Q&A: teething

It's been a long time since we talked about teething! I got a question from Allyson about her 4-month-old:

"Little Miss has pretty much stopped wanting to nurse during the day, and always has her hands in her mouth and seems extra-cranky. I know it's too early for teething, so what's going on? Is there something wrong with my flow? Is she losing interest in the breast? I was hoping to breastfeed for a year."

Yeah, it's totally not too early for teething. The average time of popping a first tooth is around 6 months, and they don't just come out of nowhere. It takes a long time (for some kids days, for some weeks, for some *months* between the first under-the-gum movement (and pain) and when the tooth actually pops out above the gum. So she seems right about on schedule.

Also, everyone needs to bear in mind that kids are all different. There are some kids who have teeth in their mouths when they come out of the womb! My second son started teething *in earnest* at 6 weeks*. He had two teeth under the surface about to pop through at 10 weeks. So you never know.

I wrote about all the symptoms of teething long ago in the past in this post. Here's the list:

"Some common symptoms of teething are:

* biting hands or anything that comes near their mouths
* crying out in yelps of pain
* drooling
* runny nose or congestion from drooling
* "smokers' cough" from the drool going down the back of the throat
* spitting or throwing up from drool going into the stomach
* "drool stool," which is shards of drool in the poop (I know, and it's truly stunning when you see it)
* rash around the mouth
* rash around the anus
* acidic poop (sometimes you can even smell the difference) and a burned monkey-butt look after pooping
* tugging or pulling at the ears
* not wanting to nurse
* biting while nursing
* flash fevers (fevers that come out of nowhere and are gone in 30 minutes to an hour)

Are there any I'm forgetting? Some kids never have any of these symptoms, some have a few, and some lucky children (like mine) have all of them."

So, yeah, I think it's teething. Try the homeopathic teething pellets if you believe in that sort of thing (or are willing to spend $4 on a potential cure). And just try to get as much milk into her as you can while she's drowsy, because that seems to be the best time to feed a teething child.

This, too, will pass.

Stories?

* Which bit hard because he was sleeping for 8 hours in a row before that. Seriously. Eight (8) hours, from a few weeks old. Everyone, take your Omega 3 supplements during pregnancy.

Comments

[Mom2Boys]

T started teething at six months and I swear he hasn't stopped. He never stopped eating so I have no advice for the OP but yes to drooling, hand biting (his own and mine), pulling on and sticking fingers in his ears, random fevers and more recently pleasure biting of other people - his poor classmates at daycare. :( Thankfully, the dentist says the last two are showing and he's done until the second molars. He's 15 months. Ice chips in a cup is his favorite treat right now and the Hyland's tablets seem to help.

[Kate]

Four months = not too early for teething behavior.

My son is/was the world's slowest teether, really it could be months from the time he starts showing symptoms of a tooth coming to the tooth popping through and then finally coming all the way in.

He started with the extra drool and spitting up because of it at 2 months and didn't get a tooth until 8 months. Really, excessively slow.

*Thread hijack*
Actually, his 2 year molars are finally all in at least 75% of the way (at age 2y8m) and suddenly his hands are constantly in his mouth again--jammed in there like you'd see in a much younger child. Help!

[Helena]

My daughter started teething around 3 months and didn't really stop until after two and her molars came in. She wasn't teething every day, but it seemed like 4-6 weeks out of every 8 were spent in a teething funk.

We BF until 22 months, BTW. So, don't despair.

[Kathy B.]

I do not remember much at all about my daughter's teething process. I do remember that she didn't get any visible teeth until she was a year old. (First birthday -- just the two bottom teeth in her mouth.)

It isn't easy dealing with a baby in pain. Just remember, much like many other things in the realm of child-raising, this too shall become a distant memory!

