WDYD for possible teething in 4 mo?

[maestramommy]

I've never gone through this, certainly not this early, but we are pretty sure Laurel has been teething for over a month. She is always chewing on her hands, her bib, her toys. And she doesn't sleep well. Her naps are SO SHORT (like 40 minutes average), but she always sounds pissed off when she wakes up, like it wasn't what she meant to do. But she is generally happy when she's awake, until she gets tired. At night she goes down around 7, and wakes up shortly before 8. Which sounds heavenly, except that she will wake anywhere from 2-4, sometimes 5 times a night, starting shortly after midnight. The last 3 nights she has woken up around 10:30, complained for about 5-10 minutes, then gone back to sleep, and not wakened til about 1:30. Then it's 2-4 times. When I go to feed her she drinks the letdown, the immediately fizzles out to suckle, doesn't fuss when I put her back down, and is up again 2 hours later. The only time she gets mad is the last wakeup, around 5 or 6, maybe because by THAT time I am completely empty (well duh, just fed her an hour ago).

If it IS teething that causes this crazy waking, what if anything, can I do about it? Isn't she too young for motrin? And does Tylenol really do any good? If it's not teething, any other ideas? I thought she might be hungry, but 2 nights ago, I gave her 4 oz of milk, about 40% of which was formula, and she woke up again at 10:30, fussed for a while, then went back to sleep and did the real waking at 1:30. Last night it was almost 4oz of straight bm, and she woke up earlier, and by 6 am this morning was waking for the 5th time. It is NUTS.

[Melaine]

Teething necklace? Hylands Tablets? I've heard some people have success with both. We love our amber necklaces but we got them past major teething issues and I wasn't personally sure Hylands worked.

[Reyadawnbringer]

DS started teething at 2 mo. and had his first two bottom teeth brea through at the same time at 4mo. He was miserable. Tylenol helped a little, but not as much as we would have liked. We used what we called an "ice paci" and it worked wonders... I described the "ice paci" in this (http://www.windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=332163&highlight=ice+paci) thread, post 6.

DS has recently started to break 8 teeth (that's right I said 8- on top of the 8 he already has) so ice paci's have made a comeback. He does actually hold a teether now so we chill those and they help some too, but not so much when he was so little.

Good luck, HTH

[Indianamom2]

Oh man, that just totally stinks!

I'm sort of there with you (a just-turned-four-month-old who I think is teething). He chews on everything from morning to night, bites, drools like crazy and is increasingly irritable. I'm wondering how to help him too, at such an early age.

As for the sleeping, hmmm. Have you tried keeping her up a bit later at night? 7 pm seems kind of early for bedtime to me (but then my first was a horrible sleeper and I'm still figuring DS #2 out!). He goes to bed anywhere from 9:30-10:15ish and wakes up once (usually) between 3-5 am, then is up for the day between 7-8 am.

Other than that, could she be working on a new skill? Ds's sleep got really rough for a couple of weeks around him learning to roll over. He was waking more and just generally fussier.

I don't know, but :hug: to you, from one tired mom to another.

Christina

[maestramommy]

The Ice paci sounds great, except that Laurel won't take a paci:( I read the whole thread through to see the other suggestions. I'm pretty sure that Dh will NOT agree to Hylands. He's okay with us taking homeopathic remedies like echinnacea and lactation herbs, but he won't let the kids take anything that isn't rec'd by the ped and FDA approved. I'm not that sanguine either, but he is pretty adamant.

As for extra nursing and cuddling, sigh. I'm already doing that, and stretched super thin as a result. The only thing the keeps her napping longer is to nurse her non-stop. I just CAN'T do that all the time.

Maybe I will try the Tylenol before bedtime and naptime.

[AnnieW625]

Hylands Teething Tablets were great for us. Orajel worked great too and that might be FDA approved. Elisa started showing teething symptoms right around 5 mos. and didn't get her first tooth until she was almost 9 mos. old. The initial teething habits did stop about two weeks later and didn't come back until 6 mos. or so but it was a very long 4 months sleep wise! Once she figured she could get her hands in her mouth she ditched the paci, even an ice cold one for teething!

Another thing I thought of later on when Elisa was well over a year is that I probably missed an ear infection because she was just really fussy, and a really low grade fever at night once. Elisa never onced pulled at her ears through any of her ear infections (she had somewhere between 5 and 7 from the time she around 1 until she was 3; most were between 20 mos. and 3 through) I honestly just thought it was teething, although I felt no teeth.

We tried Tylenol too, but then our DCP told us about Motrin and that worked soo much better for teething pain.

Good luck and I hope little Laurel gets better soon.

[KpbS]

We did tylenol until 6 mo. and then switched to motrin. Both of mine had a miserable time teething :( and it was the only thing that helped. We gave it before naps and bedtime on the days when they were at their worst. Made a huge difference. :hug:

[Reyadawnbringer]

The Ice paci sounds great, except that Laurel won't take a paci:(


Ooh see thats the thing... DS wouldn't take a paci either. In fact he pretty well hated them. BUT- when it was frozen, I guess the cold felt so good on his gums that he didn't care.

I would give that a try. Also, Baby Orajel. We used it VERY infrequently, but when we did have to use it, it really helped. Usually just long enough for the tylenol to start working.

[bubbaray]

Definitely Hylands. My DH wasn't on board with them either, but he wasn't the one at home 24/7 on maternity leave!

[m448]

Yeah the path of least risk for us has always been the hylands. I also have a recipe kicking around for a fussy baby tea that has chamomile, catnip, lemon balm and something else I can't remember. However for convenience and minute size I'd go with hylands. I don't give much tylenol or motrin but I would stay far away from the orajel. I remember reading how the gel can numb their tongue as well depending on how carefully you apply it as well as parts of their throat and I can't imagine that being comfortable, nor conducive to nursing.