teething baby
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…
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This is a biggie to address: teething gel! When your little babe or toddler is screaming with what appears to be teething pain, and your dad suggests rubbing a little whiskey on it, you respond: “They have oral gel for this nowadays, Dad!” But is that gel safe? Last year a number of warnings came out about benzocaine, the primary agent in oral baby teething gels, and the prognosis was not so great. 1) FDA & AAP warnings. “The FDA has learned that benzocaine products can cause a serious life-threatening condition known as methemoglobinemia. Methemoglobinemia (MET-hemoglobin) is a condition where there is a build-up of methemoglobin in the blood, which reduces the ability of the blood to transport oxygen throughout the body. ” Baby411. “The FDA says benzocaine products should not be given to children younger than age 2 unless under the supervision of a health care professional. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends giving children with teething problems a teething ring that has been chilled in a refrigerator, or gently rubbing the child’s gums with a finger.” Read more specifics of the FDA warning here. 2) Alternatives. A few articles from the Whole Parenting past: teething at night {Toddler Night Sleep Trouble} & teething {Teething Pain in Young Children}. And a few ideas: a) a great teething biscuit recipe here from Weelicious!; b) frozen breastmilk in cubes in a mesh feeder; c) warm washcloth; d) cold washcloth; e) teething rings in freezer/ pacifier in fridge or freezer; f) toys like Sophie the French giraffe that are…
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