soothing Mat is here to help make the transition into the world easier for babies. It is essentially a vibrating, portable mat, which is meant to help your baby relax in her car seat, her crib or your lap.
The product was designed and developed by a maternity nurse when she realized that most parents have huge trouble getting their infants to relax, and she wanted to offer them a better, modern way to do that.
In the first few months of a baby’s life, soothing them can be quite a challenge, and the idea behind the mat is to mimic how it feels to still be inside the womb.
Benefits:
- Mimics the noises and vibrations of the womb
- Works in car seats and cribs
- Provides physical comfort
Nested Bean Zen Sack
We all know parents will try almost anything to get their babies to sleep. And it’s also clear that different things work for different babies, that’s the problem with us humans, we’re all unique. However, the comforting thing is that for most babies, touch and contact like rubbing their back can almost always do the trick.
The problem with that is that you can’t spend the night standing next to your kid’s crib with your hand on their back… I mean you did that last night, you need to get some sleep at some point! And that’s where the Nested Bean Zen Sack comes in.
With how simple this product is, it has no right to work as well as it does. It’s a very light, weighted sack, filled with poly beads, completely non-toxic, and it mimics the feeling of a hand on your baby’s back.
Benefits:
- Comes in many sizes
- Follows safety guidelines
- Keeps your baby warm
Crib Wedge Pillow for Babies
This is an extremely easy to use and helpful product. Put a fitted sheet over the pillow and position it at the head of the crib. Then when it is time for your infant to sleep, place your child’s head at the higher end of the wedge. This baby crib wedge infant pillow also has a cover that can be rubbed out, so it’s effortless to clean. It also includes a tremendous machine-washable cotton cover.
This is great because you do not have to fret about discovering the best size or even inadvertently buying the incorrect size. It likewise suggests that it will last you much longer than the other pillow choices as it can be used for years to come.
Benefits:
- Prevents reflux
- Machine washable
- Waterproof cover
Natural Herbal SleepDrops for Babies
Since babies can’t speak, it’s often very difficult to figure out what’s distressing them. Sometimes, you’ll do everything right – you’ll have fed your baby, changed their diaper, had fun with them on the diaper changing pad and made them as comfortable as possible, but they’ll still refuse to go to sleep, and might even cry and cause a ruckus for seemingly no reason.
That’s where the SleepDrops come in. They are a non-toxic, non-habit forming, natural sleep formula that will help support regular sleep in your baby. They are a gentle way to get babies and toddlers to settle-down when they are overly excited and help soothe infants and babies that are distressed. All you have to do is put a few drops under your kid’s tongue and enjoy the results.
Benefits:
- Completely natural
- Helps with a variety of issues
Baby Merlin's Magic Sleepsuit
This swaddle sleep sack is a heavily cushioned sleeper made to ease the transition for babies who are having trouble with breaking out of the swaddle. It’s designed for sleeping on the back, which is what your baby should be doing if they are not able to flip over in their sleep without assistance, which is the case with most babies under 12 months.
What a lot of parents don’t know is that babies tend to wake themselves up during the night with tiny movements they make, and the Magic Sleepsuit is designed to muffle those movements and keep your baby fast asleep. The suit comes in two sizes and different colors, and it is recommended for use with baby girls or boys three months old and up.
Benefits:
- Keeps your baby asleep
- Machine-washable
Munchkin Lulla-Vibe Vibrating Mattress Pad
Another product that was created to help babies fall asleep more easily comes from Munchkin, and it’s called the Lulla-Vibe Vibrating Mattress Pad. It is a battery-operated, portable pad, that kind of looks like a heavily padded ping-pong racket.
The way it works is by placing the wide part of the pad under your kid’s crib mattress while keeping the handle sticking out so you can reach the power button on the handle easily. Upon holding the said power button for about 3 seconds the vibrations will begin, and pressing the button again will engage the faster speed of the vibration while pressing it yet again will turn it off. The Lulla-Vibe is also going to gradually slow down and eventually shut itself off after 30 minutes if left alone.
