Teething by Ni Zain

Teething Time – for some parents the time they want to quit the job! And others… they can sleep and sleep and sleep… This Health Corner is for parents who want to quit – they might become sleepers! So if you baby is calm and nice and sleeping you on the lucky side – and you are, believe me! I know what I am talking about. My daughter was starting to teeth with 10 days and ended with 2 years when she finally had all the 20 milk teeth out – and no day earlier!

Just let us look what teething is. Okay, can you imagine a big sharp thing breaking though your flesh and skin? And that perhaps on 4 different spots the same time? And always when you sleeping? Or all the time a little pain in your face. Autsch! That hurts! And you cannot tell anybody? And your mom is stressed? And you have so much pain you just want to cry? And than everybody around you gets stressed? And that goes on and on? All your life? As you might be just 1 year you might know life only with the pain in your mouth. Nice! Wouldn’t you get a grumpy person after a while? I bet!

You know how much it can hurt to get a Wisdom tooth? I remember. I got 2 and I have been several days in bed with fever when I got them, but I was 27 years. Had – as I did not know better at that time – a packet of Aspirin next to me and understood what was going on!

So how can you tell your baby is teething? It is not just the putting the finger in the mouth. This is what I found over 2 years:

· Dripping out of the mouth – we needed 10 t-shirts a day as they where always socking wet – The salvia is helping the gums to get softer. Check that your baby is getting enough liquids! Means water and mother milk.

· Putting anything in the mouth to bit – it helps to put a reverse pressure. Ahhh! Fingers are fine. Just check that they always clean.

· Bad mood – oh my dear is that child grumpy today. Just a little thing makes her cry. I found it always on the beginning of a new teething circle when no other signs showed up yet. Put me on alert – hard times are coming!

· Fever – even very high fever. My daughter was one night as red as a good Bordeaux (40C). It was very scary, but once I realized it was “JUST” the teething I could handle it very well. Note: Not all fevers are from teething, but many are. As for all – follow your instinct as a parent! And fevers are good! Never forget that. That’s when your body builds up immunity for all the bad stuff around us.

· Diarrhea and Vomiting – We got it as a full pack together with high fever when the 4 edge teeth where all coming at the same time. If it is the teething forget the treatment for diarrhea and vomiting. They don’t work. Note: Sure your child can have an infection and than needs the right treatment, but if I just imagine how many babies are getting Antibiotic treatments when they only having there teeth coming out and suffer from side effects.

· Pain around the ear – baby rubs the ear. It might be an infection, but… think about when you get tooth pain. Where is your pain going? If it is a back tooth, I bet you have some pains in your ear area!

· Night cries – sure. Babies growing when they sleeping. That’s why they sleep so much and grow so much in the first 2 years. So they teeth are also growing when they sleeping. If they grow, means they get bigger, they breaking though flesh and skin. So your baby wakes up from the pressure pain - crying. You would too! You might – ask your mom!

There might be more - more individual signs.

So now you know your baby is teething. So what to do? You see and this is one reason why I am writing this article. As a young parent I have been reading magazines and books about babies and how to take care. They ALL mention teething. They add with teething creams. They tell you how to calm down your baby – and it does NOT work! But never, never I found in one of this magazines or books this tips – they are what I believe works best and I believe they do not harm your baby (Note: In alternative and homeopathic books you can find it – but I guess 95% of parents these days still don’t read this books as the are not so popular and you basically need to be into this things):

· Well, if you nursing – and I hope you do – than it is very easy. Drink 100ml of a light wine before you give your baby the last nurse before sleeping. I know – I can hear many of you now screaming – a nursing mother drinking alcohol! Well, as any other food in the world – alcohol is a part of our diet. If you using it for medical treatments you can get great results. I will write more about alcohol and how to handle it with kids in another article. Just for today. Mom, if you feel like drinking a little glass of wine every now and than, just do it. And if you have a teething baby, drink it every day. If you fine with it, just do it! My daughter never had teething problems if I had a glass of wine at dinner and than nurse her to sleep. But in times when I had forgotten to buy a bottle and we had to go without – well… guess what? We both had sleepless nights.

· And than homeopathy. There I found 2 remedies which work very well. Chamomile 200x and Aconite 200x. I use most of the time 200x as I feel they work better if you need them for an acute problem. I used Cam200x to put in my daughter’s water bottle though out the day. I always told her what I gave her and she sometimes told me when she wanted more. But when she got really bad with fevers, diarrhea and vomiting Aconite 200x was working really well. And – some days she needed up to 10 doses. It sounds a lot, but if after 1 or 2 hours your child’s personality is on the devil side, you better get her another dose and she will be a sweat and happy child again. Homeopathy is an absolute save treatment with no side effects. Find out more in books and on the web or later in this newsletter.

· And here an easy one you can get in each “Westernized” supermarket. Chamomile Tea. It is a herbal infusion and you can you put in your babies water bottle. Some babies don’t like it. My one did not, but I have friends there kids always get Chamomile Tea. Not just in teething times. It is a calming tea and makes them relax. Ah, if you nursing you can drink it too and via mother milk it works for your baby too. So one more reason to nurse!

I hope you going to be a better sleeper now and your baby gets the right treatment for its condition. It is a condition and not a sickness! You will find that if your baby is suffering a long time from teething and now you start doing something about it, your baby will be much happier. And sometimes it is just the understanding of the problem. Autsch! That hurts! Get it?

Want to read more about health? Click here and go to Health Corner

Or visit Ni Zain's web site: