How Do I Know if My Baby’s Teething?

Your child’s screaming, in public, and you don’t know why. We’ve all been there. You’ve tried everything: rocking, feeding, singing– nothing’s working.

Why?

It could be that he’s in pain.

What is teething?

Teething is the process in which a baby’s teeth, conveniently hidden at birth, push through the gums and show themselves to the world. It sounds like a pleasant process, but it’s actually rather painful for baby. The gums don’t know to move out of the way or separate for the teeth. No, they don’t communicate! So instead, the teeth rudely cut through the gums to the surface.

7 Signs that Baby is Teething

It isn’t always clear, but here are several tell-tell signs I have been able to deduce from my own toddler:

1. Louder for seemingly no reason
2. Suddenly doesn’t sleep as well as usual
3. Irritable/easily frustrated
4. Refusing to eat as much
5. Slobbering everywhere
6. Cheeks randomly flushed (sometimes only one)
7. Chewing roughly on everything

What Can I Do to Help Baby?

Anything cold helps! Frozen teething rings, frozen fruit (though that can easily get messy), breastmilk popsicles, etc.!

Numbing gel applied to the gums.

Motrin or Tylenol is also a Huge help with the pain and reduces swelling of the gums. It is a great remedy,

but I would be careful to space out baby’s dosage to every 4-6 hours. If used less than 4 hours between doses or if used around the clock for several days, both Tylenol and Motrin could cause liver damage.