9 Month Old Daughter and Birds

You don't say what kind of birds they are. I have a cockatiel, which is a rather small breed, and there is no way I would allow them to be kept in the room of my kids, much less when they were babies. Birds are messy. Even if you feed them pellet food to keep the mess to a minimum, there is all the dust and dander they create for those little lungs to breathe in. Plus once my daughter started walking, she wanted to rip out the paper liner, which I found to be really gross. My daughter is 19 months old and I have to keep my office door locked (that's where the bird is kept) because she gets into the cage and makes a HUGE mess if she is unattended. Usually I am a fan of whatever works, but in this case I would not do it. If you think the baby finds bird sounds soothing, I would either play a bird call cd in the room or get a noise machine that has bird sounds.

Give her your birds or get her her own birds...what a fun thing!

I may be a minority here but I say leave the birds, IF that's what's helping her to sleep. What type of birds are they? Don't worry about the whole bird disease post. Keep the cage clean and you don't have to worry about that kind of stuff. We were raised with birds and now share our home with a cockatiel and 2 lovebirds who stay in my children's play room but no one sleeps in there. For a while, the lovebirds were kept in my daughters room but they were rather noisy so we moved them to the play room. Don't worry, she won't catch anything from the birds being in her room.
Many animals can carry diseases that humans can catch but it's rare, dogs, cats, reptiles, etc. so should we ban all of those animals from our children as well? Cats and dogs carry dust and dander and can carry worms and fleas that can spread around your home much more than any bird disease. Your baby will eventually grow out of needing them to soothe her to sleep but if it's saving you hours of time in a day to help your child sleep then I would be all for it. And I wouldn't go buy more birds just to give her her own set, if these birds are helping to soother her, then that's all you need. Why add more expense and responsibility to the mix? Just keep things how they are if it's working for everyone. Hope you have a great day!

maybe you could try to record your own birds on tape or even make a cd actually cd would be better and get her a small cd player and put the recording of your own birds in and put replay maybe that will work. Goodluck

Don't mess with a good thing! Birds chirping are absolutely a calming force. The pitch/tone of the chirps are actually stimulating auditory pathways for her future listening/learning skills in school. There is actually a whole therapuetic listening program that uses birds from Austraila to "tune up" the muscles of the ears for children with Auditory Processing Disorder. So if you are gettting it for free before any problems start, then stay with it and SLEEP!

Hi, I think this is kinda cute! I'd leave the birds or get her , her own birdie! I'm sure they will not hurt her in any way' and as long as they don't fly outside, they'd be disease free. Look at the birds as her own guardian angel keeping watch over her! God bless you all...
Sincerely,
Kathy N. & Family

Perhaps there is some sort of noise maker that sounds like the birds. That way, you can give her the sounds without the mess.

I thought, how cute she falls asleep w/ the birds! If it works, keep them. Natalie O is right, all animals have "something" and domesticated birds are no different then a dog or cat. I would maybe keep them in another part of the house during the day and open her window once in a while to try and keep the air in her room fresh. Other than that, feel lucky you have something that helps your baby sleep! :)

Whatever works!

If you are worried about disease (which I think is pretty unlikely if they are caged brids), hang their cage high enough so she can't reach it but she can still see them.

I think it's sweet.

--M.

Different children have different things they respond well to. My children are all different. Only one actually likes complete silence. We also have birds, which are in my second sons room. Since they are covered at night, they don't actually make much noise. But they do tweet on occasion throughout the night. As long as the cage is kept clean, there shouldn't be any problem. As they are indoors, they aren't likely to pick up parasites. For the birds sake, don't add a night light or turn on her light at night with them in there. If you do, keep them covered! Birds who don't sleep at night can develop cancer.

There are noise machines that make the sound of chirping birds so yes, it's perfectly natural to fall asleep to these noises and find them soothing. I have a setting on my sound machine that sounds like a rainforest, so you hear waterfalls as well as chirping birds. Personally, the sound of birds is too high pitched for me and makes it harder to sleep with, but obviously some people like it or they wouldn't have used this sound as a setting on the machine. Everyone falls asleep to different sounds -- some like the pitter patter of raindrops, the sound of a water creek, a heartbeat, rolling thunder, a locomotive, or plain white nose. Me, I use the sound of the crashing waves on my sound machine to fall asleep, and my daughter, who sleeps on the same bed as me, loves it too. If it's too quiet, she will actually wake up because then you can hear planes, snoring or something else that will awaken you, whereas the sound machine helps you block it out. If you're worried about germs, keep the cage far enough away from the bed so they can't scatter the poop or the seeds from the bottom of the cage, or leave the cage in the hall and leave your daughter's bedroom door open so she can hear the birds while they keep their distance. Or, try finding a CD with different bird sounds that play with soothing music in the background.

How old is your daughter and do you have a night light in her room? Maybe she watches them and that puts her to sleep.

Is there a place you could put the birds that are near her room where she could still hear them without them being directly in her room?

I wouldn't have the birds in the room with her, there is a serious disease they can get from bird droppings called histoplasmosis. My grandmother had this and showed no signs, but had to be careful of some things. Another friend had a son who contracted this who started to loose his sight. I'd record the birds for her, or get a noise machine, she will get used to the difference eventually, it just takes time.