Teething Tips

Teething has taken over both our households these past two weeks. This whole teething thing is awful and makes me feel so horrible that my baby has to suffer through the pain. When I go to heaven someday, I think I will ask to be on the committee for revision of babies. That way I can request that babies be born with a full set of teeth that are soft (so they don't hurt us breastfeeding) and gradually get hard and stronger as they get older. Personally, I think this is a great idea :) Anyways, well this whole teething thing has me wonder what works for you? I also want to give you mommy's out there they signs and symptoms and some helpful tricks to help ease the pain.

First off let me start off with the bad news......there are 20 primary teeth that our babies precious gums will have to cut through. This is actually 12 less than the full set of 32 teeth that us adults have. Meaning later in life there will be 12 more teeth for our kids to suffer through. Your baby should have their full set by age 2 or 3. Here is a chart I found that tells us what teeth we can expect to see at a certain age.

Age	Teeth	Position
6 to 7 months	Incisors	Two central bottom & Two central top teeth.
7 to 9 months	Two more incisors	Top & bottom; making four top & four bottom teeth in all.
10 to 14 months	First molars	Double teeth for chewing
15 to 18 months	Canines	The pointed teeth or “fangs”
2 to 3 years	Second molars	The second set of double teeth at the back

Here are the signs and symptoms that you might find your baby going through.

• Irritability
• Drooling
• Cough
• Chin Rash
• Biting and Gnawing
• Cheek rub or Ear Pulling
• Diarrhea
• Low Grade Fever
• Cold Like Symptoms

There are many ways to help your little one's bare through the pain. Every baby will be different in what works for them in helping sooth their discomfort.

• Buy teething rings and freeze them. Some babies love these rings because chewing on the cold helps numb the pain temporarily.
• Wet a wash cloth and put them in your freezer. This worked wonders for Tyler. The wash cloth always was frozen but not to frozen to where he did not want to hold it in his hand. He would suck on the wash cloth for a good 30 mins.
• Pressing your finger (after washing them of course) against your baby's gums. The pressure helps with the pain, but only temporarily.
• Mesh feeders with frozen fruit. These mesh feeders make it easy for your baby to suck on a frozen part of a banana, mango or other soft fruit without you having to worry about choking (with supervision of course). You can also make a tray full of apple juice ice cubes and put the cubes in the mesh bag for your little one to enjoy. We love the mesh bag in our house, it is a life saver.
• Hylands Homeopathic Teething Tablets. These tablets are 100% natural and dissolve instantly in you babies mouth. I SWEAR by these tablets! They worked instantly for Tyler. Every time he was fussy from teething we popped a few of these tablets in and he seemed instantly relieved.
• Numbing gel like Oraljel. Placing some of the numbing gel on your baby's gums will temporarily numb where the tooth is coming in and help ease the pain.
• Good old Tylenol or Ibuprofen. For those really fussy days try giving you baby a dose of Tylenol or Ibuprofen (according to your doctors proper dosage for your baby). This will help act as a mild pain reliever and help take the edge off the pain. This always worked well at night with Tyler when he was up more during the night due to the pain.

Teething is just a part of growing up unfortunately. Thankfully there are some things you can do to help your baby get through it. You will just have to try a combination of tricks to find out what works best for you and your baby. If you have any suggestions or home remedies that worked well for your baby, please comment below and share with all of us so we can all get through this teething together.