teething and paracetemol - a good idea and how much?

[Lucy123]

Dd (4 moonths) has been very narky for the last couple of days in the afternoons and evenings. She has just started solids ( 5 days ago), but that seemed to settle quite quickly. I think she's teething: she is producing super-human quantities of gob (sorry, saliva), her top gum is quite red and I can actually see the outlines of her two top front teeth. She's also sleeping more in the day more than usual (although she does this periodically anyway) and has started waking at night again. Actually the saliva and night-waking have been going on for about a week and a half now so i guess it could be a coincidence.

Anyway like I say I think it's teething, but how long does it go on for (worst case scenario)? I have been giving her a little baby-liquid-paracetomol stuff which seems to help, but I don't want to give her too much. Is that a good idea, or should I buy teething gel? Also I've lost the instructions to the liquid stuff - I remember the dose was 10 drops when she was 2 months but does anyone know if it should be more now? (obviously I've only been giving her 10 as I like to err on the side of caution).

Go for the teething gel /granules (we use Dentinox but there are all sorts available). They are quicker acting than a dose of Calpol as they have a local anaesthetic effect. You can add Calpol on top but I've really reserved that for more acute pain / fever. The effect of gel lasts long enough for them to settle back to sleep, assuming that is the problem.

As to how long it goes on it is as long as a piece of string... I'm afraid. It would be more usual to get the bottom front first though and I have found that our 2 have had less problems once the teeth have cut through. With dd the molars are causing more problems while they cut. Ds just seemed to dribble constantly for 18 months!!

Good luck,

LizS

Lucy123 my ds is 19wks and is doing exactly the same, dribbling like you wouldn't believe, waking at 5:30/6:00am when was previously sleeping until 7/7:30am (maybe this is due to something else i'm not sure) he gets really grumpy mid afternoon and his cheek is quite often bright red. He chews on everything in sight and always has his fists in his mouth if nothing else is available. I have also started solids which he took to before this started happening so I know it isn't down to wanting more food.

We do give him infant paracetamol at the moment when he gets really hot and irate and it seems to settle him. I haven't gone on to teething gel because I can only see the outline of his two front top teeth and nothing is yet piercing the gum. We were given a syringe to help give him the dosage (which is 2.5ml)

You live in Spain don't you Lucy123? I remember the liqiud paracetamol that you have to calculate the drops with. Calpol isn't available is it? Can you go ask the pharmacist what the appropriate dose is now for your daughter? And teething gel would be great, sorry I don't know the Spanish word/brand for this!

My dd is 6 month now and before she started teething she was sleeping well and really no problem at all, but now she wakes up constantly through the night and often in the early morning. To be honest with you, she now sleep in our bed pretty much all night and every time she wakes up, I just put her on the breast. Am not sure about this in the long term, but havn't got the energy any more to do anything else about it anymore. We havn't given her any paracetamol for ages now, as I havn't been sure that she really needs it. Although more sleep would be nice.....

Ok. I am knackered !!! DD had very bad teeth problems last night. She has been very good with her sleep recently, 6.45 to bed and 7 to rise but she was a nightmare last night. I was staying at my mum's with her and basically after going to bed at 6.45 she was then up at 9.30 and didn't go back to sleep until 3pm !! I gave her teething granules, Calgel, Dozol, I tried everything and she was just so tired and grumpy. Really trying to sleep but kept waking up screaming with pain.

I am sooo tired and sitting here at work in a daze

I hope it's not like that again tonight. I had more sleep than this even when she was newborn! Any suggestions on how else I can help her relieve the pain. I wondered if something else was wrong but everytime I took her out of the room she would be fine so I guessed it was just temper aggravated by teeth. I tried everything btw, in bed with me etc but she just kept dosing off and waking 10 mins later screaming.

Any advice from you fab ladies would be much appreciated...

You've probably already thought of this....but how about one of those teething rings you can put in the fridge. ds loves his and his teething keys (both from boots) and he just chews away all day. I don't like to give him too much paracetamol, but when he is really irritable and grumpy and waking up screaming like you described I always give him a dose just to get a good nights sleep (him as well as us) Hope it doesn't last too long for you like this!

We've found that Nurofen for Children is much better than Calpol for teething. You can't give it before 6 months old and also is taken in smaller doses, up to 3 times a day. It just seems to have an almost immediate soothing effect on our dd.