TEETHING: is it true that teething only produces teeth and no other symptoms??

[SydneyB]

DD, nearly 7 months, has had a week or so of snotty nose, green watery poo, nappy rash and generally a bit under the weather and the nursery tell me she's definitely teething. But on other hand, other people say this is just other stuff going on and that teething produces no symptoms in itself. Just curious as to what other peoples experience was? No sign of actual teeth yet!

a lot of my friends report all these symptoms when there children are teething

especially the nappy rash mine always get the cold

Everything you're describing sounds like symptoms of teething to me.

Definitely general run down symptoms in my DD when teething - runny nose, skin in not such good condition, slight upset tummy

My GP doesn't acknowledge the symptons of teething but I've had 3 babies now and all of them have had the same symptons immediately prior to a new tooth breaking through. Sounds like teething to me

runny bottoms, red cheeks...

Yep, it's bollocks along the lines of 'PMT is in the head'. So many doctors insist it's coincidence but it can't be. I don't know what's wrong with admitting it

Classic teething - does the poo smell a bit vomitous? That's teething

Flaming. Yes actually it really does.. Relieved you all agree. And Phoenix, exactly. Surely generations of women can't be wrong? DD also seems a little off her food and milk and generally irritable around it.

teething symptoms

high temp
runny poo
dribble
red cheeks
general bad mood
bad sleep
snotty nose

must be horrid to be a teething baby - all that pain and you can't explain it to anyone.

ds4 was voilently sick twice the other day.
I went into pull panic mode thinking he a was properly ill only to disciver a toot just about to poke through his gum the next day.

Ds2+3 were always sick when teething too.

have a look at this
i've got to say that since i read it, my dd's teething symptoms seem to have really calmed down...

Toxic poo, night time cough, whingy, red cheeks, dribble.

Yup

Teething - why doctors/HVs don't admit it I don't know.

my take is that teething by itself doesn't cause any other symptoms apart from sore mouth and dribbling BUT it a) makes them more run down and b) makes them put loads of things in their mouths a)+b) means they are more vulnerable to low grade infection

I've no idea where these idiots get off, claiming teething symptoms are just mothers being stupid. How rude! Yes, any of those symptoms individually can be caused by something else, so you can't just put any miserable-ness down to teething. But teething does produce real symptoms in real babies that are common to most teething babies.

I think the 'teething is all in the parent's mind' brigade are the same idiots who thought until very recently that it was OK to carry out medical procedures on tiny babies without anaesthetic.

Ah, but witch, excess saliva also causes runny bottoms, IMO and IME. Hence the nappy rash.

anyone read my link, then? LOL where's vvv when i need her?

I just did! Hmmm, not sure what I think now..

Where can I get me some of them hare brains then? Sounds like the very dab.

good work LL. if only i'd thought of that. dd is cutting two teeth right now and her nappy was the same as ever it was. a bit stinker, maybe, but i'm putting it down to the chilli she ate. (so was dh's after all...)
the bit about lancing the gums... and what was it? 12% of under fives in london dying of teething?

You can't expect mothers to know about what symptoms their babies get. You need a medical expert for that. Ask any HV.

Blooming cheeck

I'm actually pretty impressed that any of them survived having leeches put in their mouths, various bits of animal offal applied to their gums and being given wolves' teeth to chew on. Babies are obviously pretty hardy creatures!

Mine always had such symptoms when teething (Oh god, the nappies!). Some medical staff will tell you the two things are unconnected, which is a little alarming since it happened with all three children+ everyone else's child we know.

aaah, but what about proper research with hundreds of babies? can't they tell? i was speaking to a govt adviser on this subject (as you do) and he said that babies need to get loads of bugs to build immunity, and that's what we think of as teething. why don't the teeth age 5 make kids keel over? they're much bigger, much more jaw-expanding teeth...