All babies will go through the very uneasy stage of teething and this will likely cause them to cry because of the uncomfortable feeling. As parents, we want to keep our babies happy and free from pain or discomfort so we find ways on how to soothe those gums that are on the stage of growing baby teeth.
This stage usually occurs during the age of 6 to 9 months or even earlier according to an article from Patient page. It is hard to apply teething remedies to babies so we have some safe steps and recommendations for parents to try which are effective and helpful.
First, parents should know the signs that their baby is already teething. According to Mayo Clinic, babies will show some unusual behavior in this stage. Babies are always drooling and keeps on chewing solid object especially their toys. They also get cranky and the very obvious sign is having a sore and tender gums. Here are some helpful tips to soothe teething babies:
Cold teething toys
There are a lot of teething toys that you can buy in the baby's store. There are toys that are filled with water inside and can be cooled. Babies will enjoy biting cold toys to soothe their aching gums.
Gently rubbing the baby's gums
If your baby does not have the interest of those teething toys, you can help your baby by gently rubbing their gums using your clean finger. Do it for few minutes. The small pressure applied when rubbing their gums causes a distraction on their brain from the pain in their gums.
Let them eat hard foods
Try foods like peeled raw carrots or cucumber for them to eat. They will enjoy biting this foods because they also apply a bit of pressure on their gums when biting which soothes their feeling of gum pain. This is also beneficial for their health at the same time with all the nutrients they get from the carrot and cucumber.
If all else fails, then the best thing is to apply topical medication but with the advice from the doctor
There are several numbing gels that can be bought over the counter from drugstores but a doctor's advice should be taken in consideration. As pointed out by Baby Center, there are topical medications that are containing benzocaine which should not be used for babies under 2 years of age as warned by U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
