5 Months and Teething Problems

Try rubbing liquid Benadryl on his teeth. My neice uses it on her babies teeth and swears by the stuff!

Oh nursing. I loved nursing. Have you tried the teething cookies; the ones that look like hard light bread? My boys loved them. They are hard and raspy feeling; easy to fit in their hands to where they can maneuver them. The only thing about them is to watch the child while they are chewing on them because they do break off and will stick to the tops of their mouths. My pediatrician suggested at bed time to give them (not a full dose, but just stick your CLEAN finger down the bottle) and give them a suck of Benadryl. It allows them to get a good night’s rest. Good Luck!

Pure Vanilla Extract will numb his gums without making them toughen up like the stuff that is marketed for it. Try rubbing some on his gums. If he takes a pacifier, you might want to try putting one in the freezer after running some water over it. (Put it in the freezer it doesn't actually freeze the pacifier, just makes it nice and cold.) Tylenol could help if just nothing else is working at all. It would help him sleep as well as help with the pain, it would also help with any fever s that may be caused by him teething. Mostly, if absolutely nothing works, it's just something to bear through. Lots of children just don't do well with it at all. >.< Good luck!

I think all babies have teething problems at one point or another. The baby oragel worked good on my kids and the kids I have kept. When he is awake, you can roll up a clean washrag and wet the end of it, then freeze it. You can let him chew on it. Popsicles are good to numb the pain.

Have you tried giving him infant tylenol before you nurse him for bedtime? That really helped our daughter get through a good part of the night. Check with your pediatrician or his/her nurse for the appropriate dose.

Bless your heart. Do you work?
I went through the same thing but at night was the only time my little girl seemed like she got any releif. You may want to put the baby in the bed with you and let him nurse while you sleep. I have done that before. It could be that he is feeling your anxiety. Try to calm down.
Good luck

One other thing to consider is an ear infection. Waking to nurse so frequently is a tell-tale sign for a lot of babies.

As far as teething help, do you have a mesh feeder? You know the mesh bag with a handle that you can put chunks of food in for a baby who would otherwise choke on the food? My daughter didn't like eating food in it, but she loved biting on ice in it. I would fill it with ice cubes and hold her with a towel under her chin. She loved it!The ice numbed her gums and being able to bite down on something firm helps relieve pain.

Can your son take tylenol? Check with the ped on the dose for your baby. We'd give it to my son at bedtime when we noticed him drooling and chewing on things during the day to help him sleep longer. When he turned 6 months it was safe for him to take ibuprofen, and that helped much better than the tylenol. Our peditrician also gave us a prescription for magic mouthwash - a mixture of antihistime, antacid, and lidocaine to rub on his gums. It worked better than any otc rememdy once we could see the teeth trying to erupt through the gums.

But the sleep disruption may well be from your DH being gone. That may just take time to overcome. Good luck!

A.,

I know how you feel my daughter just cut her two bottom teeth last night. And boy was it rough. Have you tried giving your son tylenol or motrin? My daughter hated teething tablet, baby orajel, and teething rings. Nothing worked but the tylenol. And I only gave it to her at night when she went to bed. Hope this helps you!

Hey!! Sorry teething problems are awful and can last a long time. have tou tried infants Tylonol to releive the pain? I found just giving at night during teething helps ease the pain so that they can sleep. Once your bay gets older my favorite teething tool is an iced wet wrag or a frozen (peeled) banana. Wrap bottom in paper towel to hold and watch them go to town! But for now if your not confortabe w/ tylonol, nursing is the best confort for your baby. Hang in there those troublesome teeth will make the cutest tooty grins you have ever seen!

Hi, as a former pediatric nurse, I can confidantly tell you teething should not keep a baby up at night. Teething causes mild discomfort,maybe you are looking at something more, Possibly and earache? Anyway, if fever occurs or the discomfort continues I'd call the doc.............Also, something cold, but never frozen applied can help. Frozen can damage the gums

My son started waking up at 5 months and I thought it was teething as well. The only thing that got him back to sleep was nursing him. We went to the doctor for his 6 month check-up last week and I told her the problem. She said at this age my son should be able to sleep through the night. She said he was crying because he woke up and couldn't fall back asleep without nursing. She recommended I let him cry-it-out for a few nights and eventually he'll learn to sleep through the night. The first night he cried over an hour at two different times, the second night he woke up once and cried an hour, and the third night 20 minutes of crying at 3am, and the fourth and fifth night he slept from 8pm until 6:30am and was a much happier baby all the next day because he was well rested!! (During the cry-it-out nights I did go in a check on him after the first 10 minutes of crying to make sure his diaper wasn't leaking and he was safe in his crib, but I didn't say anything or pick him up). It's not easy to listen to a crying baby all night, but both he and I are much happier now that he's learned to sleep through the night.

one thing I didnt see mentioned was raising the head of his bed.I have a 6 month old and similar problems. We raised the head of his bead a couple inches with a blanket under the matress and he slept 6 hours. The elevated head helps take some of the pressure off- works for ear infections too. A friend said she would put her kids to bed in their car seat in the crib when they had ear infections.

Also with a 5 month old I dont think you have to worry just yet about sleep training. he's a little young. Go ahead and feed him and dont worry about starting bad habits. Breastfed babies wake up more at night. I didnt find the cereal thing to help- we didnt do a bottle but tried cereal at 5 1/2 months and it made no difference. Once the teeth come through it will be over til the next set.

Dear A.,

There is a gel that is called Numzit that helps to
num the gums for a while. Hopefully this will help.
Also, know that all our soldiers are in our prayers
and may God give your husband extra protection.

