All you need to know about teething

Skitterling, this is such a nice post. Very informative. I didnt know any of this!

Symptoms and Signs of Babies and Infants Who Are Teething

The signs an symptoms of teething are many and varied because, as anyone who has experienced ongoing toothache can tell you, pain in the mouth can affect every part of your body.

How do you know when your child is teething? First, he or she is somewhere between three months and a year old and doesn't yet have teeth, right? Some signs of teething are obvious; drooling, wakefulness, crankiness, crying, biting, chewing and tender gums are a few. Other signs of cutting teeth may be a little less obvious: she refuses food or may not be drinking milk; she may have a rash around the mouth; saliva irritates the delicate skin. There may be a runny nose, the mechanics of which escape me, but if you've ever eaten a hot chili, you know that your mouth floods with saliva, your eyes tear up and your nose starts to run.
What Do Teething Infant Gums Look Like?
Teething gums look pretty much like you'd expect them to: they may be swollen and red or even bruised. There may be little white dots on them, or you may see small openings where in a day or two will be a tooth. Because the baby is drooling and swallowing more drool than you ever thought possible, you may notice loose stools in the diaper. Loose bowel movements may be a part of teething, but if there's anything more than an extra-poopy diaper, if there is fever, mucous or blood in the stools, or if the diarrhea is violent, you should take your baby to the doctor for help because the diarrhea probably isn't related to teething. And if your child is experiencing even the mild diarrhea associated with teething, there may be diaper rash, too. And you thought this couldn't be more fun!

Is My Baby Cutting New Teeth or Is Something Wrong?
Fever is always a sign of infection, which is why the first thing moms do when you don't feel good is feel your forehead. Gum inflammation may cause a low fever, but if your baby runs a temperature, check with your pediatrician. Sleeplessness, crying and fussing are all perfectly normal behaviors for a teething child: fever is not. And for children who turn out to be prone to ear infections, it can be difficult for parents and professionals to recognize that what may look like ordinary cranky teething symptoms may be something more serious. Fever is one indicator that something's wrong. A teething baby who's teething will get crankier at night but be more cheerful in the day, when there are more distractions around; a child with an ear infection won't find relief in the daytime because the pain isn't something he can get distracted from.

Parenting first starts with getting used to the sight of blood, but you may be terrified when your teething child starts bleeding from the mouth. Before you jump to any conclusions (assuming your child is conscious and acting normally), wipe away the blood and look at her gums. Sometimes, as a tooth is breaking through the gums, small cysts can form which, when the pressure increases, break open. Normally, once the first blood is let, the bleeding stops and soon you see a little white tooth where the cyst once was.

More baby teething pain remedies


A large variety of teething biscuits are sold, and yes, they do help. My son enjoyed them, but they made quite a mess. Be sure to watch that young teethers don’t break off or dissolve small pieces of biscuit that they’re too young to handle—they could become a choking hazard. Here’s another trick from Dr. Sears: Chill the biscuits first.

A coworker of mine swears by frozen peas to get her toddler through the tough times. Just roll them onto your child’s high chair tray and let him or her enjoy the relief. (Helps get those veggies down, too!)

Some companies sell teething “necklaces,” often made of amber beads. The concept is apparently based on an old European belief that wearing amber close to the skin eases the pain of teething. It would seem like something like this couldn’t hurt, but I’d watch Baby closely with these; the beads could come loose and pose a choking hazard.

In an article titled “Nothing But the Tooth: Dispelling Myths About Teething Pain,” Jane E. Anderson, MD recounts many past beliefs about teething including: “In the sixth century, Aetios of Amida suggested that, in addition to hare’s brain, having the infant wear bracelets and amulets would ease teething pain.”

Another idea I read about recently is freezing bags full of flax. Make a little “bean bag” using fabric and flax, put it in the freezer, and let baby chew on it, well-supervised. Some are sold pre-made under the name “Flax Sax.”

If your baby has started solids, you might have one of those mesh feeders in your house. Try filling that with something nice and cool and give it to Baby to gnaw on.

As your baby gets older, distraction is often the best solution to teething pain. A well-timed game, book or puzzle can get Baby’s mind off of the trouble. Good news! By the time your little teether is a toddler, well before all the teeth are in, he or she may weather the fattest of teeth barely flinching.

The old term “cutting teeth” is not accurate. Rather than “erupting,” teeth twist and shift as they make their way up from under the gum line. Don’t freak out if they show up looking crooked, or spaced far apart. Expect them to continue to shift a bit.

Teeth usually emerge in a fairly predictable pattern and in pairs, with lowers preceding uppers: First the two bottom front teeth (called the “central incisors”), and about four to eight weeks later the four top front teeth (the “central incisors” and the “lateral incisors”) emerge. About a month after that emerge the lower incisors. [see chart]. Again, some babies follow a different timeline, getting teeth more or less frequently.

The first four teeth are flat and sharp, and typically don’t cause as much pain as the later teeth. But this is Baby’s first experience with this type of discomfort. (And remember, some babies breeze through a full mouthful of teeth with barely a whimper.) Some say the most painful teeth to come in are the canines (the pointy ones), because of their large surface area.

Most babies have their first four teeth by eight or nine months, and by their first birthday are working on the four molars farthest back in the mouth. These molars, like the canines, can be more painful because of their sheer size, and there is often swelling or even a blister, which Dr. Sears in The Baby Book explains is a collection of blood beneath the blood tissue best treated by cold compresses. Thankfully, by this age Baby is often so “busy” and on-the-go they may cause him or her less trouble than you might expect. (That’s what happened with my son.) The canine teeth come along between 18 and 24 months, and the two-year molars show up between 24 and 30 months.

Expect Baby to react accordingly when two or even three or more teeth decide to erupt at once.