Benefits:
- 100% cotton padding
- Machine-washable
Hyland’s Baby Calming Tablets
Here’s another easy solution to causeless crying, fussiness, restlessness, sleeplessness, and irritability of your baby. The Hyland’s Baby Calming Tablets will comfort and relax your baby for a restful and serene environment for the whole family. The tablets address any needs not related to teething, gas, or stomach discomfort and help soothe your baby, making them undisturbed and restful so they can let you rest as well.
Hyland’s Baby Calming Tablets treat inconsolable crying, occasional sleeplessness, irritability, and restlessness by combining several active ingredients derived from nature. The product is meant to be used with kids around six months and older who are not getting enough sleep due to restlessness.
Benefits:
- FDA regulated
- Safe and easy to use
Munchkin Shhh Portable Baby Sleep Soother
The smart people at Munchkin make lots and lots of reliable and high-quality baby products like their baby bottles, diaper pails, and other baby-related products. This one can be easily added to their list of top-rated products; it is a simple sound machine and baby night light, that includes some interesting features.
It has adjustable brightness of the night light as well as adjustable volume, and there’s also an off-timer along with a removable lanyard which you can use to attach the shusher to a crib, stroller or anything else. The volume is a little low, and the light is quite dim, making the buttons hard to find in the dark.
Benefits:
- Good value
- Includes an actual shushing sound
Bubzi Co Baby & Toddler White Noise Sound Machine
This is an adorable owl-shaped projector that you can strap to your baby’s crib easily. It projects light onto the wall in various patterns that change colors gradually to keep your baby relaxed and soothe them into a sound sleep.
The owl can play different melodies too, but you don’t have to worry about the sounds waking your baby up since there’s a 30-minute automatic shutdown feature. The product is very portable, so it can easily be used in the car, on vacation, or anywhere your baby may need to be comforted and soothed.
We all know it can be a special kind of challenge to get your baby to sleep somewhere new, so this might be exactly what you need.
Benefits:
- Easy to travel with
- Different melodies and color patterns
SleepyMe Smart Sleep Soother & Projector
This cute little nighttime star projector is intended to make going to bed fun as well as soothing for your little one. The projector does a great job painting your kid’s room ceiling with the night sky, but it does even more with ten different sound options as well. You can choose between white noise, a heartbeat, as well as different nature sounds and lullabies.
You can cycle through the options automatically or play one sound on repeat. SleepyMe will shut down automatically after 30 minutes, leaving your baby to rest and sleep peacefully. It is completely safe and non-toxic, developed with exclusively BPA-free materials. It also runs on batteries, so it’s cordless.
Benefits:
- Cute design
- Automatic shut-down feature
Lulla Doll Baby Sleep Companion
This sleep companion for your baby is made with natural cotton and can play all kinds of relaxing sounds to keep your baby calm. It’s the perfect bedtime pal for your little one. It can play sounds of breathing, heartbeat, and others and has a comforting, soft, and cute exterior.
The doll is lightweight, making it easy for your baby to handle and you can rest assured there’s no safety risk involved. It can be used as a regular plush toy during the day as well but works best as a bedtime companion. It will help your baby feel comfortable and secure. Just push the Lulla Doll’s heart to hear the heartbeat, and gentle breathing sounds for a full 8 hours.
Benefits:
- Cute and cuddly
- Soothing sounds
- Lightweight
Baby Einstein Sea Dreams Soother
This product comes with three different parts: the main base unit, the remote and the crib attachment, which you can leave on the crib while being able to remove the main unit. The base unit requires 4 C batteries, and the remote requires 2 AA batteries.
