08
April
2015
|
10:45
Europe/London

Worth a lulla-try: Ice Ice Baby vs Moon River… What’s your ultimate baby snoozer?

Summary

When it comes to getting babies to sleep, classic lullabies are often put to one side as parents find inspiration elsewhere. Much like Ross and Rachel in Friends, research by BT found that over a third (37 per cent) of parents chose hip hop songs to sing at bedtime.

 When it comes to getting babies to sleep, classic lullabies are often put to one side as parents find inspiration elsewhere. Much like Ross and Rachel in Friends, research by BT found that over a third (37 per cent) of parents chose hip hop songs to sing at bedtime. Vanilla Ice and Pitbull aren't the first that spring to mind for soothing a baby, but they've made it into the top 10 lullaby chart. 

And it's not just chart songs either, as a quarter of mums (25 per cent) belt out songs from TV ads, and 15 per cent of dads sing songs from movies. More than one in 10 parents (13 per cent) also choose pop tunes as their go-to lullaby tune. But the ultimate song to send babies to sleep is the classic Moon River made famous by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Top 10 lullaby chart hits 

  1. Moon River, Audrey Hepburn 
  2. There Must be an Angel, Eurythmics 
  3. Ice Ice Baby, Vanilla Ice 
  4. My Way, Frank Sinatra 
  5. Islands in the Stream, Dolly Parton 
  6. Sing, Ed Sheeran 
  7. Sweet Child O' Mine, Guns "N' Roses 
  8. Timber, Pitbull Ft. Kesha 
  9. Groovy Kind of Love, Phil Collins 
  10. Stay With Me, Sam Smith 

That said sporting anthems are a firm favourite with dads, as a quarter (25 per cent) choose their favourite football chant to get their little ones to sleep. However it's rugby anthems that take the top two places in the sports chart - and with the recent success of Ireland's rugby team and the World Cup looming - parents seem to be indoctrinating their kids early, with Ireland's Call beating England's Swing Low Sweet Chariot to the number one spot: 

Top three sporting lullabies 

  1. Ireland's Call - Ireland rugby 
  2. Swing Low Sweet Chariot - England rugby 
  3. You'll Never Walk Alone - Liverpool 

Classic lullabies are also still popular with parents and 64 per cent have changed the words whilst singing to their baby. Although the reasons for this are mixed between forgetfulness and wannabe song writers, with more than one in five (22 per cent) parents making up their own words because they don't know the original and one in 10 (10 per cent) saying their lyrics are better. 

Top three lullabies parents sing to their baby 

  1. Humpty-Dumpty 
  2. Rock-a-bye Baby 
  3. Three Blind Mice 

There is only so long a parent can sing to their child each night before they get bored of their own voice, which is why more than half (51 per cent) of parents say musical lullabies on a baby monitor is one of the best features to help their baby to sleep. Almost a third (29 per cent) of parents also say the white noise, such as vacuum cleaners on a baby monitor helps to soothe their baby. But when they do sing, almost half of parents (48 per cent) say they have sung to their child via their baby monitor. 

Giovanna Fletcher, vlogger and wife of McBusted star, Tom Fletcher, said: "Tom might be the singer in the house, but I like to sing a tune or two to get my baby, Buzz, to sleep. I prefer to go for classics over sporting anthems, my favourite is Edelweiss from The Sound of Music; I tend to leave the McBusted songs to Tom!' 

Erik Raphael, director of Wi-Fi & Devices at BT, said: "We don't hear lullabies each time we turn on the radio, so it is no surprise that parents are less familiar with the classics, and are getting creative with their bedtime tunes. Parents that think their singing is more likely to keep their baby awake, than send them to sleep, can turn to our baby monitor lullabies for help instead.' 

The BT Video Baby Monitor 7500 Lightshow has everything to help parents soothe their baby to sleep, or simply check-in to see if they are doing okay. They can even control the camera angle and zoom in from the comfort of the sofa. With a combination of video display, HD sound, 19 lullabies, and a touch screen monitor with temperature display, it gives parents an extra layer of reassurance at bedtime.