When do babies typically start teething. What are the common signs and symptoms of teething. How can parents soothe a teething baby’s discomfort. Are there any safe remedies for teething pain.

Understanding Baby Teething: Timing and Development

Teething is a natural process that every baby goes through as their first set of teeth begin to emerge. While the timing can vary greatly from one child to another, it’s essential for parents to understand the typical timeline and what to expect.

When Do Babies Usually Start Teething?

Most babies begin teething around 6 months of age. However, it’s important to note that this can vary significantly:

• Some babies may start teething as early as 3-4 months
• Others might not see their first tooth until after their first birthday
• In rare cases, some babies are born with teeth (natal teeth)

Is it possible for a baby to start teething at 2 months? While uncommon, it’s not unheard of. Early teething can occur, but it’s always best to consult with a pediatrician if you suspect your 2-month-old is teething, as some symptoms can mimic other health issues.

The Typical Order of Tooth Eruption

Understanding the usual order in which baby teeth appear can help parents know what to expect:

1. Bottom incisors (bottom front teeth): Usually emerge around 5-7 months
2. Top incisors (top front teeth): Typically appear at 6-8 months
3. Top lateral incisors (next to front teeth): Often emerge at 9-11 months
4. Bottom lateral incisors: Generally appear at 10-12 months
5. First molars: Usually come through at 12-16 months
6. Canines: Typically emerge at 16-20 months
7. Second molars: Often appear at 20-30 months

By the time a child reaches 2.5 to 3 years old, they should have all 20 of their primary teeth.

Recognizing the Signs and Symptoms of Teething

Identifying teething symptoms can help parents provide appropriate comfort and care for their babies. While every child experiences teething differently, there are some common signs to watch for:

Common Teething Symptoms

• Swollen, tender gums
• Increased drooling
• Irritability or fussiness
• Difficulty sleeping
• Loss of appetite
• Gnawing or chewing on objects
• Rubbing their face or pulling their ears
• Mild temperature elevation (less than 101°F or 38.3°C)

Can teething cause fever in babies? While teething may cause a slight increase in body temperature, a true fever (temperature above 101°F or 38.3°C) is not typically associated with teething and may indicate an illness requiring medical attention.

Distinguishing Teething from Illness

It’s crucial for parents to differentiate between teething symptoms and signs of illness. If your baby experiences any of the following, it’s best to consult a healthcare provider:

• High fever (above 101°F or 38.3°C)
• Diarrhea lasting more than 2 days
• Vomiting
• Rash other than facial rash or diaper rash
• Cough or congestion
• Unusual drowsiness or lethargy

Soothing Techniques for Teething Babies

When your baby is experiencing discomfort from teething, there are several safe and effective methods to provide relief:

Safe Teething Remedies

• Gently massage your baby’s gums with a clean finger or moistened gauze pad
• Offer a cold washcloth or chilled teething ring for your baby to chew on
• Provide safe, chilled teething toys (avoid frozen ones as they can be too hard)
• If your baby is eating solids, offer cold foods like chilled applesauce or yogurt
• Use over-the-counter pain relievers like acetaminophen or ibuprofen (with pediatrician approval)

Are there any natural remedies for teething pain? Some parents find success with natural options such as chamomile tea (cooled and used to massage gums) or diluted clove oil. However, always consult with your pediatrician before trying any natural remedies to ensure they are safe for your baby.

What to Avoid

While seeking relief for your teething baby, it’s important to be aware of potentially harmful remedies:

• Avoid teething gels containing benzocaine, as they can lead to a rare but serious condition called methemoglobinemia
• Steer clear of homeopathic teething tablets, as their safety and efficacy have not been proven
• Never tie a teething necklace around your baby’s neck, as it poses a choking hazard
• Avoid giving your baby hard foods that could be a choking risk

Maintaining Oral Hygiene During Teething

As your baby’s teeth begin to emerge, it’s crucial to establish good oral hygiene habits early on:

Caring for Baby’s First Teeth

• Clean gums with a soft, damp cloth after feedings
• Once teeth appear, brush gently with an infant toothbrush and a rice-sized amount of fluoride toothpaste
• Avoid putting your baby to bed with a bottle to prevent tooth decay
• Schedule your baby’s first dental visit by their first birthday or within six months of their first tooth appearing

How often should you brush a teething baby’s gums? It’s recommended to clean your baby’s gums at least twice a day, especially after feedings and before bedtime. This helps remove bacteria and gets your baby accustomed to the routine of oral care.

