Surviving Teething
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The purpose of this post is to share some of the lifesaving hints we’ve accumulated from other parents to help ease our baby’s teething. Teething is a brutal, excruciating thing and it’s a shame that all kids have to go through it! Nico happened to get his first two teeth (and then the next 6) really early, so he really got slammed. Sometimes there was little we could do to help him, but the following things were our go-to tools to offer him some relief.
- The best piece of jewelry I will ever own is a $20 piece of silicone that I wear around my neck. It’s called Teething Bling and is a teething ring that most people think looks like a nice stone necklace. (To me, it looks like a teething ring, but it doesn’t matter what it looks like because it works so well!) After a particularly bad weekend of being bitten every time I nursed Nico (after he had teeth!), I remembered that Sara had given me this necklace. I put it on and he instinctively pulled off the breast and bit on the necklace when he needed to massage his gums, and then went back to nursing when he was done. I didn’t even have to show him that the necklace was there or how to use it. It is simply brilliant and was obviously designed by a mom who was tired of being bitten. I cannot recommend this necklace highly enough.
- Two homeopathic remedies worked really really well for Nico. The first was Hyland’s Teething Tablets, which dissolve right away in his mouth. The second was recommended by his doctor and is Chamomilla 30C that we crush between 2 spoons (or in a mortar and pestle) and then put the powder on our finger to put in his mouth. The Chamomilla works a little bit better than the Hyland’s, so sometimes we have to go to that if the Hyland’s don’t have an effect. But the Hyland’s are much easier because we don’t have to do anything to them before he can eat them, so we use that more often. Some parents swear that Hyland’s work wonders for their kids (like for Nico) and others say that there is no effect at all from them (like for Nico’s cousin, Brady).
- We have little mesh bags that you can put ice or pieces of food in so your kids don’t choke. Nico still doesn’t like food, so frozen food doesn’t work for him. But putting ice in there is great for him. He chews on both the ice and on the handle and that really helps. We try to use ice before Hyland’s when we’re at home, but when we’re out we always have the Hyland’s with us.
- Our doctor advised against using Children’s Tylenol or Motrin or anything else for teething because of the sheer quantity we’d end up giving him. She said that babies teethe for a really long time, and if we were to give those medicines every time, it would add up to a ton. She suggested some of the following (none of which we used): have him chew on a cold metal spoon, put a clove in some olive oil and keep it in a jar so we can rub some on his gums when they’re sore, have him chew on a cold, hard piece of food (carrot, squash, etc.).
- Some people suggested a frozen washcloth to us, but Nico doesn’t really like that. Others suggested Orajel, but we didn’t try that.
Teething is miserable and I still don’t understand what evolutionary purpose it serves to have babies be in that much pain when the teeth are already formed and waiting under the gums when they’re born. Our doctor also told us that teething can start and stop a bunch of times before the teeth actually come through. We think Nico started teething at 2 months, even though his first tooth didn’t emerge until he was 4 1/2 months old. Too bad we didn’t know about these things during those 2 months — it might have made the process a tiny bit easier for him.





















