[tufflitestudios]

I am in the process of reading an interesting (and passably stupid) book on making your baby smarter. Fast forward to a fetal stimulation program and I am in the market for my baby's first headphones. So I am looking for a inexpensive pair of headphones that will fit on my wife's stomach with ear pads that can can get a little wet; apparently the sound will travel to the fetus better if the ear pads are wet or damp.

Recommendations would be great. If you have an old pair of headphones you are looking to unload on the cheep let me know. If you have any stories or feedback on playing music to a fetus please let me know.

I am open to the fact that this is potentially ridiculous and that my wife may never play along. But that can't stop me from over analyzing the situation.

 

[thoughtcriminal]

Audio Technicas can stretch quite wide. Cheaper ones have vinyl pads.

I would be willing to bet that JVC HA RX700 or HA RX900 would too, and are supposedly great phones for the money too. Again, vinyl pads. HA RX700 can be had for about $35 new

Hey, nothing wrong with starting young. I wish I had been exposed to good sound earlier. If nothing else, you will have a set of headphones specifically for your child, and hopefully that will be his/her gateway into hifi sound

 

[ph0rk]

Well this is a first.

Wouldn't speakers be easier to manage?

 

[toxic888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tufflitestudios /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you have any stories or feedback on playing music to a fetus please let me know.

Haha! That's awesome.

Get some cheap headphones and mod them; get rid of the headband, and strap them around the stomach

Would be the most comfortable solution, but they would be useless to you afterwards

 

[jonathanjong]

Whoa! Please, please don't do this!

There is no rigourous evidence that this works. And we're not sure if it harms the child. We know that sound is amplified in the womb, due to the liquid. For obvious reasons, there isn't much research on this, but there are reasons to think that subjecting the fetus to sound in this way is harmful.

NB: I'm an experimental psychologist, and I've done pretty extensive reading on this issue as part of a graduate course recently.

 

[toxic888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonathanjong /img/forum/go_quote.gif We know that sound is amplified in the womb, due to the liquid.

Haha. I did look over that.

 

[tufflitestudios]

Glad I asked. Any reason that playing music though speakers at a normal volume would be an issue for the fetus? Should we avoid going to loud concerts?

I don't think the wife will ever go for this, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun talking about it. In that vein I still want headphone recommendations and hopefully some stories.

 

[jonathanjong]

^ Just remember that anecdotal evidence is pretty weak evidence. Sorry to carry on on a sombre note, but the effects of prenatal exposure to stuff is something of a passion of mine.

Speakers should be fine. I'd avoid loud concerts, but not because of the sound. Concerts are fun, but stressful. And stress (well, cortisol) ain't good for fetuses. Also, concerts are crowdy and messy, often. Increased chance of physical trauma.

Also: Smoking and drinking during pregnancy is a very, very big no no. It's best to totally abstain from both. Another reason to avoid concerts, incidentally. Binge consumption is disproportionately worse than small doses over time, but even that has detrimental effects. Oddly, the evidence for the effects of cocaine are weak. The data is messy, anyway. It's hard to do research on this, again for obvious reasons.

PS: I'm glad you asked too.

 

[Peter Pinna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tufflitestudios /img/forum/go_quote.gif Glad I asked. Any reason that playing music though speakers at a normal volume would be an issue for the fetus? Should we avoid going to loud concerts? I don't think the wife will ever go for this, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun talking about it. In that vein I still want headphone recommendations and hopefully some stories.

Yes, you should absolutely avoid going to loud concerts, even by yourself, because, after the baby is born, if you went to the loud concerts, you will be so hard of hearing that you won't be able to hear the baby cry. You should definitely avoid taking the baby (either in or out of the womb) to loud concerts.
I think mellow music played from distant speakers and not a wet headphone placed on the mothers stomach (dangerous and extremely ridiculous and stupid) is best when the baby is in the womb. This is all my opinion but if you want an intelligent baby, perhaps listening, at a moderately low volume, to intelligent music such as the classics (Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms is an excellent choice for a baby and Chopin) would be helpful.
Do not listen to Heavy Metal Music at all. Aluminum Foil music would be much better.

 

[jonathanjong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter Pinna /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is all my opinion but if you want an intelligent baby, perhaps listening, at a moderately low volume, to intelligent music such as the classics (Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms is an excellent choice for a baby and Chopin) would be helpful. Do not listen to Heavy Metal Music at all. Aluminum Foil music would be much better.

I'm glad you pointed out that this is your opinion. There is no rigourous evidence that pre-natal exposure to music - classical or otherwise - has any positive effects on cognitive skills. There are a smattering of studies that seem to suggest that classical music is good for kids, but these studies are all devastatingly flawed. They often fail to control for very obvious potential confounding variables. None of this is my opinion, as such. I suppose the evaluation of an experiment as methodologically sound or not is, in some sense, a matter of my opinion...but still, most experimentalists will agree with my assessment of these studies.

 

[Tacoboy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thoughtcriminal /img/forum/go_quote.gif Audio Technicas can stretch quite wide. Cheaper ones have vinyl pads. I would be willing to bet that JVC HA RX700 or HA RX900 would too, and are supposedly great phones for the money too. Again, vinyl pads. HA RX700 can be had for about $35 new Hey, nothing wrong with starting young. I wish I had been exposed to good sound earlier. If nothing else, you will have a set of headphones specifically for your child, and hopefully that will be his gateway into hifi sound

Second on the JVC HA-RX700.

 

[Trav]

for that "precocious" infant perhaps we seek a geneticist first and run a paternal and fraternal test for the "bubba" gene. I was blessed with it paternally and fraternally, but yet here i am among the most "pseudo-intellectual" collection on the planet. Ain't life special....

 

[john5220]

Think about it this way. Humans were not meant to be subjected to this kind of experiment.

Albert Einstein never had this experiment done on him when he was 6 months old. Neither was Bill Gates. I am 100% sure that this does not work.

Plus I have heard this is indeed harmful you can actually do more damages.

 

[Orcin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tufflitestudios /img/forum/go_quote.gif So I am looking for a inexpensive pair of headphones that will fit on my wife's stomach... ...my wife may never play along

Hmmm, methinks you should ask your wife about this idea before you do too much research.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Well, Grados will lie flat on a stomach. And I've washed all my Grado pads, which hold up well damp. I'd go with a SR60; might as well start the kid off right.