Nutritional Considerations During Teething

Teething can sometimes affect a baby’s eating habits. Here are some tips to ensure your baby maintains proper nutrition during this time:

Adapting Feeding Practices

• If breastfeeding, be patient with any changes in nursing behavior
• For bottle-fed babies, experiment with different nipple flows to find what’s most comfortable
• Offer cold foods if your baby is eating solids (e.g., chilled fruit purees)
• Provide extra fluids to compensate for increased drooling

Should you change your baby’s diet during teething? While it’s not necessary to make significant changes, offering softer foods and cooler temperatures can help soothe sore gums. Always ensure that any food given is age-appropriate and doesn’t pose a choking hazard.

When to Seek Professional Help

While teething is a normal process, there are times when it’s appropriate to consult a healthcare provider:

Reasons to Contact Your Pediatrician

• If your baby seems to be in severe pain
• If teething symptoms are accompanied by high fever, diarrhea, or vomiting
• If you notice any signs of infection in the gums
• If teeth are not emerging in the expected order or timeline
• If you have concerns about your baby’s overall oral development

How can you tell if teething pain is severe enough to warrant medical attention? If your baby’s discomfort seems excessive, interferes with eating or sleeping for an extended period, or is accompanied by other concerning symptoms, it’s best to consult your pediatrician for guidance.

Understanding Teething Myths and Facts

There are many misconceptions about teething that can lead to unnecessary worry or inappropriate treatments. Let’s clarify some common myths:

Debunking Teething Myths

• Myth: Teething causes high fevers
  Fact: Teething may cause a slight temperature increase, but high fevers are not a typical teething symptom
• Myth: Teething causes severe diarrhea
  Fact: While some loose stools can occur, severe or prolonged diarrhea is not associated with teething
• Myth: Early teething indicates advanced development
  Fact: The timing of teething is not related to a baby’s intelligence or physical development
• Myth: Amber teething necklaces provide pain relief
  Fact: There’s no scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of amber necklaces, and they pose a choking hazard

Do all babies experience teething pain? The intensity of teething discomfort varies greatly among babies. Some may seem to sail through the process with minimal issues, while others may experience more noticeable discomfort. Every baby’s experience is unique.

Long-term Dental Health Considerations

While focusing on immediate teething concerns, it’s also important to consider your child’s long-term dental health:

Setting the Foundation for Healthy Teeth

• Establish a routine of regular dental check-ups
• Teach proper brushing techniques as your child grows
• Limit sugary foods and drinks to prevent tooth decay
• Consider fluoride treatments as recommended by your dentist
• Be aware of potential orthodontic needs in the future

When should a child have their first dental x-ray? The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends that children have their first dental x-ray around age 5 or 6, or when their adult teeth begin to come in. However, this can vary based on individual needs and dental health history.

Teething is a significant milestone in your baby’s development, and while it can be challenging, understanding the process can help you navigate this phase with confidence. Remember that each child’s teething experience is unique, and what works for one may not work for another. Stay patient, attentive to your baby’s needs, and don’t hesitate to seek professional advice when necessary. With proper care and attention, you can help ensure that your baby’s first teeth come in healthy and strong, setting the stage for a lifetime of good oral health.

How To Spot When Your Baby Is Teething

When it comes to teething, all babies are different. But your baby will probably get their first tooth sometime before their first birthday. Although rare, some babies are born with teeth. These are called Natal teeth. Other babies may start teething before they are 4 months old, and some after age 1. But in general, most babies start teething at around 6 months. If you have been noticing your baby’s gums are inflamed, or rounded…getting extra puffy, or spot bleeding, it may just be a matter of weeks to a month before you see a pearly white baby tooth starting to poke through. When your baby is teething, you’ll notice other signs, along with swollen gums and excessive drooling. 

