Baby's teething: how can you help?

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Extract from the article: Teething is a stage in life that often worries parents when it happens to very young children. It's hard when the first milk teeth start to come through.

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Teething is a stage in life that often worries parents when it happens to very young children. It's hard when the first milk teeth start to come through. It's true that this unpleasant moment is inevitable, but there are a few tricks that can help your baby.

Between the ages of 6 months and 2 years, 20 milk teeth will erupt through your little one's gums, according to a timetable that varies from one child to another. However, the symptom that dominates the clinical picture of teething is pain, whatever the age.

Pain during teething

Tooth eruption is exactly like a seedling breaking through the soil. The breakthrough of the gum or the emergence of the tooth from the jaw causes a mechanical tear, which is accompanied by inflammatory reactions. The pain is linked to this inevitable mechanical effect, but above all to the inflammatory process that surrounds it.

Legitimately recognising that baby is teething

This pain will result in crying, refusal to eat, hyper salivation and a lack of appetite. Because of the inflammation caused by teething, a rise in temperature may also be observed (no more than 38°C). In the baby's mouth, there will be redness and swelling of the gums where the teeth will erupt. All these signs disappear as soon as the tooth becomes visible.

Teething flare-ups can sometimes be accompanied by loose stools, diaper rash linked to the acidity of the stools, a runny nose or even irritability.  Warning signs of an underlying illness that should prompt medical attention include a fever of over 38.5°C, profuse watery diarrhoea (several times a day), vomiting, earache or a coloured discharge from the nose.

Soothing teething troubles

To soothe your child when they are teething, you can: massage their gums with your little finger and apply a soothing balm; offer them a refrigerated teething ring - the cold has soothing properties - or give them a piece of bread or a refrigerated carrot from the age of 6-7 months; administer a dose of paracetamol if the pain seems to be bothering them a lot,

What not to do

File the gums with a sugar cube. Try to help the tooth to pierce the gums with an instrument, otherwise you risk causing a local infection. Only paediatricians or a dental surgeon are authorised in certain cases to apply pressure to the gums with a tongue depressor when the tooth is about to emerge. Give your baby a bottle of sweetened water or fruit juice at night so that he calms down on his own. This could lead to cavities. Use a local anaesthetic or aspirin.

The teething calendar

Around 6-8 months: 2 central incisors in each jaw.

Between 8 and 12 months: 2 incisors in the upper jaw and 2 incisors in the lower jaw.

Between 12 and 16 months: the first 4 molars (two upper and two lower).

Between 16 and 20 months: 2 canines in each jaw.

Between 20 and 24 months: 4 molars (2 in the upper jaw and 2 in the lower jaw).

At one year of age, if no teeth have come through or if some are missing despite the passing months, it is advisable to consult your dental surgeon or a paedodontist. 

Gamé KOKO

Article validated by Dr Enyonam Tsolenyanu, Paediatrician at CHU Sylvanus Olympio (Lomé-Togo)