[Charisse]

Mouse was like Kathy B's daughter--no teeth until 5 at once between 11 and 12 months. From there on out, she got them in clumps, sloooowly and painfully. I guess just keep her comfortable, let her mouth something cold (I know one mom who kept a clean steel carabiner around for the purpose) and know that it will pass...eventually. Hugs.

[Julie]

@Kate: my 3 y/o has his hands in his mouth ALL THE TIME. In every picture, at church in front of the congregation, at grandma's, at school.....hands in mouth. Sometimes both at the same time. He cut his molars ages ago so it's not teeth......I'm at a loss as well.

[paola]

Both my kids went off nursing at around 4 months, for a while anyway, but I think it was developmental rather than actually teething(ds popped his first at 6 months, dd at 7). Still, that was the start of a lot of hand sucking which is still going on 24 months and 16 teeth later.

I remember this phase distinctly as it started in May for both ( both are January babies, so at 4 months) and it was the beginning of the warmer weather and I was sure they had gone off the boob because they didn't like the contact as it made them too hot. It lasted about 2 weeks and then they were back to normal nursing, and it was still quite hot so I ended up ruling the heat out. Honestly they really kicked up a fuss any time the boob was offered. They went balistic. In the end the 'dream feed'was the only nurse they really didn't stress about. Try nursing just after a nap or in the middle of the night when they are too out of it to notice.

[Sandra]

Ugh, teething. Boo didn't get any until 9.5 months, and then hung on with just 4 until about a month ago at 23 months. He's just now getting his "1-year molars" and his hands are constantly in his mouth. @Kate, I feel your pain, I think. It's especially disgusting now in the winter when all I can think about is all of the germy surfaces he's touching, not to mention when he shoves his hands in his mouth when there is already food inside of it.

For the OP, we used to put wet washcloths in the freezer and then let him gum those, which seemed to work okay. Boo always seems to want to nurse *more* when teething though, so I've got nothing there.

[r+k+mama]

My daughter started teething at 2 months. Excessive drool, hands in her mouth and finicky bottle and breast feeding. Every week we checked her gums, which at times would seem to flair red and then the next day look fine. She was never really cranky about it, and didn't act like she was in pain but it seemed to be an annoyance to her and to us. We wanted something to show for all that drool :)! Finally at 11.5 months that first tooth popped through and within 2 months she got 8 teeth.
My son started out the same way. Right around eight weeks the drool kicked in and we didn't even remember what his mouth looked like because his hands were always shoved in it. This time we didn't bother checking- figuring he'd be like his sister. Nope! Tricked by an infant once again! At 5.5 months when we picked him up from our in-laws they asked when his tooth came in- oops, we had no idea. His teething process was slow (1-2 teeth a month) and seemingly more painful.
As an aside,when it came to advice from others (esp from my mom and her generation)it seemed that teething was the answer to ANY problem my kids were having. Cranky? Teeth. Poor eating? Teeth. Tired? Teeth, etc etc. A lot of stuff is going on in that little body besides teething so it could very well be a fascination with her hands and a developmental spurt that's causing the issue. My kids would go through fits and bursts with eating- I couldn't always figure out why but it passed. I just made sure to pump during the low times to keep my supply up and within a weeks (sometimes 2) time things seemed to pick back up. Good luck!

[Diane]

My daughter did the same thing at around 3 months, IIRC, and it didn't have anything to do with teething. She had discovered sucking her thumb around the same time, and that was just WAY more fun than eating. We had the misfortune of this being paired with reflux, so she stopped gaining weight. The solution ended up being what Moxie suggested: I nursed her mostly in her sleep. It broke my heart, because she'd really go to town in her sleep ... she was obviously quite hungry.

I wish you the best of luck with this. She's 2.5 now, and nothing yet has been as frustrating as a baby who wouldn't nurse. You just can't help but take it personally when they keep pushing YOU away. (At least, I couldn't.)

