Do you have a sound machine to help your baby fall asleep? You know, one that plays white noise or ocean sounds? A study from The Hospital for Sick Children has concluded that some machines may be harmful to a developing baby.
According to an article in the Huffington Post, researchers are urging manufacturers to include noise warnings on packaging after some sound machines surpassed safe auditory levels.
"Maybe they're not so good for the baby," said Dr. Blake Papsin, one of the study researchers and the director of the Cochlear Implant Program at Sick Kids. "Maybe they don't want to hear a heart sound. Maybe they want to hear their environment."
A total of fourteen sound machines sold in North America were tested at varying distances as part of the study, to measure the effect on a six-month-old baby's ear canal.
Worryingly, every machine was too loud. Much too loud for a nursery, at over 50 dBA. Clearly sound safety in these machines has been overlooked, and this study highlights the need for more rigorous restrictions.
While most parents have the good sense to exercise caution when setting the volume on such machines, manufacturers have a duty to limit the maximum output or, at the very least, provide adequate warnings on packaging.
Researchers advise parents to place such machines far from cribs and to use them sparingly. Complex sounds are preferable to that of white noise.
What do you make of this study: sound advice or a lot of static?
The common baby accessory that can be incredibly dangerous.
Have you seen Martin Scorsese's Wolf of Wall Street? Apparently of all the movies up for Best Picture at last night's Oscars, Wolf had critics most divided. And not for the record number of f-bombs dropped, but for the record number of "grotesque" sexist and chauvinistic portrayals of women—so much so that Los Angeles writer Nicole Donadio took it upon herself to flip the roles.
In her 'she wolf' version of the trailer, Donadio plays the part of Leo DiCaprio, delighting in objectifying men in a gender swap of the original preview (courtesy of Slate).
"There’s hardly a woman in The Wolf of Wall Street—at least those who are white, and over the age of consent—who the movie isn’t eager to offer up for our consumption, carefully manicured pubic hair on full display," wrote Alyssa Rosenberg.
In her essay, Rosenberg raised an interesting question: Is the depiction of a shady act or character synonymous with complicity? Is Scorsese as guilty of objectification as his subject, Jordan Belfort?
What's your take on the Wolf and the gender-swapping trailer?
Another gender bender of a sexist song that made us go hmm...
Hands up who's thoroughly 'done' with digitally altered magazines! This series of a Swedish toddler has me converted: surely this is what Photoshop was made for...
Little blue-eyed Signhild Nyström has long been the muse of her dad Emil. According to an article in Today, the 26-year-old advertising photographer had clearly had great fun experimenting with his now-two-year-old daughter, and credits her for giving "my crazy ideas life in photos.”
Sometimes he throws his wife Isabelle and seven-month-old daughter Hilma into the scene, too.
The results is Anne Geddes meets Gerber babies brought to magical life in all their gooey, rolly poly glory. Love!
Which photo is your favourite? I confess to a soft spot for Tinkerbaby, though the hostage birthday party brought a smile to my lips, too.
The black magic of Photoshop—an industry's dirty tricks, revealed.
Printer-friendly version