• Teething babies will often try to gnaw and chew on anything they can get in their mouths. 
• If your baby’s teething pain crosses over to their ear canal, you may find them tugging at their ears too, or shaking their head from side to side as if they are gesturing no no no.
•  You might even notice a change in their eating habits, depending on how the pressure of sucking down milk or chewing on foods makes them feel. Some babies may want to drink more milk than eat solids, while other babies may do the opposite.
• Your baby may have a mild temperature of 38C
• They may have 1 flushed cheek
• They may have a rash on their face
• Your baby may have a diarrhea
• They may experience difficulty sleeping or staying asleep
• Your baby may be overly fussy or cranky

So you might ask, what can I do to ease my baby’s discomfort?

• Gently massage your baby’s gums with a clean finger, knuckle, or finger wisp, or moistened gauze pad.
• Hold a cold washcloth, spoon, or chilled teething ring on your baby’s gums.
• Use plastic or BPA-free toys that are chilled — never frozen solid (ouch!)
• Offer cold foods like chilled slices of cucumber, frozen pancakes, or waffles, chilled applesauce, yogurts, or pureed fruits if your baby is already eating solids. These are great ways to reduce pain, learn to chew, and enjoy new foods at the same time — but always keep a watchful eye on them, because some foods could be a choking hazard.
• Use occasional over-the-counter baby Tylenol or ibuprofen, with your pediatrician’s OK.
• Avoid Orajel since they are not meant to be ingested and with excessive drooling, it is unlikely that the Orajel will adhere to their gums.

When my baby’s teeth start to arrive, what can I expect to see? Great question! Here’s a loose guide:

• bottom incisors (bottom front teeth) – these are usually the first to come through, usually at around 5 to 7 months
• top incisors (top front teeth) – these tend to come through at about 6 to 8 months
• top lateral incisors (either side of the top front teeth) – these come through at around 9 to 11 months
• bottom lateral incisors (either side of the bottom front teeth) – these come through at around 10 to 12 months
• first molars (back teeth) – these come through at around 12 to 16 months
• canines (between the lateral incisors and the first molars) – these come through at around 16 to 20 months
• second molars – these come through at around 20 to 30 months
• Most children will have all of their baby teeth by the time they are 2 1/2 years old.

You should make your child’s first dental visit around their first birthday. For tips on how to care for your baby’s teeth, book an appointment with Dr. Anderson at Sprout Kids Dentistry today at 617-328-1700.

Dr. Anderson

Dr. Michelle Anderson is a pediatric dentist board certified by the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry.

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Teething truths: Signs, symptoms and when baby may be sick

Teething can be a challenging time for parents and baby, and the true signs and symptoms are sometimes misunderstood.

Dr. Aaron Van Ningen, a pediatrician at the Sanford Children’s North Clinic in Bismarck, North Dakota discusses what’s going on in your baby’s mouth.

Understanding teething

Teething is a normal developmental stage and involves the process of teeth growing and then breaking through the gums. Teeth begin to develop while a baby is in the womb, with tooth buds forming in the gums. Once developed, they break through the gums, which can take months.

When do babies start teething?

Usually the first teeth begin to break through between the ages of 5 to 7 months. However, some babies experience it earlier or later. In fact, though rare, a baby can be born with one to two teeth, and some babies do not get their first tooth until after age 1. Most often the bottom middle teeth break through first, followed by the four upper middle teeth. By 30 months old — or 2-1/2 years  — all 20 baby teeth are usually present.

How to tell if a baby is teething

The most common signs of teething include fussiness, gnawing or chewing on fingers or fists continuously, sensitive and swollen gums, and increased drooling. The drooling may start months before teeth break through the gums — at 3 or 4 months of age — and is not always related to teething.

Until recently, experts attributed teething to all ailments during the timeframe. But now, it is understood that a baby should see a pediatrician if a fever occurs or symptoms are more severe than fussiness, irritability, drooling and gnawing.