And now I type this one-handed as I nurse her 9-day-old sister, preparing myself to do this all over again, and remembering how incredible and awful the whole thing can be. She threw up yesterday, and I'm trying so hard not to let that convince me that this will be Reflux 2.0 and the torture that was all over again. Ah, motherhood.

[albe]

I've been blaming things on teething since my daughter was 5 months old, and now she's a year old and still doesn't have a single tooth! Her twin has 5 teeth. I hope there's not some bizarre medical disorder in which babies just don't ever produce any teeth...

[J]

I guess the most important thing is, you never know what it could be with a little tiny one! So try everything you can think of to get food + sleep for her and YOU too!

If it is teething - my girl is a slow teether too, and I can remember she got extra-cranky at around that time as well with the hands and the drooling and the general misery and the night waking. And her first teeth didn't pop through until she was about six months old. She still follows that pattern today - they start moving around in the gums, she is in a ton of pain, and then we have a reprieve until they actually pop through when we have a few more days of misery - could be months in between. In fact, we started more general teething misery this week (she is 16 mo) and the only teeth she has yet to get in are her canines - and they are nowhere near the surface. That's just what she does.

In terms of milk, she may go through phases where she seems uninterested in eating but that doesn't mean it's permanent. She will go through other phases where that's *all* she wants. So my unskilled advice is, don't do anything drastic with regard to the nursing if you *do* want to continue! :-)

It sounds like you are a SUPER-perceptive and loving mom, and my hat is off to you!

[Jill in Atlanta]

Both my boys popped out teeth at 4 months exactly. They bit anything they could reach, they had sore bums, they did it all. I think we were members of the Tooth of the Month Club for a year. Miserable. And guess what? When the baby teeth fall out and they're "teething" again- they put their hands in their mouth and repeat some of the same symptoms!

[the milliner]

Like Paola's kids, my little guy went through a phase at 4 mos where he kept refusing as well. And it lasted a bit longer...maybe 3-4 weeks. In the end I chalked it up to developmental leap fussiness, and it did go back to normal.

One thing I read that help me not stress (or stress less) during the times he wouldn't eat was to not make a big deal of it. (I know, easier said than done). Just try again later (or do the drowsy thing Moxie & others are suggesting). And that sometimes, trying to force/cajole them to eat (which apparently doesn't really work), makes a bigger issue out of it and then they start refusing longer than a 'phase'.

My little guy has just started refusing again yesterday & today (though not every feed), and he just turned 6 mos (today!). So once again, I'm telling myself "just go with the flow".

I too have a really hard time telling if he's teething. He's often got something or his hands in is mouth, drools a fair amount (esp. when concentrating), but crankiness isn't too bad & he doesn't seem to be in pain. (And it's been like this since about 4 mos too). As my Dr. said, the teeth may be moving around under his gums and causing some discomfort, even if they're not pushing through yet.

And thanks Moxie for the note about the flash fevers. Hadn't heard/read that symptom for teething before. DS had one the other day & I attributed it to the vaccinations he got the day before (which it could have been), but perhaps it was related to teething.

[Kelly]

Totally sounds like teething! My son started teething by 3 months, though he wanted to nurse MORE when he didn't feel well.

[pnuts mama]

ugh...teeth...the bean is teething, his ped checked his gums (since i couldn't find any indication of a tooth getting close) adn he couldn't find one real close, either...so it seems that the bean will be like the pnut, start teething early and often and be a miserable little guy for most of it...

we give him everything we can to chew on, the toast cookies, tylenol when he is inconsolable from anything and just won't stop crying...when he gets a bit older (he's 6mos now) we'll give him the frozen fruit in the mesh bag thing...

here's a weird hijack that i am not sure is related to teething or not (he definitely gets less interested in nursing during the daytime as well)- oftentimes when he starts nursing he will arch his back and grunt/groan like he is having a bowel movement- but not pooping (he also does this sometimes when i am giving him cereal, which he definitely is interested in and likes to eat). he'll get mad, flail at me, i don't think it's a supply thing in that it doesn't seem to be influenced by whether i am in active letdown or not- and then he'll just settle down and nurse like it was nothing if i am doing this patting his side thing. weird.

good luck. teething sucks. suuuuuuucks.

