I’m sure glad I don’t remember my teething days. Judging by what my baby is going through right now, they likely weren’t pleasant.
My daughter, Reese, already has two teeth and she’s working on at least one — maybe two — more. For the most part, she’s a trooper. But recently the pain seems to have gotten the best of her.
When her two bottom-front teeth came in, my husband and I barely noticed any difference in Reese’s behavior. She may have been a tad fussy now and then, but that was about it. I was shocked one day when she tried to gnaw on my index finger and I felt the tips of her first two pearly whites poking through her gums. I’d been expecting sleepless nights, nonstop crying, constant teething-ring use and around-the-clock nursing sessions to accompany the appearance of her first tooth.
It turns out, she reserved that behavior for the appearance of her third tooth. And here I was thinking we’d caught a break.
I’ve tried a few things to help soothe Reese’s pain, and I’ve had luck with a couple remedies. She has no interest in frozen teething rings. “Popsicles” (frozen chunks of milk or ice cubes in mesh self-feeders) do the trick sometimes, but they melt quickly and make a mess. We’ve tried teething biscuits, but I don’t like to give them to Reese very often because I try to avoid most processed and sugar-added foods. Orajel Naturals Teething Gel might work, but I wouldn’t know because I’ve never been successful at actually getting a fingerful of the goop into Reese’s mouth. She screams bloody murder every time I try, and I’ve decided it’s not worth the battle.
At the suggestion of a friend, I tried Hyland’s Teething Tablets, which seem to work better than anything else. They’re tiny homeopathic tablets that dissolve in the mouth, assuming the baby doesn’t spit the medicine out immediately, which, of course, is exactly what my daughter did. Thank goodness the wonderful people at Hyland’s figured that would happen, so they included alternate directions for ingestion. The tablets also can be dissolved in a teaspoon of water, which Reese is willing to swallow.
The tablets seem to give her a few hours of relief, which means more sleep for everyone in my house, and that’s always a good thing.
I don’t think we’re anywhere near the end of this teething journey, though. I did a little bit of online research and learned children teeth well into toddlerhood! Little ones typically cut their upper second molars around 29 months. If Reese’s incisors are giving her this much trouble, I can’t imagine how much “fun” we’ll have when her molars rear their ugly heads.