For the last week and a half, my 7-month-old has been inexplicably cranky. Given his age and overall health and activity, I believe he is most likely teething. However, I am having trouble soothing him. He does not usually like to stick things in his mouth (which has been good while he scooches around the floor), and so has shown no interest in a teether - and I've tried many different kinds! I've tried cold ones and smooth ones and bumpy ones and chewy, rubbery ones and h*** o*es, and ones with holes in them - no luck. I've tried a cold wash cloth, a regular wash cloth, a cold passie (refrigerated, not frozen, of course), wooden baby toys, etc., etc. He seems to hate the cold things in his mouth, especially. The only thing that seems to give him relief is Baby Tylenol, but I'm very uncomfortable using this on a daily basis (I'd prefer to use the drugs only in an extreme case). Can anyone suggest any other age-appropriate teething tricks to help my baby feel better?
Well, I know those times are rough, for mom and baby!! I just use Orajel a couple times a day. It seems to help.
If you are into goin green, have you heard of Melaleuca? If you want more info let me know.
A.
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Hi Amanda,
Hyland's Teething Tablets (found at Walgreen's and other drug stores in the baby aisle) are the best! They HAVE to be Hyland's because they disolve instantly and taste good too. These are homeopathic and completely safe. My daughter would eventually open her mouth for them because she knew they would relieve her. Also, I wouldn't feel bad about the tylenol.
My daughter was the same way when she was a baby. It drove me nuts. And I went through the same dilema with tylenol. We used the same thing with her as the previous poster, only we didn't use frozen fruit, just fresh fruit from the fridge. You can put just about anything in there. If you use it, don't put it in the dishwasher unless you have something to keep it from flying around. I didn't think about it with the first one we had and it ended up catching fire and melting to the dishwasher. That was fun to remove and smelled pretty too. Thank god my son loves his chewies as he just started getting teeth as well. Good luck. It won't last forever, within a month he'll start to feel a little better. And then the molars will start to come in and you can start this all over again. Yah! ;)
J.
Hi Amanda,
I believe there are some "all natural" teething tablets out there, although I've never tried them. My kids always loved either cold or frozen fruit in a mesh feeder(you can find at baby supply stores) when they were teething. They can really chew on the fruit and not have to worry about choking. Teething hurts and is really h*** o* parents, don't be too strict with the meds during this painful time in his life, I know it's hard but you both need relief sometimes...Good luck!
Hylands teething tables are the way to go. I freaked out when my 3 yr old grabbed the bottle a couple of weeks ago and ate about 20 of them. I called poison controland they said there is nothing to worry about they have some kind of sugar in them that kids love, but aside from that they are all natural and have had cases of kids eating a whole bottle who have no issues (maybe some diarrhea.) But that is with like 250 tablests lol. She said everything is all natural and would not hurt the baby.
My boys didn't really use teethers either. Here's what usually worked for us:
nursing on demand (sucking helps)
teething drops or tablets (homeopathic)
chewing on something rubbery like the end of a medicine dropper (the 2 tsp one they give out free at the pharmacy was a favorite - just glue it on so baby can't choke on it)
Hey Amanda,
I'm with you on the drugs. We reserve them for only when he's in pain and that's interfering with his sleep.
During teething, we just tried to distract him a lot. Get out of the house, lots of activities, go see other moms&babies, go to the library, just as many things as we could think of to help him forget about the pain. It seemed to take his mind off of it.
-K.
Okay, I understand about not wanting to use "drugs", but Tylenol and Advil aren't drugs. They aren't addicting and do absolutely no harm to the child. And now let's put it this way...how would you feel if you had a toothache? Probably not so great and what would you do, take something for it. Well, your child is in pain and are you okay with letting them just be in pain? I'm not, as long as you follow the directions and don't over dose it, it's not doing any harm, it's actually doing them good.
Hi, Amanda –
You may want to check with your pediatrician about the Hyland’s teething tablets before using them. Although many pediatricians do recommend them, mine warned strongly against them because of their tiny amounts of a few ingredients. (Don’t quote me, but I want to say it was a trace amount of opium or something). That said, I do know that a lot of parents have used them, and swear by them. I've heard that they do work well.
One suggestion we received (and were extremely grateful for!) was using a frozen waffle. This may not work for your son because he doesn’t seem to go for the cold stuff, but you may want to give it a try. It’s just soft enough that babies can gnaw on it a bit, but hard enough that it takes some time, and provides some relief. (And, we used some pretty darn healthy ones, too, so he did get a nutritious snack in the process). :)
Teething isn’t fun. We’re still waiting on some late-appearance 2yr molars, and I’m not looking forward to it. Hang in there!
J.
Get a self feeder. Munchkin makes them and you can find them at Target or WalMart. They look like a big paci with at net bag on the end. Take any kind of frozen fruit and put it in the feeder. It's designed so they can't get any big pieces out. He'll be able to chew on the frozen fruit, relieve his gums and get a nice healthy snack all at the same time! My first daughter loved her self feeder. She would never use a teether either! The only other thing that kind of worked were link a doos. Some of them had bumps on them and she liked those. You can also try a small amount of baby Orajel. It only provides relief for a small amount of time though.
We use homeopathic teething tablets. I am with you in terms of being as green as possible but a pediatrician told me that if adults were teething we wouldn't be able to handle that much pain. After that, I was a little more liberal with the Tylenol, especially at night. I don't like to give it either but the thought of her being in that much pain won over!
i gave my daughter teething tablets(much safer than tylenol-which turns into cyanide when it breaks down in your liver-it's getting pulled off the shelves at the end of the year). i also used to rub my finger along her gums to help sooth them, she wasn't into any kind of teething rings/toys. my daughter wasn't too bad, she was fussy for a couple weeks and that was it. good luck.
