The Best White Noise Machine For Kids? It’s A HomePod mini
It costs more, but it does more
An ambient sound/white noise machine is a must for any new parent for creating a soothing sound environment for a sleeping baby while also dampening noises from outside the nursery. Fortunately, it’s easy to find inexpensive basic ones for around $15 on Amazon. Sure, you can spend more on sound machines that are shaped like a cute animal or have night lights, star/shape projectors, etc., but as long as they have a timer and play the expected sounds (rain, ocean, stream, white noise), you can be certain that even the cheapest ones will do the job.
That said, when it came time to buy a sound machine for my first daughter, I went with an unconventional, expensive choice: a HomePod mini. At the time, it seemed like a bit of a risk, or at least overkill — for its $80-$99 price, you could buy a handful of sound machines for different rooms and for travel. I’d never met anyone or read any articles recommending using a HomePod for that purpose, but I had a hunch that a device with more features could make it useful for longer. Now, with my daughter about to turn four and using her HomePod mini throughout the day, I consider it to be one of the best, most prescient pieces of baby gear I’ve ever bought.