[wealhtheow]

I rub a couple drops of Rescue Remedy on my guy's gums--it stops the crying pretty quickly. I've also been known to give him a drop on his tongue when we're in particularly stressful situations--such as stuck in the airport for 10 hours. This might calm your girl enough to let her nurse.

[melanie]

My daughter is 8 months old and has 9 teeth. Five of those teeth came during a 2 1/2 week period (right before the 8th month mark) and we got a break for about a week and now she is back to being the Queen of drool and chewing on her hands and wanting to nurse all the time. We try to go the homeopathic route as much as possible but during the time those 5 teeth came in only half doses of infant tylenol would work to make her feel better.

[hedra]

My data points on experience:

I remember teething (as my sister says, 'everbody put on your surprised faces', heh). It was spans of discomfort followed by a span of easing but hot feeling, followed by strong pain in the jaw followed by discomfort, and it was very very RANDOM seeming. My wisdom teeth came in similarly, but with much less intensity of sensation. Kids are very oral - loads of nerves in there. Anything changes in there, they know it. Right down to the jaw bone.

My kids teethed usually around 3.5 months, popping the tooth at around 5 months for all of them (though some popped teeth in series and some in pairs or threes or out of 'proper order'). Some were very intense teethers with sharp changes of misery in the process (Mr G has sensitive gums even now). Others were 'stealth teathers' - drooling and messed up eating, but no major changes in behavior otherwise over the entire span, so one day it would be HEY, there's a tooth in there! without any particular fanfare.

The vibrating teether toys seemed to have the most effect for my kids, as well - the surface pain was no big deal for most, it was the deep jaw ache part that pissed them off. The vibrating ones kind of overstimulate the nerves and convince them to send fewer messages for a while. Those toys before nursing helped a lot for nursing.

Hylands didn't help, oragel helped a tiny tiny bit, tylenol helped a lot (good for that kind of deep ache pain), vibrating teethers helped most. Hylands may help more for kids with intense cutting pain, even if you don't believe in homeopathy (the tablets have lactose, which is an endorphin trigger - whether you'd get the same from pure lactose or not, I don't know if anyone has tested.)

[hedra]

@Kate, some kids are just very oral. I chewed my fingers, then my clothes, for years.

[Rachel]

I have zero suggestions for teething, Orajel worked for my kids and they both teethed pretty much by the book - timewise. But I DO have a suggestion for the acid poop red monkey butt - Calmoseptine Ointment.

Ask your local pharmacy to order it in - it's non prescription. My son's GI gave it to me for a diaper rash that I couldn't clear up and it solved the problem in one day. Really. Seriously. It has a mild topical pain killer in it so as soon as you smooth it on they already feel better. My 2 cents.

Rachel

[Aisha]

Haven't read all the comments, so maybe someone has said this, but another possible side effect is eyes getting all icky, like a bout of conjunctivitis was about to come on. And my son has had all of these symptoms for weeks on end in episodes that started when he was three and a half months old and we're just (fingers crossed) dealing with the tail end of one when he's going to be 2 in two weeks. aaugh.

[paola]

@pnut's mama

have a read of this:

http://www.askmoxie.org/2008/02/qa-fussy-baby-w.html

Moxie and the moxites dealt with back arching and grunting at 4 months. You'll probably find one of your own comments here too.

P

[Katie B.]

Little Girl's been teething on and off since two months - no teeth yet, and she's six and a half months now (and not really interested in food). Motrin helps, vibrating chew thingies help; chewing in general makes her happy. When she's in a round of jaw pain, she doesn't precisely *bite* my nipple, but she'll kinda clamp down while she turns her head, thus applying fairly strong pressure as well as twisting and stretching. Ow. Mostly, I say "ow", and if she does it too much, I put the boob away for a while.

