Hold me, Internet. We’ve officially entered the land of teeth.
The girls have been total droolbuckets for some time now (a few months? are they really old enough to equate one stage to a few months? be still my heart!), but, despite the “Are they teething?!” questions, I wrote the drool off as active saliva glands, and I wrote off the fingers/hands/feet/clothes/bibs/toys all three constantly nom on as simple exploratory behavior.
Today, Callista was acting fussy at naptime, as she has been on and off for a few days. Toby recently switched from being laid back and quick to sleep to clingy and difficult to put down, so I thought nothing of Callista’s reversal from easy going to cranky.
Development. Stages. Growth spurts. Yada, yada, yada. They all transform the babies we thought we knew into total strangers, so I just roll with it.
Then, as she was yelling with her mouth wide open in my arms as I tried to calm her, I spotted it. Did I spot it? Could that be what I think that was? When I tried to peek at her bottom gumline, she tried to suck on my finger. I fought my way in (it was seriously more difficult than doing this to one of my animals) and, sure enough, Callista has two teeth coming out to party. The center ones on the bottom are making their presence known – the bottom left has just cut the surface, and the bottom right looks like it’s about to.
Finally knowing the culprit for her bad mood, I sprung into action. I grabbed a teething ring from the freezer (smartest place to store them rather than searching though “baby stuff we’ll need later” piles) and the infant Advil from the bathroom. Thirty minutes later, she was fast asleep on my chest – something she hasn’t done in months.
Added to the freezer arsenal is a cloth doll/buddy/whatever that came with footed PJs. I soaked the doll’s head and left it’s cloth body dry. I don’t know why, but I like it better than the frozen-washcloth idea. For now, the Advil and cold stuff seems to be working. I’m considering getting amber teething necklaces and I may try Hylands teething tablets. I also hear soft fruit that’s been frozen and tossed into a mesh feeder (I have both!) is helpful, but that sounds too messy to be a quick fix – sounds like a fix for when I’m prepared for naked, sticky babies.
One suggestion I’ve heard that’s intriguing is vanilla extract on the gums. I don’t know how well it’d work or how safe it is (sounds safe, right?), but I imagine the combination of vanilla extract and sweet, breastfed-baby breath (smells like SweeTarts!) would be incredibly intoxicating.
I already have enough trouble not eating their cheeks and toes and fingers and chubby thighs. Giving them cotton-candy breath sounds dangerous!
Ice cubes in the mesh feeder are working great at our house (and no mess except a little bit of water when it melts)!
I wanted to add breastmilk to the option of putting into the mesh feeder: momsicles
Also: silicone bakeware/stirring spoons (if your babes are anything like my little one and prefer Things That Are Not Toys).
All I can reccommend is Tylenol/Advil! We tried the oragel, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t do squat. My girl is currently pushing out 2 MORE teeth for a total of 6?!!! I don’t know how THAT happened so fast! (She is almost 9 months old). Good luck with your little chompers!
p.s. we started “brushing our teeth” when my girl got her first 2 teeth… she LOVES it. Basically she thinks the toothbrush is a novel chew toy that we only play with in the bathroom. Feel free to try it with your kiddos!
I highly recommend the Amber teething necklaces. I leave them on all the time when they are teething. I was nervous about leaving them on around their neck while they slept, so I would wrap it twice around their ankle and secure it that way while they slept.
If nothing else helps, Advil is great. Tylenol seemed to do nothing (I wasn’t surprised, it does nothing for me either!).
Goodluck!
Definitely brush their gums, it helps relieve that “itchy” feeling they get from the teeth coming in. I have friends that swear by Hylands teething tablets but for my son they did nothing at all. Infant Advil was our go to remedy and lots and lots of patience.
Vanilla extract works because it is suspended in booze. In the 50’s my grandmother was told to rub burbon on her babies’ gums. (It worked, but not as well as the brandy he had her put in their bottles.) I dunno, something about that just feels so … wrong. Though, at some points it feels like ANYTHING that will work sounds fantastic
The teething tablets work via caffeine, since it’s a vasoconstricter it forces the swelling out of the tissue. Saying you’re rubbing your babies’ teeth with caffeine sounds equally wrong as the liquor, but I kid of figure that it’s not any worse than the coffee I drink while I’m breasfeeding.
Good luck to you! Teething is a bear, I hope the phases pass quickly through your house!
ha ha yeah, vanilla extract would work because it’s alcoholic! hee.
I don’t think you can even buy the teething tablets any longer. They were recalled last year and I don’t think they have ever come back out. But I guess they will be released “soon” whatever that means. There is a teething gel from Hylands though.
http://www.hylands.com/products/teething.php
As they get older frozen bagels work too. It’s too hard for them to really bite some off. But it’s dense and gives them lots of pressure.
They need some sort of teething relief for adults. In the form of alcohol that doesn’t get into the breast milk.
I’m laughing at myself. The alcohol in vanilla hadn’t even occurred to me. Ha!
Thanks for the other suggestions, and Alena? WORD. Although, it hasn’t been terrible so far. You know, two days into it with 1/3 of the babies teething. Hee!
I hate teething. We have had success with the Amber necklace & Motrin, not Tylenol.
I wrote a whole post on teething last week if you’re interested:
http://momeinstein.com/blog/health/signs-of-teething-relieving-teething-pain/
My first didn’t have problems with teething. They would just all of a sudden appear and he’d be like, whatev.
My second? Oh my Lord, the world is coming to an end any time one is about to pop through, which is a lot nowadays. We use hylands and really like them.
Good luck =)
It’s awesome to have an arsenal of soothing options raring to go, but keep your ‘go with the attitude’… Teething isn’t always hell. My first did her full set of teeth without a hitch ;). Good luck!
I hate teething. It robs me of my joyful little guy! I always alternate Tylenol/Ibuprofen every 2 hours.
I never heard the vanilla extract on the gums. However, I did use ice cubes in a mesh feeder or secured in a washcloth. Teasing tablets are good to. And letting them chew on a soft toothbrush helps also.