How to tell if she's teething

[Poppymoptin]

Hi. My 19 week old has had shiny pink cheeks for 3 days and is chewing her fingers (and mine!) a lot, but otherwise is completely normal apart from some tiny spots on her bum. My Mum says she's probably teething as the only way she could tell with me was that I got a spotty bum, but I can't see anything in her mouth. How can I tell?

Basically you can't.

You can make a best guess and build up your knowledge of what you think are the indicators as time goes on but there's no way to truly know.

Gums can go soft and swollen as the teeth break through but they are growing on and off before that so could be hurting at any time.

Some parents put every pink cheek, off day, raised temperature, disrupted night, sore bottom, etc down to teething and some never see a consistent connection to physical symptoms.

If you think she's teething and give her Calpol you're doing your best and, if the problem was pain elsewhere, you've still done the right thing.