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.