Watching your baby go through the pain of teething is rough. Some babies are lucky, and just wake up with teeth, no prior fussiness. For others, teething is an excruciating period full of screaming and sleepless nights. Most babies, fall somewhere on this spectrum. Sometimes, I feel like Bastian came out of the womb teething. He started teething at 2.5 months old, so we expected him to get some teeth pretty early on. His first tooth didn’t cut through until the day he turned 7 months old, though, on Thanksgiving. He’s almost 10 months old now, and has 6 teeth, and currently pretty close to cutting two more.
Until these last two teeth that he cut last week, I felt like we’d had a very mild teething experience. There was some pain and definitely a few tears, but we didn’t feel like it was that bad. In fact, it still isn’t that bad. But there are a few things that we’ve done to relieve some pain and make the teething experience a less negative experience.
I actually get a lot of people commenting on the amber necklace that Bastian wears. Once we realized that Bastian’s fussiness when he was 2 months old, was actually teething, we ordered an Amber necklace. And he’s worn it ever since. We don’t have a lot of experience of Bastian teething without this necklace, so it’s hard to say how well it works. Bastian is a really well natured and happy baby, though, and we attribute a little of that to the necklace. Even if it’s just placebo, it works well enough for us haha. I’ve heard the most important thing is to make sure that the necklace is made with actual Baltic amber.
2. Chamomilla Teething Tablets
Our pediatrician recommended these teething tablets, and we used them a lot in the first few months. They’re natural, and don’t contain the benzocaine that many teething gels have, which was the main reason we got them.
3. Frozen pacifiers
We went through a lot of different types of pacifiers before we found some that Bastian really liked. When he’s having a particularly rough week and his mouth is really hurting, I put all of his “rejected” pacifiers in the freezer. I pull them out periodically and let him chew on them. We like these better than traditional freezeable teether toys, just because with the pacifiers, he doesn’t have to hold them and get his hands cold.
4. Essential Oils
We aren’t huge on essential oils, but there are a few that we really like and use often. We have an oil diffuser in Bastian’s room that we turn on everynight before he goes to bed. We’ve noticed a difference, albeit a small one, when we put him to bed without the diffuser. I like to put an oil blend we got from Oilo baby in his diffuser at night, that’s made of chamomile and lavendar. It’s supposed to calm him, and it works relatively well. I’ve also heard from a few mom friends that you can dilute melaluca oil and rub it on their gums, but this isn’t something I’ve tried myself.
5. Silicone teething toys
Of all Bastian’s teether toys, his favorite is a silicone and wooden bead teether clip we got from Hatchling Company. We put his pacifier on it and clip it to his clothes. He always has easy access to something to chew on if his mouth starts to hurt.