What's your experience with teething babies?
The teething stage had me in a tizzy!
When my daughter was around 5 months old, she suddenly changed! She was waking at night, became fussy while breastfeeding and started pushing away from the breast--- It was SO frustrating and I thought, "What happened to my baby!?"
I reached out to my Breastfeeding Peer Counselor and she was like, "It sounds like she could be teething, have you tried soothing her gums with a cooled teething toy before nursing?"
*Face palm* I hadn't even thought about teething!!! I felt so silly at the time, that the solution was something so simple!! But looking back, I'm super grateful for her guidance during such a flustering time! It seemed like the teething stage was never-ending, but it passed and she went on to breastfeed over 2 years!
Comments
I think this is really common, Ashley! Mom brain, mental load, stress, and sleep deprivation can definitely cause a lot of “face palms!” Lol!
My daughter didn’t have like aaaany issues with teething but my son, uffda. He was such a bear. We tried those teething tablets but I don’t think they did anything— and then come to find out they were recalled and taken off the shelf. Wish I had known. What worked best for him was when I’d wrap an ice cube in a cold wet rag. I’d tie it off with a hair tie or rubber band and let him chew away on it before nursing. (With supervision of course) Helped quite a bit!
The cold, wet rag trick works wonders!! Also, if I noticed white or red/inflamed areas in my babies' mouths, I would apply gentle pressure with my finger before nursing. Relieving that pressure decreased the chances they would bite down to relieve the pressure while nursing.
I used to freeze the teething toys and then read that the refrigerator is best! Frozen, hard items can bruise already swollen gums.
It's amazing that breastfeeding can soothe teething pain due to the natural painkilling properties in breast milk!
My daughter chomped down on me only twice but other than that I never had any big issues when she was teething. She never drooled any extra and wasn’t overly upset during the whole process. She definitely nursed more than normal but beyond that I didn’t really need to do any of the tips most would do. I did have some of those teething toys but beyond that I don’t have much advice to give in this area since we didn’t have a hard time with it.
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