[ACJ]

T had two bottom teeth at 4 months, so teething is totally likely/possible as everyone has said.

That said, it does resonate with me, the utter powerlessness of parenting small people who just won't tell you what the f*** is going on with them and the pain of feeling like life is just a series of guesses.

Our current guesswork at 18 months is around unprecedented crying fits that start for no discernable reason at the dinner table and don't end until bottle and bed. She just recovered from terrible fever virus/ear infection so is this a remnant of that and she's in pain? Is it the beginning of 18-month old temper tantrums? Latent Personality Flaw that will require family counselling and late entry into kindergarten? Teething? Honestly, if she could just use one of her many words to tell me what is going on, I would be much happier.

Does the guessing ever end? Anybody???

[Helen]

My daughter cut her first tooth at 5 months, so you are in the zooooone. Booyeah.

If it's not teething, it could be the 4 month developmental hoe down, and some kids will eat less or dramatically more during those times.

The only thing that really seemed to soothe my kiddo was lots and lots of comfort nursing. So we went with it. She didn't like anything cold. We tried the frozen wash cloth, chilled gel teether, and a piece of ice in one of those mesh feeders, and I think it was just too much. She liked chewing on this wooden caterpillar pram toy from Haba, and this little fabric doll with a wood ring called a Rainbow Baby. When she was older, she moved on to a duffel bag strap, her father's belt, any kind of clothing drawstring... So your kid will have her own unique way of dealing with this things, and it's trial and error, like everything else.

We used Boiron's Camilia, and it seemed to alleviate some fussiness, or possibly just distract us both. It's just the solution in sterile water ampules vs. the sugar and lactose in the Hyland's tablets.

One other weird symptom I remember, and maybe this is covered under "Smoker's cough," but she started this horrible hoarse barking/wheezing noise. It almost sounded like she was trying to do a Revenge of the Nerds laugh crossed with a dying seal bark. It freaked me out so bad I looked up pertussis. She also got an incredibly disgusting green, mucusy diaper right before a tooth would cut. And the runny nose/mimicing of cold symptoms. Once at around 7 months, she screamed such bloody murder that I actually took her into the ped, and the ped said she had fluid in her ears but not an infection, and she OK'd Motrin. I became a little freer with the Motrin as time went on, let's say. Molars, ahem.

[caramama]

There is something missing from Moxie's list:
-Sleep goes out the window.

I know she mentioned that her child stopped sleeping then, and others too, but seriously out the window! And since mine takes MONTHS to get her teeth in, that means really awful sleep for months.

I think we're dealing with 2 year molars now, and the lack of sleep is killing me (and hubby).

[Karen]

Oh, wow, I can't believe how timely this post is. As I read it I was feeding my 3-month-old who has been
*drooling and putting her hands in her mouth for 2 weeks now
*has been sleeping through the night but woke us up at 3 am last night
*has had pretty regular poops about 24 hours apart since we brought her home, but had 2 consecutive poops this morning
(hasn't happened since the hospital) and the second one was like diarrhea (I assume that can be a symptom, too?)
*has a rash when she poops in the last couple of weeks
* has been eating happily every 3 hours for a couple of months but this morning was screaming angrily for a bottle after 2 hours
*has had eye boogers for the past few days

I was sitting her feeling sooo frustrated with her inconsolable screaming, because she's normally a pretty happy baby, and then I pull up this post. Hallelujah, an answer.

(I do realize that I have nothing to complain about, having had an "easy" baby for the past 2 months!)

So, I finished feeding her and then went into the nursery to grab all of her teething toys out of storage and washed them and put them in the fridge to cool. Hopefully they'll give her some relief.

