Okay... People with newborns and pinball machines. Please help my wife and I settle a "disscussion" we are having:

Will playing pinball in the sane room as my newborn damage his hearing? It's a system 11 turned down as low as it will go... Which actually is a liitle loud.

Quoted from Hippochrome

Okay... People with newborns and pinball machines. Please help my wife and I settle a "disscussion" we are having:

Will playing pinball in the sane room as my newborn damage his hearing? It's a system 11 turned down as low as it will go... Which actually is a liitle loud.

Is it any louder then anything you would normally watch on TV?

Quoted from Vengeance

Is it any louder then anything you would normally watch on TV?

Yes. She can hear it throughout the house. But it's not just the volume of the speakers, it's the actual regular bang bang a machine makes that she's also concerned about.

I know nothing about babies so take anything I say with a grain of salt

But if it's not damaging your ear drums why would it damage the babies?

It might disturb the baby's sleep if it can be heard through the house but that's it. I'm not sure if you have other kids, but if not I just want to remind you it's best for the baby to be a bit desensitized to household noise, within reason of course.Women go through weird stuff post partum so maybe just try to pay attention to the mom's condition too, and remember what an amazing thing you both just brought into the world

I hate to say it but your wife has a valid concern. Infants have a much more acute sense of hearing than adults. As far as damage, if you can if you can talk easily over the sound, it shouldn't harm your baby's hearing.

Yep, sounds like you have a problem. I'll come over and get the offending game and bring it back it 7 years  

Seriously I have no idea. I've always had my games in the basement and the noise upstairs was and is minimal. Perhaps ask a second opinion while playng the game.

Duane

Hummm, I think you must sell that game!

When my daughter was an infant, I'd wear her in the baby sling while playing pinball to get her to go to sleep. It worked, so I can't imagine it bothered her or her ears. She's 5 now and has better hearing than I ever had.

I'll bet your newborn's screams are louder than the pinball machine.

Most parenting experts would advise eliminating that hazard by removing exposure.




































Pinball experts have the correct solution

Just disconnect the knocker.

Tell your wife to take the kid out for a while.  You're playing some pinball !!!

Only an alarmist would claim that your infant's hearing is in danger.  Is it a considerate thing to do ?  Maybe not.   Is it bothering the baby ?  Perhaps.   But is it causing long term damage, or even short term damage to the baby ?  No way.   Only two things cause acoustic trauma: Decibel level and amount of exposure.  I can only guess that your machine is around 80 or possibly even 90 decibels.  At that level, you can enjoy it for hours before it's even considered to be too much exposure for one day.  And this type of exposure has to occur over days and weeks and years.   It might be bothering the baby much like fingernails on a chalkboard can bother adults, but hearing damage ?  Nope.

Google says:

http://www.childrenshearing.org/custom/hearing_health.html

Towards the bottom is mentions about infants, although he states that infants hear things 20 db louder than adults, there isn't any reference to a study that confirms it.  Makes sense, but I'd still be a bit skeptical.  It still however says that 'toys' shouldn't be louder than 85 db, which is still pretty loud.  Any damage however would have to be a result of prolonged exposure (or acute really freakin' loud noises), not a 10min session on a machine.  Most other sites say that signs of damage occurring would be pain/ringing, so as long as the baby isn't complaining, it's probably not hurting.

I'm all for exposing kids to noise, when our kids were born, they didn't even have a bedroom door.  Their hearing is fine and now they sleep through anything.

No way, if their hearing was that sensitive they'd deafen themselves with their screaming / shrieking.  

That being said, do what your wife says.  She's seriously chemically and emotionally imbalanced right now.

Daniel

Quoted from cooke

When my daughter was an infant, I'd wear her in the baby sling while playing pinball to get her to go to sleep.

I did the same with my first.  Now, at eight years old, he can beat me half the time on any of my games.

Quoted from McMean

No way, if their hearing was that sensitive they'd deafen themselves with their screaming / shrieking.  

That being said, do what your wife says.  She's seriously chemically and emotionally imbalanced right now.

Daniel

I'm with you on this one. However wrong I think she is on this one...it's way easier to let her have her way on this one.   On another note...I downloaded a decibel monitor on my iPhone to measure the pinball machine on...highest it got to was around 80db...

Ave. Conversation was around 50db
Shouting at the top of the stairs, with the baby in her arms, for me to do something, would be double any pinball machine...but who's counting. Lol