R. M

When my daughter was going through this I always tried to give her a bath RIGHT before bed time. Let him chew on ice chips and wear him out in the tub. He should sleep longer afterwards. I'm not sure how old he is but maybe you should also try some rice cereal. When you first start they will generally start sleeping longer. Your breasts might keep YOU up though esp if you are feeding every other hour and he starts to sleep longer. Perfect time to pump!

Good Luck and God Bless!

One thing I seem to always forget is tylenol or motrin, call you pediatrician and ask for safe dosage but that should help the little guy fall asleep. Oh, and make sure it is baby tylenol or motrin, the concentration is higher in the baby motrin than it is in childrens so its easier to give to babies.

Hi, A.! Have you tried a shot of Tylenol (for pain and possible low-grade fever that sometimes accompanies teething)? Also, there's a tube of something on the market that is for teething pain that you rub on gums--forgot the name, but you can ask the pharmacist. If you don't want to invest in the teething stuff you rub on gums, an ice cube works well, just rub on the gums, kinda drippy, but baby will probably enjoy it! Good luck, hon, it's a bit rough for both of you right now, but the other teeth come in without as much pain as the first ones do!

Please relay to your hubby that I and my family thank him for pursuing our freedom!

C.

I have two children of my own and the only thing I have found to work is to give them Tylenol before they go to bed. Just give it to them if you see they are in pain or until the tooth comes in. Hopefully all of his teeth won't hurt him. My children had more trouble with different teeth, not all of them. I have always heard that baby Orajel and things like that made there gums hard and made it harder for the teeth to come in. An old wives tale is that if you make a necklace out of the berries from the elderberry bush is suppose to help. My childrens grandparents swear by it. You might also want to try giving him some catnip tea. It's good for colic it might work on teeth.
R.- Mother of 2 ages 2 and almost 5.

I'm a marine wife and I SOOOO feel your pain. We found the best teether ever. I think you can only find it on the internet and I think it was called a wiggle jiggler. It comes in different animals, but you want the elephant. It's a purple elephant on a stick. You put batteries in it and it vibrates. You have to watch them closely while they use it, but it really saved us at night and even in church. It really helped my son. The only other thing that worked for us was infant motrin, even though our pediatrician wasn't really fond of it. He said as long as he didn't have a fever, it's OK to use. It lasted longer than tylenol and at least let me sleep 4-6 hours at a time.

I had similair problems with my daughter when she was young.I had a granny back then that told me to massage his gums.I think your baby's already doing it when he feeds.Also give him a clean damp washcloth to Chew on it worked for me.She would bite it,pull on it with her clinched gums.I used the baby clothes cause they were so soft.Thought it was strange when I was told it but it worked.

Hi there,
Try CAMILIA / teething relieif, it is a natural medicin and it has helped my son when he has been teething. You can get it at Eart Fare. It has sterile single-use doses, it really calmed him down. Sometimes you have to use 2-3 of them.
For my daughter when it was really bad a got this numbing medicin Lidocaine 2% visc solution that you can put on their gum. It reaaly helps too. Ask their pediatrician.
good luck !

I bought my daughter an amber teething necklace (for wearing not chewing) and it actually does make a difference. She's got two teeth comign in right now and she was restless at night til I put the necklace back on her.
They sell them all over really--I got mine on ebay.
They work cause the amber has a chemical reaction to the PH level in your skin and has a homeopathic pain-killing effect.

Good luck!
M.

Try a passifier!!! Oh MY you are killing yourself. I can't imagine nursing every hour. I don't know what would be worse the nipple pain or the loss of sleep. Also try having him chew on a cold wet washrag during the day...be sure you are with him, because babies can start sucking on it and pretty soon it's down their throat and they can't breathe...I had one of mine do that to a silky blanket. I am so glad that he was in the living room with me and not in his bedroom alone.
HTH Angie

Teething is truly horrible !!!
Tylenol is the only thing I can think of
I remember I was so sore those nights from the constant nursing

I am sure that you have already heard that babies feel the parents stress and all that jazz. It is the gospel truth. I am on my fourth infant and I am not looking forward to the teething party. Best "advice" I can you is to try and stay calm and maybe add a little rice ceral to his bottles at night. It wont hurt him and if anything it might keep the feedings to a minimum. Good luck, C

Tylenol sometimes will work, but I have found that ibuprofen (Motrin etc) works better because the pain comes from inflammation. Tylenol does NOT decrease inflammation, ibuprofen does.

I had to feed my daughter every hour for about a week and then she was back to normal once those teeth broke through. It's tough and I was pretty sleep-deprived, but it worked...Honestly, I don't think it's much because your husband left at that age, maybe more because the little one can tell that you're upset but not because daddy isn't around (just my opinion, I know we all would like to think the little ones miss them just as much as we do, but mine - 15 months - doesn't seem to really grasp it, she'll look for him every now and then but never really gets upset about him not being around)

Welcome to the wonderful world of teething. Actually, the worse thing you could probably do is start to nurse him back at nights. It's going to make it a lot harder on you to get him to sleep through the night again. Don't use teething tablets. ("natural" doesn't always mean safest...a lot of fatal stuff comes from "natural" "herbal" remedies. Why risk stuff that's not approved and tested. The stuff that IS can be bad enough at times. I'm very much a naturalist but not when it comes to what I put IN my babies bodies). I asked a pharmacist at the store once about them, and she said it is made from a poisonous plant, and she'd never give it to her own kid. Give him some tylenol, and just wait it out. There's a reason people hate and dread teething time so much. Not much you can do for it. :( Sorry. It'll all be over before you know it, though. Then you'll be wondering where time went and how the teething phase flew by so fast. :)

GL!

Mom of 4 (ages 7mths, 2, 4 & 5)