noise machines

Some people swear by noise machines to help their babies sleep, and for others they really aren't necessary. The Sleep Sheep is popular because it's cute and marketed well, but the product is at odds with the actual research on baby sleep. The Sleep Sheep only goes for like 20 minutes, and if you use a noise machine, you really need to keep it on the entire time the baby is sleeping. The idea is that you don't want to hook your baby on a soothing method that won't be available to him/her when waking up and tossing/turning in the middle of the night. So, if you commit to the noise machine, you're supposed to go all in and get one that will be on all night (like this one by Graco). There are also lots of iPhone apps that work as noise machines on-the-go, though you have to be willing to give up your phone for the duration of the baby's sleep. For on-the-go, the Baby Shusher is small and very popular among parents who need a noise machine to help calm a baby in the car or when traveling.

Though it's not a noise machine, we got an air purifier that creates background noise and we run it basically all the time. We have the Germ Guardian, which has three settings for intensity/sound, and typically run it at the mid-level. Particularly since we live in LA and the air quality isn't the best, this is hitting two birds with one stone.