Teething Tips for Tiny Tots

Many doctors and pain experts have said that the pain of being a baby is unparalleled and that most adults would not be able to handle such great pain if they had to endure it at a later stage. A big part of this pain during infancy is teething. The ability to eat is crucial and helping those teeth grow, while also in an effort to steer the child away from the bottle, is a hard experience for babies; made ven more difficult because the teething process happens before speech development occurs. If you have ever seen a drooling baby, restless and crying in its mother’s arms, you can only sympathize and hope that those teeth come in quickly.

Babies who are teething are generally under duress because they are unable to communicate their needs to the parents or caregivers. This duress can also be categorized to pediatricians and specialists as a “baby stress.” Believe it or not, babies do go through stress—it’s not just an adult’s burden. There are many ways to help alleviate your baby’s teething pain, just be willing to look beyond standard over-the-counter remedies and look into your kitchen and linen closet for the best natural way to calm your baby.

Older, commonly used remedies have been clove oil and orris root (the bulbs from the Iris plant, popular in German culture to fight against teething pain) but neither of these has been marketed commercially recently, or not that I could readily find in my browser window or my nearest Whole Foods baby aisle.

Instead, let’s start out simple. If you are stuck at home with a screaming baby and there’s no way a short trip to the natural health food store or a quick walk to the market are going to suffice this time. Open your refrigerator and survey the contents. There are many ideas that are inexpensive and safe for your baby to suck, gnaw, or drool on.

A cold, unopened bottle of water can do the trick by numbing the gums and soothing those tears. If you are not near a kitchen, simply wash your hands and rub your fingers gently along the child’s gums; the motion replicates the motion of chewing on something and distracting them from otherwise throbbing gums, you can also use a damp cloth between your finger and the gum for added texture. Teething “cloths” are essentially baby washcloths (because they are extra gentle and smaller than normal washcloths) folded into a triangle and you can dip the tip in either chamomile tea or water and stick in the freezer or refrigerator until ready to use. When the tea melts off the cloth, it is good for soothing the baby and helping them sleep better. Also available are teething rings, which come in two varieties: gel- or water-filled that are meant to be frozen, and soft plastic which are ridged, allowing a baby to scrape it back and forth over the gum and chew on it at will.

The last easy and inexpensive way is to give your child cold foods like veggies or fruit to suck on. Depending up on the age of your child, you can use large carrots (cold and easy to scrape their gums on without pieces coming off), cucumbers, zucchini, an unpeeled banana, or a Popsicle if you are watching the baby closely. Another popular idea is a bagel as long as your baby is unable to chew into it and break off small pieces.

If you are at the grocery store or special natural health food store, special homeopathic remedies are available over the counter and are gaining popularity. Store-bought teething biscuits used to be what people used but because of their high sugar content are now mostly shunned. The newer wheat-based biscuits that dissolve instead of break up are now popular in mom-blogs across the country. Homeopathic teething gel and teething tablets made by Hyland’s are incredibly popular, non-toxic, and safe for babies to take every 3-4 hours. The tablets are easier to administer by placing under the tongue than the gel and moms all over the web swear by them. Hyland’s recommends them for solving the baby’s irritability and restlessness and they contain the popular ingredients: Calcarea (for dentition support), Chamomilla (for irritability), Coffea Cruda (for wakefulness and as a diuretic) and Belladonna (for inflammation and redness). Hyland’s tablets also contain lactose so consult your physician before use in case your baby is lactose-intolerant.  In 2006, Hyland’s received the National Parenting Center’s Seal of Approval Award and all of their products are FDA-tested.

Because all babies are different, please check with your baby’s pediatrician before self-diagnosing and giving your baby anything new, because reactions between medicines can occur and can be prevented if the doctor is aware of any type of treatment you may be giving your child at home. Stimulate your child as best you can during the start of teething and throughout the sporadic tooth-breaking times until they are at least two years old to keep them happy and distracted from the kind of pain that would make us, as adults, cry “uncle.”

And don’t forget to stock up on bibs to catch the drool. Teething babies can go through several changes of clothes due to the amount of drool generated during this period of their life.