Anticipating teething, need advices

[Ethan's Mom]

Hi, my 5.5mo LO has been on a good 4+h EASY and succesfully wean his nurse to sleep association (  finally after a long long journey... ). I hear from lots of my friend that many times their "on tract" EASY baby would suddenly back to the old habit due to teething ( accidental parenting remedy  ). So far I have not seen my LO starting teething yet, however I would be happy to hear advices, suggestion, experiences from all of you regarding teething. Is there any board specialize in teething subject ? I have not get any idea what should I prepare in case he start wake up due to teething ( like can I do PU/PD, what to do, etc. ), how can I differentiate whether it is a teething call or any other problem. I would be very happy to hear from all of you, all about teething fairy things ! Thanks 

[~ Vik ~]

Hi Ethan's mom!
Congrats on how well you'redoing with your lo! And you're being so proactive about teething
We had some clues that Dylan was teething before we felt any actual teeth break through. I'm a first time mom, so of course I misinterpreted some of them First, Dylan was generally a very happy baby, and he got incredibly fussy, day and night, for *no* reason. He wanted to be held all the time during the day, was waking constantly at night and was really difficult to resettle, and CRANKY. He was so out of character that I actually brought him into the doctor! (yes, I brought my son to the dr for teething, laugh away ) It was about 2 days after his appointment that my mom was able to feel tooth bumps under the gums with her experienced hands. The eczema on his cheeks broke out pretty badly too, which my mom said was an indicator as well. He lost interest in nursing for a couple days too.
The problem with teething is that there's no symptom that's definitive except for feeling the teeth! Now that Dylan has got teeth I kind of know what to expect, but it was a mystery to me until mom felt the teeth under the gums. We gave him Tylenol, used chilled teething rings, froze wet facecloths for him to chew on. Those helped with his fussiness during the day, and the Tylenol helped a lot at night.
You can't use pu/pd on a teething baby because they're in pain. They need love and cuddles, not sleep training
HTH! Good luck with everything!

[Mashi]

about 3 weeks before DS's fist teeth cut through, i could look at his lower gums and see two white lines at the front of the gum, about 5 mm below the surface.  anytime he got cranky or fussy i put teething gel on his gums as i knew that he was liekly in some discomfort.

the week his teeth cut through these white lines had moved to the top of the surface and i could see them nearing the surface of the gums. i just used lots of gel throughout the day and if he got whiney and fussy, a small dose of calpol/tylenol.

just so you know, teething does not always cause havoc!  my DS cut his two teeth over the course of the week without a single night waking, not a single disrupted nap, and no tears!  yes, some wining and fussing, but i combated that with pain meds and teething gel, lots of teething things to chew on.  he was hardly bothered by them.   not all LOs will scream the house down when teething! 

i would say that you know it is teething at night if you can see the teeth nearing the surface and he is waking crying at times he normally doesn't.  give him some pain relief - medicine, gels, teething powders, whatever you choose to use. 

hope you don't have a rough time with it!