There are two volume modes – low and high, as well as four different types of sounds, including music and sea-sounds. When you get the toy you should pull the little tab you’ll find on the back of it to unlock the product’s full potential but taking in out of demo mode. There’s a crib-check switch in the shape of a large orange button on the top right-hand side of the toy.
Benefits:
- Four different modes
- Soothing visuals
- Timer and remote control
Munchkin Nursery Projector and Sound System
The last product on our list comes from a company we’ve mentioned before and combines two elements – images and sounds, to keep your little one relaxed and sleepy. It should be easy to find a combination that works well for your kid since there are plenty of sounds and pictures to choose from.
You can specify the amount of time you’d like the machine to stay in operation before it shuts down automatically, but the best feature is that it can sense your child crying, which will prompt the toy to turn back on immediately. If you’re looking for a product that has everything you need to soothe your baby, this is it.
Benefits:
- Voice activation sensor
- Lots of options
- Also plays classical music and lullabies
How to Choose the Top Rated Newborn Sleep Aids
Getting a good night’s sleep is hugely important for you as well as your baby. And if your baby is not sleeping, neither are you. This is why it’s critical to be very careful in considering as many factors as possible when you’re looking to purchase a sleep aid for your little one. It’s very important for you to know what the product in question can offer your baby and it’s important to get something that is made with babies in mind specifically.
A good idea, as with any other product, is to look at user reviews and ratings from other parents to see how satisfied they are with the product, whether it helped the quality of sleep of their baby and by extension their own, or if it was a pointless exercise and a waste of money and time.
You should keep in mind that not every product works for every child, obviously, but if there are overwhelmingly positive reports when it comes to a particular sleep aid, chances are greater that it will work for your kid as well.
Criteria We Used
Safety
The safety component of sleep aids mostly relates to those your baby touches or uses in the crib itself, so we’re mostly talking about dolls, sleep companions, and sleep-suits. These need to be 100% made of safe materials and provide no risk of suffocation. When it comes to products that sit outside the crib like projectors and sound machines, these cannot be a fire-hazard or have any risk of a dangerous malfunction.
Brand
Here at Funtastic Toy, we believe that every manufacturer should get an equal shot at success, and we work hard to give every toy or product we review a chance regardless of the brand. That being said, there are some manufacturers whose products we’ve been reviewing for a long time, and from whom we know exactly what we can expect.
Ease of Use
Last but not least, an incredibly important factor when it comes to choosing any product for your child is ease of use. You don’t want to risk anything going wrong, and also you don’t want to waste your precious time with products that are hard to understand or hard to get working. When it’s bedtime, you want your sound machine or projector to be ready to go, and not spend half the night figuring it out.
FAQ
Will a sound machine make it harder for me to hear my baby during the night?
A good sound machine should never get in the way of you hearing your baby cry. They are not meant to be very loud at all, and your baby crying is going to be the louder noise of the two. If you feel like the volume of the machine is too high, most of them have the option of lowering the volume as well.
What’s the most soothing color of light that I should choose on a projector?
All kids are different, so there’s no easy answer to this question. That being said, there are numerous reports and studies showing that, in general, colors on the blue spectrum keep people awake and colors on the red spectrum help people go into a sleeping mood. These studies have thrown a bit of a wrench in the works of the night-light industry because blue night lights used to be the most popular on the market for decades, but that trend has been changing lately.
Conclusion
A good night’s sleep is one of the most difficult things to let go of when you become a parent, especially in the first few months. But you may not have to let go of it after all, at least not completely. If you can get your child to have a relaxed and happy night, the whole family will hugely benefit from that.
It might seem odd, but newborns can actually sleep up to 16 hours per day, while toddlers can do about 14 hours, so you should be able to get plenty of sleep during those periods. Hopefully, the list will help you find the right product to make that dream a reality.
Catherine is a writer from Canada who simply loves toys, collectibles and superhero figurines. Writing is her passion, but she also loves reading, enjoying her “me time” and finding new ways to improve her work and ways to entertain the readers.
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