Teething Trauma - Help

[Chiccadum]

Can anyone out there give me any tips for a teething 10month old, she is cutting one of her back teeth and the poor mite is in a lot of discomfort, she is full of cold and that is not helping things in the slightest.

The thing is she will not open her mouth for anything to be put on her gums and I don't want to feel as though I am giving her too much calpol or nurofen. The only reason I know she is cutting that tooth is that whilst she was screaming (obviously in pain) I saw that it was nearly through and the gum was bleeding slightly.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Chiccadum, have you tried homoeopathic teething powders? They can be got at Boots, taste slightly sweet (our son used to call them Baby Sherbet) and have chamomile powder in them. It's a generally calming herb and these did seem to help him when teething.
Coincidentally another ingredient of the powders is xylitol, a natural sugar derivative of silver birch bark, and there is some evidence to suggest that xylitol is an effective natural antibacterial substance. So they might also help with dd's cold.
Robinw, a regular here, posted about it a couple of years ago, and I followed her advice about using a children's xylitol toothpaste for ds (Boots own brand with the crocodile on has it in). Since then, touch wood, ds has not had a single infection needing antibiotics. He'd had three in his first year of life. It's good stuff.

Camamilla! (I think thats the way its spelt)
It's the main ingredient in 'Teetha' powders, it comes in a little brown bottle from the health food shop. Having said that, I've just looked at the bottle and I got it from the pharmacy.
It is a little bottle of joy and it saved our lives. It did the trick for our DS and it's also natural.
Sleep tight!

My dd is also miserable with teeth at the mo. I use homeopathy, so she's having chamomilla regularly, but if she had a temperature with it, or was obviously really in pain and unable to get to sleep I wouldn't hesitate to give her calpol - it works better than the homeopathy ! Better at night than in the day though as it does seem to leave them (or mine at least) a bit dopey afterwards. hth ... Good Luck !

Hi, I have been making a bottle with either Aniseed tea or South African Rooibos Tea (Redbush). Both seem to have soothed my son and might have not taken away the pain, but certainly calmed him down. Both are herbal teas which are 100% safe for babies. Hope this is of some help and good luck.
Regards

I was also wary of using loads of calpol so erred on the side of madness and gave dd nothing. We were in South Africa in September last year (she was 10 months then) and my friends were horrified that I was giving her nothing, they reccommended Ashton & Parsons baby powders. Fabulous stuff, she stopped crying within 30 seconds of me putting it on her tongue. I now swear by the stuff and cannot imagine not having it in her toiletry bag.

I am pretty sure my dd is teething (13.5 months, first 6 teeth came through with no problems)and is at times beside herself with misery. This is mostly because she has a nasty cough which is waking her up, so she is very down on sleep. The thing I wonder about is that her breath seems to smell a bit different, not exactly bad, but something is odd about it. Could there be any connection between teething, coughing and bad breath? It doesn't seem to be connected with what she has had to eat.

When I posted this I said that dd2 was cutting one of her back teeth. How very wrong I was, she in fact cutting that one along with two of her bottom front teeth, so that makes her 3 times as grumpy

Has anyone had experience of their child cutting more than one tooth at once?

Yes, buy shares in Calpol and Nurofen now...

You could try Bickiepegs - these are teething biscuits which you can buy in Boots (displayed near the baby food in our branch) and probably in other pharmacies. They are quite good for back teeth because they can get them right to the backs of their mouths.

Gingernut, I'm glad you mentioned Bickiepegs, I have often thought about them but I'm a bit worried that dd2 might chew a bit off and choke or also that they go really snotty after being chewed on for a while.

Have you ever bought these, if so, what did you think?

Chiccadum, both my DSs waited until 10 months to get any teeth and by 12 months had all 8 front ones so yes, mine got lots at once. They were, however, fine with it despite both getting the middle bottom ones and then the outside top ones which is supposedly "more painful".

Calpol, Nuronfen and something with a nice sedative in it. Whenever I tried the Bonjela type things, I got bitten!!

