Just when you thought you had breastfeeding good and handled your baby starts to teeth and is keeping you up at night, refusing to eat, and drooling what seems like gallons and gallons all over the place. Well rest assured that you are not the only one mommy, this is all very common in a teething baby.
Most babies’ first teeth comes in between four to seven months old. For some babies, it may come in as early as three months. Teeth break through their gums in a period of months. It can sprout one at a time or several teeth may come through at once. They usually come in order, two middle teeth at the bottom first, then two middle top and then the side teeth and back.
Baby’s’ first tooth appearance can be a milestone so be ready to take more pictures for your social media and your baby book.
Signs Your Baby Is Teething.
For some lucky babies teething can go through with fewer symptoms or almost unnoticeable signs. Here are the most common signs of teething:
- Swollen gums
- Refusing to ea
- Irritability
- Drooling
- Hard time sleeping
- Rubbing her face or ears
- Try to bite on anything
If you notice any of these symptoms or signs from your baby, it is most likely that your child is teething.
How to make your baby feels better when teething.
Just like when adults have toothache, baby teething can be a tough time for them too. As a matter of fact it is one of the most stressful parts during your baby’s developmental period. This is also true for moms because their task is to help ease the pain and make it a little bit comfortable for their baby during this period.
Here are a few tips can that make your baby feel a lot better while teething.
- Give your babies something to chew on like teething rings, teething necklace or a cold washed cloth
- Rub your clean fingers on your baby’s sore gums to temporarily ease the pain
- If your baby is already into solid foods, give him something cold for pain relief like yogurt
- If your baby is more than six months old, you can also give your baby cold banana to chew for pain relief
Here are a few safety tips when giving your babies something to chew on for pain relief.
- Do not give your babies benzocaine based teething gels. The FDA warns that these products can lead to a condition called methemoglobinemia a rare and serious (sometimes fatal) condition in which the amount of oxygen in the blood drops dangerously low.
- Do not give your baby something to chew that is too small
- Do not freeze the teething rings or necklaces
- Do not expose your babies’ gums to extreme cold
- Don’t give your baby aspirin (or even rub it on her gums) to ease teething pain because it can lead to Reye’s syndrome which can be a potentially life threatening condition.
Teething can be unpleasant for the mom and the baby. It is important to supervise your baby while using the teething products and try to comfort her during this period. There is nothing more soothing than mommies touch and kisses. It is going to be a long teething time until his molars come through after one year old. Of course we must also start teaching them to take care of their pearly white as soon as they come through. So the earlier you start to introduce brushing their teeth at least twice a day, the easier it will be for them to take action on their own too.
Teething is also different for all babies and they all react differently to the degree of pain, with my boys this was very true. I tried the holistic approach with both of them using the Baltic Amber teething Necklace and it worked wonders for Samuel, it stopped the drooling and really helped with the pain and inflammation. He is two and a half now and still wears his. With Isaac I did the same and although it did help with the drooling he had some tough nights where he really struggling with the pain, nursing didn’t even comfort him! I tried some Chamomile drops which really helped to soothe him and help him to sleep.
How was the whole teething experience for you, and which was the best technique that you would recommend other sleep deprived and frustrated mommies that are going through a hard time with their teething baby.
