Teething pain starts around 4 months of age in most babies. You likely won’t see any teeth until 6 or 7 months, but the pain usually begins 2 months before they break through. Most parents worry that their previously happy baby who was sleeping fairly well is suddenly sick or something is wrong that is causing all the drooling, fussiness, night waking, and ear pulling. In most cases, all these changes are simply due to teething.
HERE’S HOW TO TELL IF IT’S TEETHING OR SOMETHING IS ACTUALLY WRONG, LIKE AN ILLNESS: If a baby has no fever, no cold symptoms, and no sores around or inside the mouth, then it’s almost for sure just teething. In order for ear pulling and fussiness to be due to an ear infection, an infant would also need to have cold symptoms, nasal congestion, and likely a cough and fever. If no other sick symptoms, then ear pulling is likely just due to teething pain. Another illness that can mimic teething is a throat infection or mouth sore infection. In this case, however, you’ll see mouth sores along with fever and fussing, drooling, and poor eating. So, if not much fever, and no visible sores, and no cold symptoms, then all those teething symptoms are likely just teething.
HOW TO TREAT TEETING PAIN:
- Frozen breastmilk popsicles to suck or chew on.
- Other frozen teething toys
- Pain medication: I don’t recommend Tylenol or Genexa (acetaminophen). If your baby needs a medication to relieve severe pain that is keeping her up at night, I suggest Ibuprofen infant drops – you can find dosing here.
- Natural teething remedies (in no particular order of preference) like Camilia from Boiron, Punkin Butt oil, Earthley Wellness remedy, other clove oil teething remedies, Hylands homeopathic.