Bring on the teeth!!
So I’ve been hearing a lot of “oh she’s teething’ for the past month. We have excessive drooling, waking up more often in the middle of the night and chewing on anything she can get her hands on. Yet, no teeth. According to a lovely pediatrician most babies start developing ‘teething sympotms’ at around 4 months but don’t actually get teeth until they’re 7 months or so. I hate having to make Annabelle wear a bib all day because of the excessive drooling and I also don’t like having to change her a gazillion times a day. Too bad so sad for me.
My least favorite part of teething? Not knowing if she’s crying because her gums hurt or if there’s something else wrong that I can’t figure out. So we’ve tried a few things for teething besides the obligatory cold teething rings. One of our favorites is these nifty little Camilia drops. We’ve also tried Hylands teething gel but no more. Hylands teething tablets have been ‘voluntarily recalled’ so I don’t really want to put anything in my small persons body made by the same company that’s made something that’s been recalled. That’s just a personal choice. You can pick your own battles.
Anyways, in our daily search of finding something to make the screaming stop these are a few great things we’ve discovered through trial and error.
Frozen breast milk! Can’t get any more natural than that, breast milk really is a cure all, what would I do without it? You can just as easily use formula for this! Freeze it in an ice cube tray and let your little teether chomp on it. Just make sure you hold it so they don’t try to swallow and choke on a chunk of frozen breast milk. This is Annabelles favorite.
Cold carrots to chew on. Don’t use baby carrots because those are small and we don’t put small things into a small persons mouth. We did this before she started eating carrots, actually she hasn’t had carrots at all yet, except for teething. This kept her entertained for quite a while. I let her chomp on some roasted beets that were cold from the fridge too, that was messy but she was happy.
Clove oil. Make sure you buy pure clove oil and mix a drop in with a drop of olive oil and rub it on the gums. I’ve also heard to just use straight clove oil and not mix it with olive oil but whatever you do make sure you try it on your own mouth first to make sure it won’t burn their gums. I know, I didn’t really want to do anything that could possibly ‘burn’ her gums. But when it’s between this or something from the family of a recalled product I chose clove oil.
So how long until Annabelle gets teeth? Wouldn’t I love to know! The better question is when is all this teething nonsense over? It all depends on your baby. Some babies have teeth at 4 months and some don’t get any until they are a year old. I once heard a mother say that she had been planning on breastfeeding until her baby got teeth… that baby waited over 12 months to get her first little tooth =)