Got a Teething Baby? My Top Teething Solutions.

My little six month old is teething. Yup, it’s here. The snarfling nights. The little razors under her gum line. The shrill shrieks. A good girlfriend’s little son about the same age is going through this too. He was a great sleeper, but it sounds like his sleep is disrupted now. SweetPea is not a great sleeper, let’s be honest, so there’s no real change in our disrupted nights.

Is your little one teething? I’ve written about teething here {Teething Pain in Young Children}, here {Toddler Night Sleep Trouble}, and here {Teething Gel: To Gel or Not to Gel}. What are the best teething toys, how do you even know it’s the teeth, and what the heck will make your baby happy again?

1) Teethers.

Your breast. (Whoa! What about the don’t-be-a-human-pacifier rebuke you get from lots of fellow mamas? I disregard it.) Nurse and offer nursing as much as you are willing and able to. Baby will appreciate it, and it will keep your milk supply up, especially if you’re starting solids around now. Other favs around here: rubber, latex, wooden, fabric. Avoid BPA plastics. Defined here by Wiki.

Why avoid it? Because they can leach out chemicals into your baby’s mouth. Yeech! I also try to avoid made-in-china. Why? Because I want to support made in the USA. Consider it my local solution to our economic woes. Except for Sophie, the French giraffe. I love her and almost all things French.

SweetPea likes different things at different times. I do not put any of the “freezer” ones in the actual freezer as that has resulted in cold burns for SuperBoy. I put them in the fridge instead. Cool, but not freezer burn.

A few brands I like:

Life Factory Silicone Teethers

Sophie & Vullie 

Little Saplings

Hevea

2) Signs of teething.

Drool. Itchy gums. Runny nose. Interrupted sleep. Diarrhea. A little diaper rash. Extra fussiness. Grabbing for your fingers, knuckles, and anything that looks like it could conceivably fit into her mouth. A slight fever (below 100). Gums that have changed shape, and softened for those little razor blades to rip through.

And it can start as early as 3 months, and go until the 2 year molars come in, and then, of course, baby teeth have to leave and adult teeth have to come in.

When I was googling “teething baby” in the middle of the night when SuperBoy was teething at 5, 6, 7 months, I recoiled in horror at the revelation that this keeps going on and on until, well, adulthood?!

Know that it will pass. The tooth will pop through, you will sleep again, and then the cycle commences. And we’ve had a great break with him–he probably went months and months without a new tooth. Now the 2 year molars are coming in, so we’re back at it, but it was bliss while it lasted.

3) Medical help for teething.

Homeopathy: Teething tablets. Teething gel. Hylands is a brand I like. Use them all the time. They may work! They may not work! It’s homeopathy, so with no randomized controlled studies, it’s a bit of guesswork but I think it works mostly for my kids.

Pharmaceutical: Infant’s Motrin. Dye-free if possible. Sometimes have to administer in the middle of screaming, blubbering night. Sometimes have to do a premeditative dosage if the babe’s been up every night prior mid-night. Tuck the dropper into a baby’s cheek, and try to give it the one moment she’s not screaming, or it will be choked on and come right back up on you.

Talk to your doctor before taking any course of drugs or homeopathic remedies.