Do babies get fevers and runny noses when teething?

Teething does not cause fever, rashes, diarrhea or colds, but it can make a baby uncomfortable. Crying should not increase due to teething, nor does teething increase susceptibility to getting sick.

If your baby is teething and becomes sick or appears more fussy than usual, symptoms should be evaluated independent of teething. Blaming teething can lead to a delay in necessary medical attention for an infection, such as an ear infection or urinary tract infection. A baby’s pediatrician should be contacted for advice if concerns arise.

At this age, babies have other variables affecting their risk of infection. The loss of antibodies transferred to baby from a mother at the time of birth occurs at around 6 to 12 months of age, and the developmental milestone of chewing on everything also begins. Both increase a baby’s risk of infection.

Ways to ease discomfort

To soothe discomfort, provide hard rubber toys, teething rings or cold teething toys to chew on. Teething toys and rings should not be frozen as these can hurt or damage baby’s gums. Due to teething gels quickly washing off from excessive drooling, they are not considered helpful.

Try to rub baby’s gums with a clean finger to ease discomfort. Applying something cold on the gums is more effective at soothing and numbing the gums. Do not give your baby any medication without first contacting their pediatrician.

Learn more

• Healthy baby teeth lead to healthy permanent teeth
• Biting: Why it happens and what to do about it
• Why your baby may be crying, and tips for soothing

…

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Teething: how to help a child

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• Teeth are being cut: how to help a child?

At a certain period of time, young parents face the question: how to understand that your child is teething and to distinguish the process of teething from any infantile diseases? The first teeth, as a rule, erupt by six months of a baby’s life, sometimes earlier (from 3-4 months), sometimes later (from 8-10 months). In some children, this process is almost painless and asymptomatic, while others become restless, moody, cough and body temperature rises.

Here are some signs that you can determine that a child has begun to cut teeth:

• The kid bites everything he can reach, scratches his gums with his fist.
• If the teeth erupt painfully and the gums are visibly inflamed – the child is crying, naughty, eating poorly.
• The baby has a constant desire to take something in his mouth, because the gums itch and itch. Mom may mistake this desire for hunger, but when feeding, the feeling of discomfort in the baby’s mouth increases, and he almost immediately refuses the breast or bottle of formula.
• Some babies have loose stools during teething – more liquid than usual. How to understand that teeth are being cut, and there is no intestinal infection? If the stool does not have thread-like inclusions of mucus, blood impurities, if it has the usual smell and color, then the matter is not in the intestines, but in the teeth.
• The child’s body temperature often rises, sometimes much higher than normal.
• Bluish bumps may appear on the gums.
• Some children have a runny nose, itchy ears, a cough appears due to excessive salivation: the child does not have time to swallow saliva and it flows out of the mouth more slowly than it is produced, so the baby chokes on it and coughs. Some parents mistake such a cough for the onset of bronchitis.

Teething is not a quick process, and every mother wants to make it easier for her baby. If teething, here’s what you can do to help your child:

• Buy him special teethers – plastic and rubber toys that the baby will bite. It is best to buy teethers with liquid inside – they can be refrigerated and are better for soothing itchy gums.
• Gently massage the gums with a gauze pad to improve blood circulation and reduce discomfort.
• You can buy gels to relieve pain in a pharmacy – for example, Bebident, Kamistad, Dentinox. In any case, it is better to choose a gel on the advice of a doctor.
• If the gels do not work, use painkillers such as Nurofen for children in the form of syrup or suppositories, or Viburkol (candles). Your doctor will help you calculate the dosage.
• And most importantly – give your child as much attention, care and love as possible, it is always important for him, and especially when teeth are being cut.

If your baby has very painful and difficult or atypical teething, you better find out in pediatric dentistry how to help your child.

Why a child’s teeth do not grow

Parents always look forward to the appearance of the first teeth in their child. Sometimes the appearance of teeth is delayed, and this circumstance is very disturbing.

