16 Safe Teething Remedies For Your Baby

Katlyn Joy |17, August 2012

All babies are different and this includes teething patterns. While one baby may get his first pearly stub at as early as 3 months, and another may cut four at a time at 13 months, this is all normal. The average age is about 6 months.

The first teeth you can expect to emerge are the lower front teeth aka the lower central incisors followed within a couple months by the top ones. By age 3, the full set of primary teeth should be all present and accounted for.

For most babies teething pain precedes teeth by days, and can cause a variety of symptoms. Some babies seem to cruise right through the teething process while other babies seem to be tortured by the whole thing.

Some of the symptoms of teething include:

fussiness
drooling
rash on cheeks or chin from drool
chewing, gnawing or biting on anything, including you!
loss of appetite
crying
sleeplessness

Other symptoms are associated with teething may be indicate an illness rather than teething:
fever

diarrhea
ear pulling
jaw or face rubbing

Parents and doctors disagree it seems on the latter list, medical professionals usually stating teething should only cause mouth and gum symptoms. Many parents see diarrhea perhaps due to all the excess drool and spit being swallowed. Some babies run a fever whenever anything new occurs, it seems. The ear pulling or jaw rubbing may be attributed to the fact that these areas share nerves. It's called referred pain.

The goal with teething is to ease pain and discomfort and care for baby's emerging teeth while preventing any health or safety hazards such as choking dangers.

Here are some top teething soothers.

1. Offer a rub along the gums with your clean finger, or a clean cloth. You need to wipe those gums daily anyway to take care of unerupted as well as erupted teeth. For an extra dose of relief, try a wet clean rag cooled in the frig.

2. The Mayo Clinic recommends the use of teething rings, possibly cooled, but advises that firm rubber ones are preferred to liquid filled ones which may burst under all the heavy chewing and biting.

3. Give baby a bottle of cold water. The chilled nipple will feel good against aching gums. Don't however offer baby juice or milk if it will be chewed and sucked on as this can cause tooth decay.

4. Put baby's spoon in the frig to get good and cold, maybe a few hours or so then offer the spoon to baby to gum and chew on. The icy goodness should ease some pain.

5. Some babies like cool over cold when teething, and may appreciate a cold wet dishrag to suck and chew on for relief.

6. If baby is constantly chewing or grinding his jaws, offer him clean safe toys to chew on to heart's content. This may save you some painful moments as well.

7. Get a clean dishtowel and place it in freezer around a few cubes of ice. Baby may like the feel of ice but never give baby plain cubes.

8. Freeze a banana and give it to baby to rub against his gums and gnaw on.

9. Refrigerate a bagel and give baby age-appropriate bites to gum on, just be sure to supervise the chewing to make sure she doesn't choke.

10. Give baby chilled soft foods like applesauce, yogurt, or mashed or pureed fruits or veggies.

11. Give baby a whole carrot that is chilled to gnaw on. However watch vigilantly in order to avoid choking.

12. If baby wakes crying from teething pain, give him a chance to self-soothe and if that's not successful, then comfort baby with singing, rocking and patting.

13. Never use topical applications containing the ingredient benzocaine. These are potentially dangerous products for babies.

14. Use pain relievers such as baby acetaminophen or ibuprofen as directed by your child's pediatrician. Only use in dosages recommended as overdosing is possible even in small amounts over the dose advised and can result in liver damage or even death.

15. Nurse a teether as needed or helpful and correct a biter promptly by saying no loudly and quickly and carefully removing your nipple. To do this, insert your finger carefully into baby's mouth to break the suction.

16. Keep baby's face and chin dry with a towel and protect against a rash in a drooler by applying a thick moisturizing lotion or petroleum jelly.

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