Teething has long been the knee-jerk
diagnosis for a host of baby behaviors and symptoms. But in fact, for many
babies teething is not the major ordeal we've been led to believe it is. And
just as it's easy for an anxious parent to mistake teething symptoms for
illness, it's also easy to jump to the conclusion that your child is teething
when the truth is that she's ill.
When Do Babies Teethe?
Babies can start teething anywhere from 3 to 15 months, and they keep pushing
through new teeth until they're at least 18 months old; a baby's first set,
molars included, is usually complete at around age 2.
What Does Teething Look Like?
When experts refer to signs of teething, they mean the cluster of symptoms that
begin four days before a tooth erupts and end three days after the tooth has
broken the surface. While every baby experiences teething differently,
depending on the density of their gums, their temperament and their capacity to
handle pain, you can be pretty sure that yours will show these signs:
-
Drooling: The byproduct of a baby's saliva
production, drooling begins when a child is about 3 months old and lasts until
he's between 12 and 15 months old - more or less the same time period as
teething. Drooling is a classic symptom of your baby's teeth gradually pushing
toward the gum's surface, a process that can start months before the first
tooth's eruption. But the fact that your baby is drooling doesn't have to mean
that a tooth is coming in. Saliva is crucial for human digestion, and
researchers believe that all this early saliva production may actually help
babies' digestive systems to develop.
-
Facial Rash: Whether or not they are teething, babies
often have bumpy red rashes on their cheeks and chins - not surprising, given
all that drooling. Wipe your baby's lips and chin frequently to minimize
rashes.
Many babies also experience these symptoms:
-
Fever: The inflammation caused by tooth eruption may
be accompanied by a mild fever, but running a temperature is not a classic
teething symptom. Any fever of 101 degrees or more, say pediatricians, has
nothing to do with teething - even if your child is cutting a tooth at the same
time. Monitor and treat it as you would any other fever.
-
Diarrhea: The jury is still out on whether loose
stools are a symptom of teething or just a byproduct of a fledgling immune
system. If fever and/or vomiting accompanies the diarrhea, it's likely that a
virus is to blame.
-
Irritability: When irritability goes along with
swollen gums and drooling, and your baby's also rubbing his gums or biting, he
may well be teething. The irritability could become more intense in the middle
of the night, when distractions like parents, toys and meals are absent. But
since it could also be the result of illness, keep an eye out for any other
symptoms.
-
Ear Pulling: The pain that teething causes in the jaw
can transfer to the ear canal, and a baby will often pull on his ears in hopes
of alleviating it. But since ear pulling is also a telltale sign of an ear
infection, it's important to get a take on how strong the pain is. Teething
pain is dull in comparison to that of an ear infection, making a teething baby
far more distractible than one with an ear infection. If you can’t distract
your baby from daytime irritability and/or a fever accompanies the ear pulling,
chances are your child has an ear infection.
Trust Your Experience
The good news is that after a while, you'll be a pro at identifying when your
child is teething. Each baby has her own cluster of symptoms - or lack of them
- and they are likely to remain the same, tooth after tooth.