Delayed eruption of some teeth may occur not only in the first years of a child’s life, but also at an older age.

Facts about teething

Teething is a complex physiological process that lasts for several years. During this period, the formation of tooth germs and their movement inside the jaw. The process of eruption is most often quite painful. There is a gradual change in bite: a temporary (milk bite) changes to a permanent one. This is due to the development of bones in a child, in particular, with the growth of the bones of the skull. Also during this period, the formation of bone structures, soft tissues that surround the tooth, and the resorption of the roots of milk units to make room for permanent ones take place.

The first stage of tooth formation begins in the embryonic period. The complete completion of this process occurs with the eruption of wisdom teeth by about 25 years.

When the first teeth appear

At the time of birth, the baby’s teeth are in a state of formation inside the jawbones. The bone contains a complete set of milk teeth at different stages of growth.
The anterior incisors are the earliest to form and begin to erupt through the gums at the age of six months. With the correct development of the child, the dental units continue to erupt in pairs, i.e. one on each side. A full set of twenty milk teeth should appear in the first three years of a child’s life.

How to determine the delay in eruption

If a child is 1.5 years old and still does not have a single tooth, then this is a serious reason to seek advice from a dental clinic.

The normal period for the appearance of the first dental units in the oral cavity is considered to be between 4 and 16 months of age, subsequent teeth appear gradually after the first.

Permanent teeth begin to grow by the age of 6-7 years.

A slight discrepancy with the established deadlines is not yet a reason to sound the alarm, it is worth worrying about the complete absence of teeth in a child.

Types of delay in eruption

More than half a year difference from the average period in the eruption of milk teeth is considered a delay.

The delay from the average time in the appearance of permanent teeth should not exceed a year. There are two types of late eruption.

1. Late dental follicle formation. In such a situation, the relationship between the development of the tooth and its appearance in the oral cavity is observed, but both processes proceed more slowly than the due date.
2. Late eruption. With this development, the tooth is fully formed, its root grows, but the dental unit cannot erupt. Fully formed teeth remain in the bone – impacted. They can be completely under the gum or partially visible from under it.

Before worrying about delayed eruption, it is necessary to diagnose the presence of a tooth germ in the bone. For this, a panoramic picture is taken, which makes it possible to distinguish the complete absence of the rudiment from a delay in formation.

Causes of delayed eruption

Many reasons can contribute to delayed eruption.

• Hereditary factor. If parents teeth erupted later than other children, then this symptom can be observed in their children.
• Prematurity or low birth weight.
• Diseases of the future mother during pregnancy, trauma during childbirth, as well as illnesses of the child in the first few months after birth.

The factors listed above most of all influence the timing of eruption, as well as the quality of the formation of dental units.

Other reasons include:

• violations in the child’s diet;
• – lack of certain vitamins and minerals;
• hypothyroidism;
• Rickets and its consequences.

It should also be taken into account that girls are ahead of boys in development, and, consequently, their teeth appear earlier.

What determines the timing?

The timing of the formation of both temporary and permanent dental units in children can be compared with some phenomena.

1. Pos. In girls, all teeth, except for the first upper chewing one, erupt earlier than in boys.
2. Jaws. The teeth on the lower jaw appear faster than on the upper.
3. Position of teeth. Molars and premolars most often erupt with a delay.
4. Bite. In the milk bite, the delay occurs much less frequently than in the permanent one.
5. Population. Scientists have found that people living in different countries have different terms for the appearance of teeth. For example, among Europeans, delayed eruption is a fairly common occurrence.
6. Climatic conditions. Teeth erupt faster in warm climates than in cold climates.
7. Level of urbanization. In urban areas, teeth are formed faster than in rural areas.
8. Evolution. Recent generations are more likely to encounter an anomaly in the eruption of wisdom teeth and canines in the upper jaw. Scientists attribute this phenomenon to the evolution of man as a species, and to the lack of space due to the decrease in the overall size of the jaw.

Is late eruption dangerous?

Late eruption itself is not a problem. However, the appearance of teeth with a delay can cause problems in the future.