She's also been spitting out her Soothie pacifier a lot lately, seeming not to want it unless she's really tired or hungry, so I got out her "Super Soothie" pacifiers for teething babies (which I didn't think I'd need for another 2 months at least...) and tried one. She seems happy with it, so far.

Thanks, too, to those of you who posted about early teethers who didn't actually get teeth until late. I'll try to keep that in mind and not freak out if she doesn't get any teeth in the next few months.

[May]

First time commenting here, although I lurk a lot! Just wanted to mention amber teething necklaces, no-one seems to say anything about them maybe because it is a European thing. Basically it is necklaces made of small pieces of amber, the babys body heat releases a resin which then goes back into their system and produces a calming, pain killing effect. My little girls first tooth was pretty hellish and her second after I put the necklace on was pretty ok. It is also apperently good for eczema. Again my baby had some eczema on her wrist quite bad, think it was also about drool, and I could not put anything on it because her hands were always in her mouth. It has now completely healed up, maybe because she no longer sucks her hands so much. But could be the amber too. The necklaces are double knotted so if they do snap which is unlikely as they are held together by elastic, they will not scatter and the pieces are too small for choking. I definetely worried about strangling at night and probably would not have let her sleep in it at 4 months because I just would have worried, but at 8 months I was ok, it is quite small in length but not too small and it tucks under jammies quite well. So maybe he could wear it during the day just to start and then put it on at night when he is a little bigger. Not sure where you might get hold of them in the US but if you do a search there are a lot of people who make and sell them online.

[Caroline]

I'm not quick to reach for the pharmaceuticals, but if it gets so bad that a genuine pain killer is in order, Motrin worked better for us than Tylenol. Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory, and a lot of the pain is inflammation.

For the older kids with the hands in the mouth, my older daughter went through that at about 3.5, and it annoyed the CRAP out of me. I did my very very best to hold my tongue and not make a power struggle out of it, and I annoyed the crap out of her my calmly telling her that if she wanted her fingers in her mouth she had to wash them first. I think she got bored with that pretty quick. And sometimes (this one's slightly mean) I'd have her clean her hands with the CleanWell antibacterial spray - it's non toxic, and it's quite strongly herbal. Figured having her hands taste a bit nasty couldn't hurt.

[Amy]

Both my kids teethed early. Like less than 3 months. The two best teethers I found were a washcloth with some water, frozen, and twisted into a little nub for them to bite on; and a peeled whole carrot, fresh out of the fridge - nice and cold, and tastier than a plastic teether. My kids spit plastic teethers out.

Amy @ http://prettybabies.blogspot.com

[Kathy]

The tell-tale symptom for us: GREEN poop that burned away at the skin it touched. Sometimes it was olive green, sometimes almost neon. It's the stomach acid that turns it such a funny color. (Our kid never drooled, she just swallowed it all and paid for it at the other end.)

Of course, that only applied to the teeth she got during the infant poop stage. Toddler poop is a whole other story!

[Kathy]

Correction: I don't know why I said stomach acid. I meant drool and post-nasal drip. There's always stomach acid in the digestive tract.

I'm very sleep-deprived.

[JIll]

4 months is totally normal.

Try ice in the mesh feeder, or a frozen washcloth. One of my friends soaked a washcloth in breast milk and froze that. It sounded too messy to me, but her kid loved it.

And Tylenol. THose teething tablets did NOTHING.

[L.]

My son wasn't too bad a teether. (At the time I thought he was, but it turned out to have a lot more to do with sleep training issues.) But his teeth seemed to bother him as much, if not more, when they were coming up from below, as opposed to actually coming through. He'd go through fits and starts where the teeth were on the move (as best as I could tell, from the symptoms) and then they'd stop for a while. Slow teether too, he got his first at a year, but then it was one every week or two for quite a while.

His most telling symptom is the acid poop; he swallows most of his drool, so he really doesn't drool much at all. But I have always been so puzzled about the "drool shard" thing that Moxie mentions. A shard is a sliver of something that has broken into pieces. How can you have a shard of a liquid? What does it look like, exactly?? I am just curious.

