Teething soothing methods trialled and tested from a real mum

When we planned our family, teething wasn’t one of the things we considered. The questions we asked ourselves were: could we afford it and was our house big enough. Perhaps we should have asked ourselves if we were we willing to forego 4 years of sleep to soothe teething babies and toddlers!

The baby magazines I happily devoured portrayed such an air-brushed perfect view of pregnancy and childbirth I didn’t think much further than that. Fast forward 6 months and my little darling started showing the classic signs of teething – hot pink cheeks, dribble, irritable, ear-ache and a tendency to chew anything he could get his hands on.

Tried and Tested Methods

Looking back at my blog (I knew there was a reason I wrote it!) I mention teething quite a lot. We coped the best way we could by using these techiniques:

1. Frequent doses of medicine (as per instructions on the bottle).  This took the pain away and restored my happy little chappy.
2. Plastic teethers, the type you keep in the fridge. The idea being that your child would chew on them to relieve their pain. They don’t work for everybody.
3. Amber teething necklace.  We saw these mentioned in our mother and baby group and everyone rushed out to buy one. I remember wanting to try anything which might help but, again, this did nothing but look cute.
4. Teething gels/powders. They made no difference but made him look like he’d spilled sugar over himself.
5. Distraction. We tried this method with walks to the park, baby classes, loud music and crafts. These worked for a short time.
6. Ambesol. I remember rushing straight out to buy some after it was recommended by a friend and we never looked back. It’s a small bottle of liquid you apply with your finger but it provides instant relief to baby and mum.  I’d never ever seen it advertised, in fact I remember the mum who told me about it saying it was so good they didn’t need to advertise.

Of course as soon as my little fella got all his teeth through his little sister started teething so we started all over again. She seems to suffer even more than her brother did. This morning, for instance, she was standing screaming in the middle of the floor. At 27 months she knows when she has tooth ache but has recently started denying it. Calpol takes a good 5 minutes to work so we use Ambesol first for immediate relief followed by a dose of Calpol and lots of cuddles. Our medicine pouch still carries these two bottles and syringes and it’s always the first things which gets packed when we leave the house.

I’ve lost count of the number of sleepless nights I’ve shared with my children due to their teeth but fingers crossed it will soon come to an end. Most children have their first teeth by the age of 3 and I’m looking forward to throwing away the medicine bottles and syringes. Of course teeth mean trips to the dentist and I could tell you about the time my 3 year-old son bit the dentist, but that’s a whole other blog post :)

Do you have any tried and tested tips for teething?  Share them with us on the blog.

Jenny Kearney

My name is Jenny and I have been writing and sharing craft ideas at the gingerbread house since 2005. I'm a mother of a 3 and 5 year old who love to craft as much as I do. You can also find me on Twitter @gingerbread_mum, Instagram @jennymakes and Pinterest @jennymakes.

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