Teething = bad sleep!

[wifey6]

Hi...my DS has always been a bad teether... He suffers so badly. I use Calpol & teething granules...which are fine during the day....but he wakes several times in the night screaming & his cheeks are bright red. Am I missing something? I would really appreciate any advice please.

My son was really bad while teething. The only thing you can do is to comfort them. I found that on my son the childrens nurofen (from 3 months) works much better than calpol. You can try teething gel, but i didnt find it very effective. Try feeding him just before bed as well, and avoid giving them any painkillers during the day and it will work better of a night. Try putting them down with their favourite soft toy ( or yours), i find that if my son cant sleep, i can just give him my eeyore and then he's fine and is now fine teething ( although grouchy during the day). It will get better, and it feels terrible because i felt completely helpless. Good Luck and i hope your baby feels better soon.

Sounds like I'm doing everything right... Thank you ellenandbump... Just feel very hopeless! Thank you very much

how old is your baby? mine is 3 months old and has started teething in the past week. he is ok during the day but he whimpers/cries in his sleep all night. i give him his dummy when he does this but as soon as it falls out he starts crying again in his sleep. any advice on what i should do? he hasnt woken up at all during the cries at night. and i dont want him to as he has been sleeping so well through the night since he was 5 weeks! but this restless sleep and noise while he is asleep means me and my partner get no sleep at all.

the dilemma is whether to keep giving him his dummy while he is asleep so he doesnt wake up.... or stop giving it to him and hope he learns to self-soothe or find his hand to suck (which he does during the day) but run the risk of him waking himself up then...

Calprofen (baby ibuprofen) works better IME than calpol for bad teething.

Also could it be wind? Sometimes I think DS has more wind when teething.

omri...my DS is 16 months & started teething at 3.5 months. Sometimes he can spit the dummy out & be fine..other nights...he cries. So what I have started to do is limit dummy use during the day & at any nap time so hopefully he won't miss it too much at night. I would also try other methods of soothing..my DS has a comforter which really helps...& parting / rubbing his back gently sometimes helps aswell. iggly...I agree with the bad wind.. DS has it worse when teething.

Baby Nurofen, does work better on teething than calpol does, probably because calpol is a painkiller and nurofen is a painkiller and an anti inflammatory. If it could be wind try taking the baby out in a pram and bouncing them over rough ground. It was the only thing that worked when my son had bad colic. ( i tried it cos it works on horses) Also sometimes distraction works. you could always try leaving some music on or sleep with your baby's favourite teddy so it smells of you and then give it back. Sometimes if they can smell mum they will self soothe easier. ( i had to carrymy little ones teddy around with me all day so it got my smell cos he would only stop crying if i was cuddling him.) Any way good luck, and bear in mind it does get easier, my little boy is teething toobut is 18months and it doesnt seem to bother him any more but the last lot of teething was the worst, but only lasted a couple of days.

thanks wifey6 i'll try that. i have just started getting him to hold his blankey when he goes to sleep so hopefully that will become a comfort for him.

omri...that's ok...you are very welcome. Hope it works for you both.

Watching this with interest. Also have a distressed teether (5mo DS - 1 tooth cut, 1 nearly there). I was thinking a blankie/soft toy might be a comfort, as have literally tried EVERYTHING else. I will give it a whirl tonight.

Good luck queenofthehill....my DS has had his since 7 months & it's only used as a nap/bedtime trigger & it works well for us. I'm glad we could offer some help & wish you luck with it. Tesco have a great range of 'comforters'.