teething advice

[alison]

Dd's been tugging at her ear, but isn't running a fever. She's been up frequently over the course of the night for the past week or so. My sense is that she's teething, since she seems super uncomfortable at night. Do you have any suggestions for how to get her through this stage? She's really fussy just as I put her down for bed at 8pm. I usually bring her back out again to cuddle, and then she goes down eventually after several crying fits by around 9:30-10pm.

Should I offer her one of those chilled teethers before she goes to bed?
What about the topical stuff like orajel?

Thanks in advance to all you btdt parents.

[Ladybug]

Can you give her some tylenol or ibuprofen at night. It can work wonders. Call you pedi for the dose based on her weight.

[SuzySunshine]

Ibuprofen worked best for us!

[alison]

Thank you, Annie and Cheri. I did give her Tylenol last night, and once it kicked in, she seemed able to sleep comfortably. She slept until 4:30am! And again until 8:30am. MY DAUGHTER LETS ME SLEEP IN UNTIL 8:30!!!

She's such a trooper. I'm so proud of her -- she's been through a whole lot with feeding issues, that it feels like someone is finally giving her a break when it comes to teething. She's very uncomfortable and fussy when she goes to bed at night, like I said, but golly, she's handling the discomfort better than I ever could...

[Michele]

I've heard it said that it's a good thing babies teeth, because us adults would never be able to handle it!

Ibuprofen is the only thing that works in our house for teething pain. I usually only use it for a few days at night. Neither would gnaw on the cold teethers and oragel only works for about 5 minutes...at least on my gums/lips and it tastes TERRIBLE.

[alison]

I just gave her some tylenol before her nap.
She was so upset! I hate medicating her, but hell, she's already on Prevacid, what's a little Tylenol....?