[pnuts mama]

omg i totally forgot about the vibrating teethers! thanks, everyone!

anyone elses' kid stick their hands in their mouths *while* nursing? he's like a comedian, my kid...

off to read about the grunting, thanks paola!

[Alice]

Same as many posters. My son got his teeth at 4 months, with out much ado. My daughter who is now 6 months started "teething" at about 3 months- drooling, hands in mouth, crazy poops, the whole deal, and still no teeth. All these tips are good, especially the frozen washcloth, she loves it, but I never thought about using breastmilk!

[scotti]

A word about the homeopathic teething tablets - I tried them forever with no success before our chiropractor pointed out that the generic formulations that you can buy at the store (like Hyland's brand) only work in about 50% of kids.

So we sought out a naturopath who does homeopathy. She was able to take our son's symptoms and his health history, etc. into account and made him some teething tablets that worked for him. Just a thought. Not a $4 solution like the over-the-counter ones (try these first, if they work, they WORK). But worth trying if the generic ones don't do the trick.

[Tami]

My oldest didn't get his first teeth until almost a year old. My next two kids got their first teeth at four months old. Go figure.

[the milliner]

Talk about timing. I think our little guy just started the 'screaming out in pain' phase/symptom of teething. First time it happened - tonight at 7:30 pm (he usually sleeps soundly through until at least 10 or 11pm, when he eats).

He woke up screaming (again, never does this), didn't want his pacifier, didn't want to eat, didn't want to be rocked. And he was doing this weird breathing thing, which sounds like the swallowing saliva thing. Freaked me out...I kept watching to see if he'd turn blue (i.e. not a teething, but a breathing problem!). Luckily, that didn't happen.

Partially frozen facecloth & fabric teething 'toy' seemed to help. But only temporarily. Oddly too, he'd start screaming if I tried to rock him (with teething cloth) in the glider (which he normally loves). As soon as we went into the living room, or I walked around with him in my arms, he relaxed. I think the TV was helping to distract him from his pain.

We finally decided to give him some tylenol. Seems to have worked. He was calmer & drowsy after about 15 mins & I was able to rock him to sleep as per usual.

Time will tell if it will be a long night or not...

[Schwa de Vivre]

Boy, did I get tired of people telling me it wasn't teething early on, only to tell me the same symptoms were teething after about the five month mark. My boy teeths long and hard.

The usual things people have mentioned helped, but I'll add that and *unfrozen* wet washcloth (mostly in the bath) appealed more to my boy, and Sophie the Giraffe was a huge help. Sophie may be the most expensive toy I've bought to date (I usually shop consignment), but was totally worth it for teething. Twenty-some-odd dollars plus shipping for a rubber giraffe that looks like a dog toy and squeaks like one too, but my son cried when it was time to return his friend's Sophie, and we were spending that much on infant tylenol anyway.

[Ashlee]

To share my story, my son came out of the womb with his bottom front tooth! He had his first dentist appointment at 7 days old, where the dentist basically told us it was his real baby tooth and he just got it super early. (Some babies are born with "milk teeth", an extra, 3rd set of teeth that fall out shortly after birth. My son had his actual baby tooth come in.) The dentist mentioned that it was likely he would be an early teether and he started showing symptoms of teething as early as 6 weeks old: Drooling excessively, flash fevers, excessive fussiness, red gums. Now that he's older he pulls and scratches at his ears, sucks his hands all. the. time., and has a tendency to *pull* drool out of his mouth. He actually pinches gobs of spit and stretches the drool out with his hands. So gross. To this day though at 9 months old, he's only pushed his other front bottom tooth out. He's had buds on all four of his top front teeth for months, but nothing. Kill me will you, I feel like he's been teething since birth with no end in sight!