Yes, I have bought them and give them to ds occasionally. Have never had a problem with him choking on a piece. They are incredibly hard and it is very difficult to break a bit off (I tried!). My ds used to chew on them for a bit then discard them in a soggy mess somewhere (it can be a bit revolting but they are so hard it's not as bad as a half-chewed ordinary biscuit), but the last 2 I have given him have actually been eaten (either that, or I just haven't found the soggy mess yet..)

Like any teether, they only give temporary relief from the problem but I would say it's worth a try. They generally keep my ds quiet for a bit.

You can use Nurofen and Calpol together - they don't interact, have totally different ingredients and you can give maximum doses of each together (obviously stick to the maximum doses of each). I think it's only humane and fair to do as much as you can to alleviate the pain, so I'm perfectly happy to dose ds up to the max with both while he's suffering. The doses for babies are very conservative so as long as you aren't overdosing, going to the max every night for a while won't hurt.

Medised also helps with pain and also with sleep - also Dozol We like it in our house ( very Royston Vesey...)

Can I just ask what the active ingredients are with Medised? ds has got a really bad cold atm which is dragging on and really disturbing his sleep - would like to try medised but need to know what I can / can't mix with it

Medised is paracetamol plus the sedating antihistamine diphenhydramine. It should not be given with any other paracetamol-containing products (e.g. Calpol).

Chemist didn't have the medised suitable for under-2s I have baby Piriton at home - would giving a dose of Piriton and a dose of Calpol do the same thing or would mixing the two be considered A Bad Thing [tm]

Also, isn't it bad to have antihystamine while you have a cold. I always thought that allergies were overreacting to allergens (i.e. your bodies defences on overkill). If your bodies defences are legitimately employed on cold destruction, isn't it a bad idea to surpress them using an antihystamine? Or am I missing something fundamental to how all this works?

I have a sneaky suspicion they don't do infant medised any more.

And the last couple of nights I have done exactly what you said GeorginaA - Calpol (well, Nurofen) and Piriton! DS2 has been disturbed at night by something (I assume teething as I've said somewhere or other) and I want him to get a good night's sleep.

I think the anitihistimine dries the cold up a bit? That's what I always assumed anyway! I only ever used it at night so I didn't see that it would cause a problem.

Thanks SoupDragon, I may try that... we're both a bit in need for sleep. He's cut his lunchtime nap right back to an hour now but then waking up really grumpy and miserable and needing constant cuddling. Then waking a couple of times in the night.

More than anything I need the break as well as him needing the sleep! Bit wary of using it for a lunchtime nap in case it makes him too sleep and again that interferes with his main sleep, but might dose him up with some Piriton tonight and hope for the best.

droopydrawers, I had same signs with baby, but took him to the dr anyway and it turned out that the bad breath is definantly a symptom of a viral or bacterial sore throat, which has nothing to do with the teething. Be on the safe side and take baby to dr. The signs that we have now are cranky, stinky running nappy and crying at night. He is cutting 3 teeth at the same time, but for sure without a doubt the molars are the worst! Has anybody used Stopayne? I use it and its fantastic, it's like calpol but stronger and has codiene in which helps the pain much better. There is one available for babies from 6 months. I find that calpol gives him terrible constipation.

Does anyone know wether it is ok to give Medised & Nurofen together? Can you use the teething powders aswell? Ds is cutting his first tooth and I'm not sure what I can & can't give him.

Viksy, I don't know about Medised as I have never used it but I know that you can used any form of paracetamol suspension, i.e, Calpol, with Nurofen as the calpol is a pain killer and the nurofen and anti-inflammatory. Also as long as the teething powders are herbal or suchlike then I would think it would be ok to use all of them together.

PS. Anbesol is very good and has a variety of uses.

As Medised is paracetamol based and has no ibuprofen and Nurofen is purely ibuprofen, it should be fine.

You can give Medised or Calpol or plain paracetamol with Nurofen. My dr prescribed this for ds's ear infection. Nurofen is stronger and longer lasting than calpol, so I use it instead most of the time. I bought some medised for under-twos very recently.

Thank you. Just another daft question, do you give it together or do you overlap(one of each every 2hrs).