Can teething really be this bad?

[Travellerintime]

And if so, what can I do about it?

DD (3) teethed really well with hardly any problems. Ds (6 months) seems to be really suffering. For the last month, he's woken up most nights sometime after 1am and been awake for up to an hour, moaning and groaning unable to get back to sleep. He's bf - often I offer a feed, but not even this will settle him.

After much speculating, I think it probably IS teething. He got two first teeth last week and is VERY gummy and chewy when he wakes in the night. He does try to go back to sleep but something stops him. Of course I have considered whether it's developmental waking, but it's been going on so long I think it can't be.

It's got worse this week though - last night he was awake for about 2 hours, and after that just slept for hour chunks.

Calpol doesn't seem to work. I've got an ibuprofen based med to use tonight - but I can't use this every night. Gels don't work, and teething powders seem to have limited effect. I'm considering cranial osteopathy.

Any advice? If it is teething how long could it go on for? And is there any truth (please) in the rumour that early teething hurts more than later teething.

This was our experience of the start of teething with DS. I can't compare early and later teething as he's only 11 months, but he would do exactly what you describe - wake up moaning and wriggling, unable to get back to sleep and unsettled when he eventually did nod off. It's a pattern that went on for (I'm really sorry about this, just being honest!) a couple of months. He goes through spells of it once in a while now but his 8th and 9th month were really tough going.

For what it's worth he's got 4 upper incisors and 3 lower ones now and he's been really good all week (apart from wind but that's another story). Bongela was the best thing for us - if you can get it on the right spot and get them off to sleep quickly it cuts out a lot of the writhing and struggling to nod off.

yes we had exactly the same. at its very worst i had to use the max of gel, calpol, ibuprofen around the clock just to keep him calm. i also co slept with him nestled up against me so i could easily shush him in the night so we all got a bit more sleep.

give him plenty to chew on in the day.

I am currently having this too With dd 5.5 mths.
Today she has been so unhappy/grizzly and not wanted to go down.
Think it's teething or wondering if it's ear infection ?

So it's not just us then. I had NO idea teething could be this bad. The odd thing though is that he is mostly quite chilled out by day - a lot of drooling and biting, but not that moany.

Same for us - dd was just awful with early teething - and tried so hard to go back to sleep but just couldn't. Ibuprofen did work better for her, but god, we had some horrible nights. If it's any consolation, her canines and molars seem to have caused her very little trouble at all - she's getting last molars just now, and I did give her some Nurofen tonight, but have hardly had the bottle out of the cupboard in months.

My ds appears to be a nightmare teether as well. My dd hardly seemed to notice her teeth coming in! It always seems to be worse at night, less distractions I suppose. I resorted to ibuprofen before bed for him tonight as he is waking up multiple times screaming and will only be fed back to sleep. I am ruddy knackered!

I sympathise, and it certainly sounds like our experience of teething with DS. He cut his first tooth at 19 weeks and is just building up to his last 2 molars at just over 2. It goes in patches but I'll be completely honest and the patches of broken nights = months with a maximum of a month good sleeping in between. At absolute worst times we give calpol and calprofen at 6pm, then bonjela at bedtime, then a dreamfeed of calprofen again when we go to bed. That would sometimes get him through till approx 4/5am so we would at least get some sleep. I can't sympathise with you enough because it is really tough. Just as other babies are settling down in to a good sleeping routine it feels like you're losing yours. But it's not constant, and it does get more manageable.

You could try 'calpol night', if he really is struggling to sleep. It has an ingredient that helps fall and stay asleep. My 14 month old is waking up often and doesn't fall asleep sometimes for two hours - I know he is teething, 4 teeth at the same time, so I give him 'calpol night' and it works. The other drug that does the same thing is Medised. Not to use often I think, but more as a last resort.

It sounds like acceptance is the only thing that's going to get us through this. Today I accepted that ds is officially a worse sleeper than dd ever was, and that we're likely to have broken nights for much much longer.

There is a lot to be said for acceptance, Traveller (was about to abbreviate your name to initials, but thought better of it). We felt a lot better when we decided we were in it for the long haul, and she is so so much better now (wakes at 5, but we can live with that!).

Just to reiterate. Yes, yes, yes, it relly can be this bad.

Poor DP has had a terrible morning with the grumpy child from hell who has slept a mere 15 minutes.

I've managed to get him to sleep now but only with the help of Mr Nurofen and now I'm off back to work.

I hate teething.

[been up since 3.40am emoticon]

Traveller - my DD started at 8 months after being a dream sleeper. Over night she woke up every 2/3 hours and it went on for a month. It was only when I looked at her gums that I realised that they were swollen with teeth.
I did use medised for a while but only when she was in unbearable pain. Think its been banned now for under 2's though. Now use nurofen.
I took her to my osteopath and think it helped - or at least calmed her down.
She's 14 m now and still has regular bouts of this. Canines and molars at the moment. Shes wonderful during the day, apart from dribbling on tap and raspberry blowing, but at night she has horrid nappy rash and grips onto her cheeks for dear life. She completely stops eating hwne she's teething too. I keep apples in the fridge and if she's up late get her to chew on them for a while, it really seems to comfort her. Try chunks of frozen banana too.
Obviously some babies get it worse than others - we've got the sensitive ones! All I can say is that you will get times when they go back to normal and sleep and eat.
Agree with Iaterosemaryconley, I hate teething (that name makes me giggle btw - especially if i imagine La Conley on a piece of extremely buttery toast).
Chat to osteo before booking session to see if they can help.