Could this be teething?

[SalsaP]

My lb is 5 months old and for 5 days now has been quite unsettled and out of sorts. His symptoms are chewing on hand and some dribbling although these 2 symptoms have been around for a few weeks now. The new symptoms are resisting some day time naps and getting VERY upset when i try and put him down in his bed. Startling himself awake like he did when he as a tiny baby. His normal bowel movements are every other day. Yesterday he went several times and has been twice already today. Mostly its a small slightly more watery poo than usual. (Making me a little worried about dehydration in this hot weather). One of his eyes is a bit weepy too. I think his cheeks are a little on the pink side but that could be the hot weather. The thing I find slightly odd, although I'm not complaining, is that he is sleeping very well at night as usual. So really I'm trying to work out if he is teething, and to try some remedies, or whether I should take him to the doctors. Any thoughts please?

Sounds like teething to me. Have you tried Teetha or Bonjella? If he doesn't have any fever or is not behaving oddly best avoid the hot and sticky GP waiting rooms.... re sleep, he's not far from one of the wonder weeks developmental leaps, which desturb sleep and make babies more clingy....

Who knows? I'd say if the change in bowel habits continues and he seems to have an upset tummy/temperature then take him to the doctors, and keep a watch on the eye in case it's conjunctivitis or anything, but the rest of it sounds pretty normal. We thought dd was teething from about 4 months but no teeth actually appeared til 7 months - people say the teeth grow in phases so it could be bothering him. If a tooth was about to come through you'd probably see and feel a definite bump in the gum.

Yep -sounds very like teething. With ds4 who is going thru it now it started at 10 weeks on and off and the first teeth didn't arrive until 6 months which is late for one of mine. He's really struggling with it. He loves Dentinox gel and he has an Amber bead necklace.

Another one to agree with the 'possibly teething' diagnosis. One of the ways I used to tell with small child (another one who teethed for ages before anything appeared) was the nappies, particularly dirty ones, had an ammoniac smell to them during the teething phases.

Apart from the hot weather, dribbling in itself can be dehydrating, so do up his fluids a bit. One way to do this, and it will help on the gums too, is to give small ice cubes to suck.