Teething hell! Medicine and sleep questions

[Yankunian]

At my wits end. My DD who is nearly 11 months has been suffering torments with teething. First four teeth came in with no major problems 7-8 months. But a week ago she developed a high temp with crying and clutching at jaw, biting fingers. There are a few bumps under the gums on the bottom but nothing that feels imminent.

She has gone from sleeping through and napping for 3 hours during the day to getting about 7 hours of broken sleep in a 24-hr periood. naps are out almost completely and she wakes up for hours in the middle of the night screaming in pain. Can the lack of sleep be harmful for her over a long period like this?

We have tried everything from teething gels, to elevating the top of her cot to frozen bananas in the baby feeder and while these do help, she wakes at 9 or tenpm and we have to give her paracetemol and ibuprofen, usually in a few staggered doses, just to stop the screaming. She eventually drops off at 3 or 4 after hours (!) of DH and I walking around with her on our shoulder.

This has gone on for 5 days now and I am worried that we are loading her up with so much medicine - we don't exceed daily reccomended doses but don't think you're meant to do this for more than a few days. Anyone?

You poor things. How high is the temp just out of curiosity? DS usually has a temp just one degree above normal when teething. Anything over 38.5 every day and I would be off to the doc to be on the safe side.

It does sound like teething but the temp would concern me if its high.

The temp was 38.5ish for 3 days so we took DD to dr who said she was fine... but this was before other teething symptoms started. Just wondering mainly about the prolonged lack of sleep and dosing with meds.

I've used calpol for over 3 weeks in the past .... but mainly kept it to evening and night doses. I did go to the docs at the time because of exactly your concern and they didnt see a problem with it at all. As she quite rightly said - would you go without pain relief if you were in pain?

Just one good nights sleep can help them cope so much better.

Only one other thing comes to mind - I think they can have 'night terrors' from around this age, and certainly nightmares. I dont know anything much about them but you may want to look into it.

Hope things get better for your DD soon.

my sister had a similar problem with her DS when he was teething and she finally resorted to Medised because no one in the house was getting any sleep including her DD, DH or the dog. She used it one night but left it for two nights before using it again. i know its not the best solution but if your DS needs sleep (and you and DH too) it might be worth a try

It was several years ago, but I was advised to use 'medised' instead of calpol - by a first aid trainer - as it contains a very mild sedative which helps them to sleep. DS was 11 mths at the time and it was actually the first time he slept through the night . I know guidelines regarding medicines for children have changed recently but this certainly helped us. Obviously I didn't use it all the time, but it got us through the teething phase, especially when the final back teeth came through. Good luck - am pleased won't have to go through all that again

Seriously - teething does not cause these high temperatures. It is far more likely to be an ear infection or a 'virus'.

Pop back to the GP to get her checked out.

You are fine on the medication front - they can take it for days / weeks on end if needs be.

When ds1 was teething, we used medised to ease his pain on the worst nights. Now it's no longer licensed for under 6's ds2 has to make do with alternate calpol and ibuprofen doses. However if this didn't help him, I would use a very occasional dose of Medised to help him. (I am aware that I will probably get flamed for this!).

Hope this passes for you soon OP.

Get back to your GP and explain the new symptoms and the sheer lack of sleep you are all getting, and especially the effect on your daughter. I'll lay money that if it's not any other cause (ears, throat etc) that he'll prescribe medised for you, so you wouldn't have any worries about it not being supported by your medical professional. My FIL is a GP and has happily prescribed medised even for the under six months in the past when the circumstances have been appropriate.

You just need to be aware that for some children medised has the very unfortunate effect of making them completely hyper rather than calmer. Though I understand this is much more common in older children.

As for 'loading her up' - you aren't, not at all. A) they really can take paracetemol and ibuprofen for weeks and weeks if necessary, and b) you are a kind and caring parent who has made an excellent judgement that their child is in severe pain and you are taking appropriate steps to eliminate that pain. I have never understood a total antipathy towards pain relief - yes it needs to be used cautiously and appropriately, but why, why, would I not want to alleviate my childs suffering when I am able to do so in said manner?!

Yes, ds had ear infection when I thought it was just teething..... would definitely take her to GP to get checked out....

Yes agree with the advice to take her back to your GP to check she doesn't have an ear infection. I had a similar post to yours a couple of months ago, asking if it was ok to give both Calpol and Calprofen as my DS was having a really bad time with what I thought was teething (here is the link NHS24 )

But I also took my DS to our GP and it turned out that he had a really bad ear infection and was prescribed anti-biotics