Our dentist mentioned this and it seemed to make a difference that when using Orajel, make sure you take a cloth diaper or something and dry out the area you're applying it to. If the gums are wet, the orajel will just slide off and around in the baby's mouth and will likely end up on the tounge or swallowed. Pretty much useless then.

[elisa]

D started teething at 3 months. First four teeth popped out at around 5.5 months and now, at 14 months, he has 16 teeth. (Almost finished! WHEEEE!) Teething sucks.

What's worked to help the pain?

-Motrin for the really bad days
-Teething tablets
-vibrating teether
-frozen blueberries
-frozen strawberries
-cold asian pears
(and you can use one of those nifty food mesh bags with a handle if you're worried about choking)
-a new, unused, vibrating toothbrush

[Mary]

My little guy (turns 6 months on the 19th) just cut one tooth about 5 days ago and is working on the second. But, he started teething symptoms at 3 months. Of course, about 2 weeks ago they intensified and are still intense (please tooth, pop through soon). I tried some baby oragel, but once he started choking on his saliva, even though I only put the smallest amount on there, so I won't use it anymore. With all that drool, it goes easily to the back of the throat and numbs it there. I feel so bad for him though because I can see that it really hurts him.

[Chaosgirl]

We too are in the thick of teething. The Grumble Bee is 14 months and now has seven teeth. *sigh*. Thirteen more to go.

I'm glad to hear that the cough is part of teething. GB has had cold after cold since starting day care and I was concerned that the cough was related. It's a horrific cough- sounds like he's going to bring up his liver.

After reading everyone's posts, I wonder -- when aren't babies teething?

One of his favourite pain remedies is a chunk of frozen melon in a fruit feeder. Watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, it's all good. He is a bit of a tyrant when the melon train ends, but the cold numbs his gums.

Of course this is a bit advanced for a 3 month old. When he was that little, the teething began and we resorted to Tylenol and Sophie (one of those natural rubber giraffes).

[Mom2Boys]

I second the vibrating toothbrush, or even a regular toothbrush, he loves to chew on both. T took his with him on the ride to school today and there was a bit of negotiating to get him to leave it in the car. Teething ring okay for daycare, vibrating pink toothbrush not so much.

[nej]

SCREAMING. That's at the top of my list for teething symptoms. HYSTERICAL SCREAMING. Which Muppet did. From 2am till about 4 when my dear husband came in and filled his poor little mouth with Motrin. Then he slept. I am grateful that I have a husband who doesn't insist on the all natural remedies like I do. Because it feels good to sleep, even if it is just for a few hours. Yeah, SCREAMING is at the top of my list.

[theklamsays]

I don't have time to read all the comments, so someone might have already mentioned this, but another homeopathic treatment for teething is Camilia. It worked wonders for our guy (a terrible teether - can't blame him as he cut 5 teeth all at once!) during the day. For night he really needed advil to cope with the pain when the teeth were just in the process of cutting through.

And, our guy had cut eight teeth by the time he was 7.5 months old. Cut the first at 4 months. So definitely not too early for teething!

[Cloud]

Yeah, Pumpkin had her first two teeth at about 4 months. She was an easier teether until she got her molars, though, so I didn't notice until the teeth were actually in.

@Kate- Pumpkin (now 20 months) is working on her last set of molars, I think. Which sucks, because we didn't get more than a week's break between this and the previous set. Anyway, now if I notice her chewing on her hand, I'll ask her: do you want a teether? And she'll say "yeah" and we'll go to the fridge and I'll let her pick one out. She has different preferences different times. So maybe asking your son and/or letting him in on the choice of what to have instead of his hand will help?

We still have a persistent teething rash, though. Nothing I've tried (vasoline, aquaphor, diaper cream...) keeps it away. Luckily, it is not bothering her.

[Cloud]

Oh- I forgot to say, to the original question: we're still breastfeeding at 20 months, and she's never given me much trouble with biting while nursing, even when she is actively teething.