How to Deal With Teething

How to Deal With Teething

So you have made it through the long, sleepless nights and midnight bottle runs, and have finally become somewhat confident in your abilities as a new parent. Your baby is almost on what resembles a schedule and the dark circles under your eyes have begun to diminish to just a faded memory. But now a new problem is on the horizon and has reared its painfully ugly head: teething.

When baby's first teeth begin to erupt and push their way through the gum line, most babies will feel a certain degree of pain or discomfort, and they will certainly let you know about it - fast. Teething pain is not only upsetting to your baby, but it is natural for parents to feel upset and alarmed when their baby is not comfortable.

Teething pain usually begins as off-and-on crankiness or fussiness in a baby that is normally content otherwise and then quickly balloons into fits of pure sobbing and tears. Some infants will be in such pain that parents begin to wonder if it hurts them more than it does the child. To make matters worse, the baby has no way of telling you how he feels, and you may feel powerless to really help him deal with the pain and the swollen gums.

Symptoms of Teething Pain

As the baby teeth begin to come in, the gums will swell as a direct result of the teeth or tooth pressing through the gum tissue, working their way towards eruption. The stretching and the subsequent puncturing of the gums causes can be very uncomfortable. Sound painful? We've all been there; luckily we don't remember it. The signs of teething pain include:

• Refusing food or feedings
• Mild swelling of the small area of the gum
• Mild diarrhea
• Low-grade fever no higher than 99.3 degrees Fahrenheit
• Irritability
• Increased drooling
• Difficulty sleeping
• Crying during feedings
• Attempting to chew on hard objects

It should be noted that bleeding of the gums, excessive diarrhea, excessive gum swelling and moderately high fever exceeding 99.3 degree Fahrenheit are not symptoms of teething and may be indicative of another problem.

Treating Teething Pain

Although it seems like teething lasts forever, it does not and is just a part of growing up. It is frustrating as a parent to watch your baby endure the slightest bit of discomfort, but there are treatments that can ease the baby's suffering.

Treating teething pain is no exact science by any means, but baby can find relief with topical ointments that are applied to the gum line (like Orajel), which works as an anesthetic. Most infants seem to find comfort in biting on something cold, like a teething ring that has been chilled in the freezer, or even a clean, wet wash cloth that has been frozen.

An old folk remedy that many mothers swear by is to get a wide piece of beef jerky and allow the child to chew on it (although the child must be watched the entire time to reduce or avoid the risk of becoming choked). Decades ago it was common to rub whiskey or other alcoholic spirits on the gums, but that approach is frowned upon by modern medicine.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when consoling a teething baby is that this too shall pass!