Although Dr. Denmark says there are no symptoms of teething, I am always hearing moms talk about their baby having horrible pain because of teething. With my daughter, she hardly showed any signs of teething so I was leaning more towards Dr. Denmark’s opinion of the matter. However, with my son, that is not the case. He has had a few episodes of “teething” over the past few months… but nothing compared to this last week.
For three nights in a row, he literally screamed for about 5 hours during the night. Nothing could calm him down. He wanted me to hold him but continued to scream out in pain and do the horrible “arching of the back” that all moms know too well. I could not figure out what was wrong with him, because I had never seen him like this. Finally on the third day, I felt around in his mouth, and he had 1 huge bump (at least 1-2 cm) on each side protruding through his gums. Finally on the 5th day, a little white started showing on both sides. And, my son was back to normal. It was night and day.
I don’t have any answers, but the only thing that would calm our son down was a nice long warm bath.
We have also used Hyland’s teething tablets. I have heard many people swear by these, but I haven’t really seen a big difference when we used them. I had to throw mine away because of the recall. Anyone know if they are safe again?
We have also used Hyland’s teething gel. Again, we haven’t seen this do a lot to help the pain.
Also, doctors recommend baby motrin instead of baby tylenol for teething because the motrin lasts longer throughout the night.
I would love to hear your thoughts on teething and what has worked for your children!
Does anyone have any advice about an immense about of spit up? Grant, my 11 week old, was just given a prescription for Zantac for acid reflux. He doesn’t have any projectile vomiting, just large puddles. I really don’t want to put him on medication but am not sure where to go from here. I have tried holding him in an upright position for 20 minutes after he eats and I have also tried Gripe water which doesn’t seem to be helping. Advice?
Hi Ansley. Just a few ideas. How close are your little ones feedings? Sometimes it helps to allow the young tummy to completely empty before adding “new” milk into the stomach.
Another idea might be that your little one has a problem digesting the particular milk. You didn’t mention if you are breast feeding or formula. I’ve seen Dr. Denmark have alot of success with babies that have alot of problems with spitting up, by changing their formula, or having mama change a bit of her diet. One particular family found that goats milk worked better than regular formula.
These are just a few ideas. Maybe by defining a few more details we can help you tweek some strategies.
Thanks so much for the reply. I breastfeed Grant, exclusively, every 3.5-4 hours. So, I think his stomach has enough time to empty but he still seems to spit up so much. The dr said if it is like puddles and dribble then it is probably reflux.
He turns 12 weeks this Saturday so I will start introducing foods to him soon and I wonder if that will help to keep his milk down. I have a reflux problem myself though I don’t take anything for it and try to manage it with the way I eat. My father has a severe one as well and takes Prevacid for it. So, I wonder if it is just something he has inherited? Again, I know that God is sovereign over everything, including science, and if my baby needs something to make him feel more at ease I am willing to try it. I just want to make sure that it is truly necessary before we start.
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Yes, it sounds like your little one has enough time between meals to empty.
That’s a good thing. Humm..I’m afraid I’m at a loss for a breastfed infant. I, too, have terrible heartburn and I often laugh that water can give me heartburn. I discovered that heartburn is serious enough to treat b/c it damages the esophagus. Left untreated for years (in adults) it can result in more serious consequences. So as much as I don’t care for meds, I can’t seem to get mine under control with diet (ironically I haven’t had soda in years), and I also watch my portion sizes, but nothing helps so I do take a prescription.
Maybe someone else can possibly suggest something. You are a very thoughtful mom.
Thank you for your encouragement! Anyone else out there have any thoughts?
Hey Ansley,
My son Bradford did the same thing. He threw up like crazy after I fed him, so bad that anyone that we were around would comment on it– but it didn’t seem to bother him. The doc said if it didn’t make him upset, that it was okay. He grew out of it around 8 months. He was also given a prescription, but I was hesitant to give it to him, just like you. Out of desperation, I gave it to him for 2 days and he seemed to throw up a lot more than normal. So I didn’t give it to him anymore after that.
Dr. D says when you are nursing, to stay away from milk products, citrus and chocolate.
I think that if he isn’t bothered by it, and he is gaining weight normally then he should be fine! (as long as it doesn’t last forever!)
keep us updated. I hope he grows out of it soon!
Well, we have decided to let him take the Zantac for a month to see if it helps. I am pretty diligent about staying away from dairy, citrus and chocolates while nursing and have run out of other possibilities of causes! I talked to another friend and she said, “If your baby is in pain or struggling and if you believe that God uses people and is the Creator of all life and science then trust Him with the science your dr is using to try to help your baby!” I think I had gotten to the point where I was living out of fear instead of out of love. So, I am feeling the freedom to try the medicine and if it help, then that is wonderful! And, if it doesn’t, then I tried!
Thanks for the encouragement!
Good for you. When possible, always try to relieve a physical issue with changing diet, routines, etc, but when everything has been tried then never worry or apologize or even feel badly for taking what God has given us. We are so fortunate to live in a time when we have everything that is good available to us.
Keep us posted on how well he does!!
A similar thing happened to my girl. One night out she just cried all night long until I finally gave her some advil. This was completely out of the ordinary. No fever or signs of anything. The next day, I was digging a crumb out of her mouth and noticed all four of her gums were very swollen where her first molars would be. I suppose her gums all plumped up in the same night because she didn’t seem bothered after that. So in our case we never noticed any pain with the front teeth only the first molars. Haven’t made it to the second ones yet…
In reply to Ansley’s baby spitting up, my 15th month old still spits up and she’s been on pureed food since 3 months old. She was prescribed zantac as an 8 week old baby but I never gave it to her because I learned she was a happy spitter. She wasn’t so much crying about her tummy hurting, I determined. Plus I learned that zantac doesn’t reduce the spit up, it only reduces the acid in the stomach so that it doesn’t hurt as much when it comes up. Again I didn’t feel this was the case with Rylee since she was a ‘happy spitter’. That took time to determine because when they are so young they cry about so many different things. I recently took her to a GI specialist because of her still spitting up at this age and he confirmed my decision that there was no need to have given her zantac all this time if she is not in pain. He says she still could outgrow it by 18 mths and if she hasn’t we will be back to see him. Good luck and momma knows best!