Chloe’s up to 12 teeth, almost 13 once this 4th molar pushes it’s way through. Early on, we relied on a lot of baby Tylenol, and I have to admit that although it helped, I always felt weird about giving her medication. Now that she’s been eating solid foods and that I’ve had some time to learn more about her teething, I’m able to say that we haven’t needed to give her any medication for her molars – and those are supposed to be the difficult ones.
Of course, there are times when the pain is bad enough to warrant medicine, but I’ve noticed something interesting about her when she teethes. Usually, the pain seems to come in bursts, and sometimes it only lasts for a few minutes. If we rushed to give her medicine right away, the pain may have subsided by the time the medicine kicked in anyway.
Here are some things to try if you’re looking to use medication as a last resort.
– Frozen washcloths: These worked nicely when she was younger, though pretty wet once they started to melt. Her hands would get cold, but she never seemed to mind. Maybe the cold hands helped to distract her from the tooth pain.
– Frozen fruit in mesh food holders (Munchkin and Nuby both make them): Once we introduced food to Chloe, this became our favorite teething remedy! Frozen bananas helped get those molars through for sure. It combined a food she loves with comfort and that worked wonders. Messy to be sure, but effective.
– Frozen waffles: This works well now that she can hold food and eat it, though they do warm up pretty quickly. They do seem to provide her some teething comfort so we make sure to have some on hand.
– A wide variety of teething toys: Sometimes she wants something cloth, sometimes she wants texture, sometimes a hard surface she can really gnaw on – it helps to have a lot of options because if it’s not exactly what she wants it ends up on the floor.
– Breastfeeding: You might be thinking, ouch, really?! She doesn’t bite very often anymore, and I think the comfort is sometimes even more soothing than a teething toy would be. Sometimes holding her close and letting her nurse is exactly what she’s looking for.
