After my daughter cut her first couple of teeth, I thought this was going to be a breeze. Boy, was I wrong! After those first two teeth came through, all hell broke loose! She was fussy, had a runny nose, pulled at her ears, ran a low fever (make sure your child’s fever doesn’t go over 100 degrees, that can mean illness). All the classic symptoms along with blood curdling screams! I began to do a little research and was fascinated in some of the things I found!
Naturally, the first thing I tried was Ibprofen. I dosed her up every 6 hours. That seemed to help a little bit, but it just seemed to ease her pain enough to let her sleep, not while she was awake. I needed something to help give me some sanity and her some relief!
Take wash cloth and get it wet. Squeeze out the excess water and put it in a plastic bag. Throw the bag in the freezer for approximately five minutes. Take the rag out of the bag and let your infant chew and suck on it. My daughter loved this one, and it doubles as a drool catcher! BONUS!
Teething rings are a great thing, but they are even better when popped in the freezer for 5 minutes, like the wash cloth. This is a little less messy or time consuming than the wash rag. Like the teething rings, if your child takes a pacifier, you can put those in the freezer for a cool chew as well.
Massaging your child’s gums is another great way of giving them a little relief. They already like to chew on your finger, so you might as well put it to good use. The massaging equalizes the pressure the tooth is creating on the gums, know more. When I was getting my wisdom teeth, I loved applying pressure to the gums back there, so you know your children would love it, too! Just make sure that finger is clean!
You can always purchase those over the counter pain gels for your infant’s gums. I found that it only relieved the pain very briefly and was not worth the expense.
Depending on your child’s age, you can use teething cookies for your child to slobber on. I tried these with my son, and although he loved them, I thought they were the biggest mess and created more of a headache than my screaming child! Depending on your desperation level, I didn’t feel they were worth the enormous clean up!
Some people swear by rubbing vanilla extract on your baby’s gums. Although, not proven, it can warm your child’s gums or some believe the vanilla itself is just very calming. It can also calm a baby’s upset stomach!
A small cool spoon is also a favorite of infants. Just make sure you’re holding the spoon in your hands at all times and constantly supervising this remedy. The baby can easily gag or choke itself on such an item.
Those are just a few of the remedies that I found when trying to sooth my baby’s teething. I hope they have offered you some hope to pull your fingers out of your hair and to take a large sigh of relief as your child’s poor teething experience continues.