4 months, teething, no naps, screaming all day and non existent bedtime!

[charlotteelisabeth]

So upset after such an awful AWFUL day. It's been an awful few weeks but today just topped it off. DS has been 'teething' since 8 weeks. HV said 'he can't be teething, he's too young' so took him to the doctor to check for ear infection etc and lo and behold doctor said he was teething. Now its been pretty constant since then with dribbling, sticking everything in mouth, fussy feeding, taking dummy out to chew on side and very questionable sleeping. He's 18 weeks this week and in the last 2 weeks he's started refusing naps and I mean not napping from 7am in the morning until he eventually goes down in the evening at about 11pm. I've tried EVERYTHING to get him to nap (motion etc, he just wakes when it stops). The screaming all day has also started - we had to come home from holiday early because I couldn't cope with the amount of screaming while not being in my own surroundings. About 4 days ago he cut tooth number one and today/yesterday number 2 has been coming through. I CANNOT STOP THE SCREAMING :-( I feel for him so so much but nothing I do seems to help. Doctor said Nurofen, and teething gels... i've tried: teething granules, anbesol, teething gels, teethers (although he's only just managed to navigate them to mouth), frozen/chilled teethers, frozen/chilled muslins, distractions, car rides, walks in the pram, nurofen and calpol. Is there anything else I can try?!?!?!?!? and does this get better :-( My mum checked and I got my first tooth at 3.5 months so I'm not surprised he is early too, it's just SO hard.

Bless you, have you got some support first of all from friends and family? If not, local groups can be of great help to get you out and get some advice and a shoulder to cry on.
That does sound quite early for a baby to be teething so that may be why he is struggling and so unsettled. Your baby is the exact age mine were at their most unsettled - we called it colic but who the hell knows.
Does he have a temperature or just VERY upset and unsettled?

No, I do keep checking temperature as people keep saying it sounds like an ear infection but nothing. I always check before I give any calpol to make sure there's not something else going on as well. His eyes are so red from where he is SO tired. He's gone from having 3/4 naps a day (including one 2 hour one which I have to wake him from) to nothing! Whilst I may get upset and wonder 'when is this going to end' it's him I feel for. Having all that pain and not understanding why or where it's coming from must be scary as well as painful .
I do a few baby classes so may speak to a few other Mums tomorrow. I know an element of the screaming is over tiredness but him not being able to go to sleep because of the pain. In the evenings he wakes after about 5 minutes high pitched screaming and that goes on for about 2-3 hours so I have to sit with him all evening getting him through the first part of sleep.
Arghhh I'm sure it'll get better

Can you take him swimming (warm pool anywhere nearby? or just get in the bath with him & have it deep enough for him to swim in)?

That and calpol might break the overtired pain cycle.

It's a shame more people haven't seen this as I'm sure other mums will have been through an early teether and be able to offer more advice than I can. What I would say is if you're concerned take him back to the GP and HV as mothers instinct counts for a lot. I feel for you both and hope he starts turning a corner with it soon.

There is a 4 month sleep regression, which may be making it wose. Sorry id swiimming suggestion above seems bonkers, but I have found it great as a way of relaxing DS enough to break through overtiredness.

Thank you all for the replies. I'm going to go to baby yoga this morning in the hope it calms him a bit and then later i'm loving the idea of the warm bath for him to swim around in - he loves swimming and bath time.
Here's to (hopefully) a better day!

Today's a new day and as with everything, this hard stage will pass, I hope that doesn't sound too patronising. Enjoy baby yoga and I would always put mine in a bath when they wouldn't calm down, when DD2 had a chest infection it was the only place she was happy.

Sorry you're having such a rough time. My daughter was the same no naps and started sleeping really badly around 4 mths. The one thing that helped was to carry her round in a stretchy sling and she would sleep in it. Also what about baby massage with a little lavender oil? There is a facial one you can do for teething.

Agree with Gillex- when all else fails - sling! We also did baby massage but not if she was ratty. Warm baths and baby wearing is great comfort to them and you. How was your day yesterday OP?

Yesterday was a better day. I decided I know best and if I know he needs a nap then I need to make sure he has one.. plus it means he sleeps through some of the teething pain. So I persevered and he had two good naps which was quite good. Still need to get the third one back as it meant he ended up having a 'nap' once I thought he'd gone down for the night and then we had a pretty horrendous night (down at 7.30 - early for him, should have known it was a nap! Up at 9.45, midnight, 1.30, 3, 4, 5,30). But hey you can't have everything and I'm going to tackle the napping again today. Both teeth have now fully cut so hoping the pain might ease!
Thank you all for all the suggestions. Unfortunately he has baby eczema and doctor said to limit baths however took your advice on lavender oil and combined it with the bath and his skin looked great when he came out and he really enjoyed it .

Honestly I had a nightmare when my daughter was that age! It will pass. By the way have you tried Aveeno for baby excema it's supposed to really work. Glad the lavender helped xx