Toddler Teething

The sight of the first white cap inside the mouth of your baby is an event for rejoice and celebrations for the parents. However, it could be a tough time for a toddler. Sometimes, the discomfort associated with eruption of teeth can make your child suffer a lot, and as parents you feel worried and helpless in this condition. The intensity of the symptoms often vary from one child to the other.

Teething Timeline

One can see a lot of variation in the timing of teeth eruption, and its different for every individual child. In general, baby teething takes place in the period between 3 months to the age of 2 years. In some children, it may get extended up to 3 years of age. It is really a long time if the child tends to suffer during this time. The front teeth appears first and they usually come within the first twelve months. It is followed by the canines which comes in between the age of 16 to 18 months. Finally, the posterior molars appear when the child is about 22 to 30 months of age. Thus your child will get a set of 20 baby teeth.

Symptoms

Some babies and toddlers do not get any teething symptoms at all, while others may suffer a lot. The commonly observed symptoms that are often reported by most parents are as follows:

• Excessive drooling
• Swelling and reddening of the gums
• Sensitive gums which force them into biting, sucking
• Frequent rubbing of the ear
• Eruption of red skin rash
• Irritability and confusion which often leads to sleepless nights
• Loss of appetite
• In some rare cases, the baby may get baby teething fever, diarrhea and vomiting.

Home Remedies

There are some simple tactics that can help you to control the symptoms of toddler teething. Some such effective baby teething remedies are given below:

• Massaging the gum of your tiny tot gently with your fingertips will help to ease off the sensitive gums of infant teething. However, you have to be careful or else they can badly bite your finger!
• Take a clean washcloth and damp it with water and store it in the fridge for some time. When it is cold, take it out and give it to your child for chewing. When they chew it continuously, the trouble associated with toddler teething and molar cutting will ease off to some extent. You can use a frozen toothbrush for the same purpose.
• If your toddler is refusing food due to teething. Offer some chilled tempting foods like yogurt or fruit puree. They will like the different taste of such foods at the same time will comfort the irritating gum.
• If your child tend to drool a lot, make sure you keep the mouth area clean wiping it off with a tissue. Thus you can prevent drool rash that comes up on the face.
• Breastfeeding or sucking from a bottle can be bothersome as it leads to blood rush into the swollen gum and aggravate the irritation. Therefore, try to make them drink from a cup for that period of time.
• If all these home remedies do not reduce the symptoms of teething, then you can consult your pediatrician who can prescribe some medicines that can relief the pain. They may also recommend a teething gel that can numb the gums and relieve the discomfort.

If the first teething gives a lot of pain to the child, parents tend to get worried that eruption of the bigger molar teeth is going to be more painful for the child. However, the fact is that when your child will get the final teeth, you may not notice these symptoms at all. In this phase, cuddle you baby more as this extra comfort has an excellent therapeutic effect on them.