Teething !! advice needed please

[Leenie]

my DS is 6 months and starting to teeth, for the last 2 or 3 days he is having on off raised temperatures, between 37 and 38.5 degrees, cheeks are a little red and flushed also, he is also a little bit miserable in himself at night, he also has been shoving any thing he can get his hands on in his mouth to bite on,all the classic signs of teething i told myself. now, tonight i have googled 'teething symptoms' and it is saying that these are not teething symptoms and that temperature and redness/flushed cheeks are not signs of teething,but are signs of another illness, so i am now confused and a little worried, he does not seem to be ill, has anyone else got a little one teething at the moment (first teeth) that could share their symptoms with me please .

Teething symptoms, as far as I remember were:

red cheeks
baby "out of sorts"/grisly
high temp
biting everything/or putting everything into mouth
unsettled at night

You could try:
Nelsons Teetha (powder from Health shop or chemist)
Cold things (teething ring that has been in freezer)
let him chew on toothbrush
Crust of bread to chew on
Lots of TLC

Best thing I ever gave dd2 were sticks of cucumber, carrots and peppers straight from the fridge! She loved chewing on them and they seemed to really cool her little gums.

They do say officially that teething does not cause problems other than the immediate pain of teething. Most Mums disagree.

My dd with every tooth has been out of sorts, mild temp, flushed cheeks and a nappy rash. The nappy rash always appeared just as the tooth was breaking through and was gone again within 24hrs.

Leenie much sympathy it sounds like teething to me, DS2 is doing the same things and in the end I gave him some calpol and he settled down.

oh i'm so glad i found this thread, my lo is exactly the same age and has a slight fever (just over 38) right now. she seems fine in herself although a bit sleepy after an unsettled night.

rosy cheek (just one side!), hot and bothered, a little bit grizzly, continuing slightly rank nappies and touch of nappy rash, but mostly her usual happy self.

was wondering whether should take her to the doc's but she seems fine, i'm not worried really but because they always say it doesn't cause i fever i wondered if i was being irresponsible. i will trust to the collective wisdom of mumsnet instead!

My Ds has been teething for what seems like an age! I know they say they don't get temp etc but he does/has and so has a huge number of children i've looked after at nursery. Interestingly saw a paediatric doctor on wed (for something else not teething - i'm paranoid but not that bad and he even mentioned teething as temps etc.

Ashtons and parsons teeting powders seem to help loads (his little red cheeks go down anyhow!)

That's teething and no mistake. Poor little bugger. All the advice above is good. I've always gone for Calpol too but that's because I'm too idle to have anything else in the house.

We're having this just now but mine's 18 months hence the rather un-fazed attitude (wait till you've had a year of it on and off)

I took my DS to the GP when he was that age after 4 days of really bad teething with fever. It's always good to make sure it's not an illness if the fever goes on for more than a few days. For us, it was just teething. At 11 months, he continues to have bad episodes, but they are less frequent and don't last as long.

Also, I found Nurofen to be more effective for teething as it's an anti-inflammatory. Ask your GP, as you can use both Calpol and Nurofen at the same time if it's really bad.

following on from the above, ds has still got a temperature, i have given him calpol a couple of times through last night, he fluctuates between 37 and 38.5, he also has a little rash around the neck and collar bone, i have done the tumbler test and it does disappear, i also rang NHS direct last night who said if he gets worse to call them back, has anyone elses little one got rashes whilst teething

I would pop along to doctors, sounds like a virus to me. Rash could be from getting hot and sweaty but best to get it checked out.

Oh, happy to see this thread. I'm in exactly the same situation with DS. He's almost 6 months and has the exact same symptoms as Leenie & Babyphat (don't mention the smell from the nappies, oi oi oi!)
I bought some Calgel the other day because it was the only thing the chemist had, I've never heard of Nelson's powders, will check them out.
Leena, the rash could just be from all of the excess drool collecting around his neck and making his clothes damp. If your DC is anything like mine then there will be an awful lot of it!
Will be watching for more advice...

My DD is now 19 months are we are waiting for the last four molars.

During her 13 months of teething she had everything in the book (slight fever, red cheeks, chewing on everything which can't run away, not eating, eating only cold stuff, not drinking, nappies really, really bad, nappy rash). Some teeth came without any symptoms but the majority had at least some of the above mentioned.

I try to limit Calpol for nighttimes or for the day the teeth break through (for her the worst). On other days she gets Ashton & Parson powder and bonjela.

You could get him checked out by the GP, just for sake of your mind.

ds is 3 now but we had months of what we called 'power teething', 3 or more at the same time.

What you describe does sound like teething, but I would take ds to docs just in case.

We found nurofen was better for the pain and it worked very quickly.

not completely on topic, but a piece of really good advice from my hv was putting teething gel on before I fed him, it really helped with pain of the spoon rubbing on his gums. Dentinox was good as it can be applied every 15 minutes.

thanks for all the advice, he is much better today temp is back to normal and he is laughing again, still refusing bottle feeds, but breast feeding like theres no tomorrow and just had 2 banana rusks with milk and ate it all so he must be feeling hungry again . i think you are right about the rash nezzi cos he is soaking through his bibs in no time, thanks again x

Mummywannabe thanks for the pointer re the teething powders. I've never heard of them before but they seemed to do the trick.
And with ref to the saliva around the neck, I use Tommee Tippee milk feeding bibs, they're padded around the neck so they absorb more drool and he doesn't get as wet. They're overpriced but they do help!