These poor little creatures who we have nurtured for 9 months, keeping them warm, safe, fed nutritiously (although not sure that can be said of mine, I ate & drank rubbish whilst pregnant, anything to combat the morning sickness!)and loved. They then have to go on the most arduous journey of their lives (forget the London Marathon), having their poor little bodies squeezed through a narrow passage. They've learnt to hold their heads up, to control their flailing arms, possibly even turn over, and then the next big thing arrives…
Teething.
There is no other way to describe it but cruel. It's cruel to the baby who is directly suffering the pain & anguish of these little lumps of calcium shredding through their gums, and it's cruel to the parents who are unable to help aside from administering medicine and cuddles. And yes there is the sleep issue, but it pails in comparison to the larger issue.
Baby teeth - courtesy of Babyworld.co.uk
Babyworld has an excellent explanation of the stages of teething, a fab little diagram which illustrates the order of appearance of the twenty teeth which will appear between four months and two years. Yes, I said twenty ! I know! I KNOW! I am wondering if The Boy really needs another eight or if he can just cope with the twelve he's got?
The Boy hasn't had a new tooth in about four months; according to their diagram I can see he's a little behind. We are currently awaiting the arrival of tooth number 13: an upper canine. I wouldn't be surprised is 14 decided to pop along at the same time, just to spite us!
I remember the excitement of the first tooth! One day back in January 2010, a tiny little line of white appeared in his lower gum. Hoorah, something to show for the month of crying & sleeplessness. Wait, not one, but two had appeared! We might get some sleep now! Nooo! It continued and he got the next one a fortnight later, and then three at the same time! Then we were all allowed sleep for a month or two until the molars started to make an appearance. By God, they're nasty!
Fast forward to today and we've had a fortnight of terrible nights where The Boy has ended up coming in with us for part of the night. He is sobbing and screaming in his sleep; I can't even begin to tell you how heart-breaking it is. And you can tell it's bad because he's not even calling us, he's just sobbing so whole-heartedly.
These items are our best friends at the moment. Nooo! We don't use them all together, well not all of them anyway. I think that I've found out that an ibuprofen painkiller and Calgel is most effective for The Boy, but nothing works completely.
And don't forget mums & dads; guidelines recommend brushing baby's teeth as soon as they start to appear (I liked these), especially after the night-time feed. As Jenny points out over on Mummy Mishaps, 40% of children start school with tooth-decay! Get them brushing as soon as they can too, don't let them see it as a chore. My mum bought this for The Boy, it was excellent!
Love it!! Thanks for pointing out the websites and I'm defo getting one for addy!
I brushed his teeth for the first time last week! Very exciting. But now we are having nights of pain again.
Big cuddles to the boy. Poor baby xx
As soon as she hit 4 months the little one's teeth started arriving 2 at a time and kept on popping through 2 at a time at a fair old rate since. She's had all twenty for about 4+months now.
We have been brushing since she had teeth and she loves it. We have a little song and everything!
It's a horrible horrible process and at its worst she'd spend all day lying on me crying. Ibuprofen syrup from the Dr got us through!
Forget all the medicine and invest in some amber teething beads which they wear around their necks……I swear by this! It's a hippy remedy but really, really works. I also recommended this to @wendymcd83 and she can't beleive what a difference it made!
I think William is just starting the early stages if teething but no sign of any white bits yet! Sounds like we have lots of tears and pain to come!
Great post x
I have been very lucky with teething, it has affected them through the day but never at night, although I have been a huge fan of Calpol – the wonder drug for babies! Cleaning teeth has been fine up until two and half and now takes a little persuasion! 🙂
We wouldn't turn the clock bac to those teething days – the bright red cheeks, the impossible, helpless task of trying to comfort them. Thankfully, we're past that now. The toothbrushing ritual at the end of the day is a real pleasure. 'Say Aaaaaa; now Cheeeeeeez.' The youngest (3 yr-old) loves it.
The Mam toothbrush looks great! We are having bad teeth nights at the moment too. Baby girl has 6 big sharp teeth. 🙂
Oh I see I had a mention in this post! Thank you! I didnt realise before which is why I have never thanked you sooner – sorry about that.
It's a really good post. Luckily we are nearing the end f teething with Burton – he is teething at the moment but apart from a sore bottom he seems to be coping ok. However, as one child finshes teething, we will be going through it all again with Jenson very soon 🙁
Bah!
I commented on this in Feb saying that William had started teething. We went through a bade few weeks and months. It is May tomorrow and still we have no teeth. Not Esther or William. They are 9 months old now and we seem to be having a bit of respite. When oh when will their little teeth come?
I can recommend amber teething necklaces or anklets they certainly seemed to help us x
http://www.edspire.co.uk/2011/03/02/twin-teethers/
http://www.edspire.co.uk/2011/03/07/teething-twins-update/
Just one thing I feel I need to comment with on this hun. Teething's a bitch. Nuff said 😀