Teething behaviour poll

[aidenmc]

Just curious about what teething does to your toddlers.

Aiden (19 months) refused his nap and is running around the house, wired. Seems teething affects everything, from poops to pees to sleep etc. He is okay when playing but doesn't settle as well. He is requiring help to get back to sleep when he wakes in the night (although thankfully it is usually only once, since sleep training) and early wake-ups. He is also not eating well and being more naughty than usual.

It didn't seem to be such an issue for ds #1 but it seems to have a huge impact on Aiden. Every time he gets a new tooth (which seems to take many weeks) everything goes wonky.

What are your lo's like while teething?

Becky

[Layla]

Becky, teething does affect my lo but not to the point of missing naps. She has had occasional early morning starts but otherwise she seems ok. Have you tried to give him any meds for pain relief?

What does his day look like?

[aidenmc]

Yes I give him meds - ibuprofin and acetominophen. His routine has gone wonky lately. A couple of weeks ago he skipped his nap 2 days in a row. He just wined and played in his crib for 2 hours! I fixed it by getting him to nap earlier (putting him down at 11:30 rather than 12:15.) HIs routine was:

Wake 5:30-6:00 (some variation on this but it was stabilizing and getting later)
Nap 11:30 (asleep by 12:00) - 1.5-2hrs.
Bedtime 6:30 (asleep by 7:00)

He had been sleeping better through the night, settling himself back down if he woke (or dh would go in for a couple of minutes).
Then he started crying out very hard, as if in pain. He would not settle at all for dh. So now it is me. He would wake for longer as well. He has also had an ongoing cold for months now (or many in succession) so his nose is constantly running and he has a cough. His poops don't come at regular times and don't seem right. This seems to happen every time he is teething.

Today I put him down at about 11:45 for his nap and made the mistake of going in at about 12:20. He was really fussing and protestinng, though. Last night he slept from 6:30-4:00 then 5:00-6:20. I put him down early last night because he woke after only 1hr10. I am debating just letting him get on with it again, but the quality of his cries when he wakes has been different. For a while we were running in with meds. The tooth is still not through but looks like it will be here soon.

I can't put him down any earlier without shifting his whole schedule. It is aready early enough as it is. He has had a history of NW and early wakings (as early as 4:30). But he was doing much better and always going to sleep on his own. He is still going to sleep on his own (except for today's nap and one a couple of days ago where I had to pat him to sleep) but he is just not sleeping soundly.

Sorry that was so long. I had thought I was through with these problems and was finally feeling confident that we could just weather through things like teething and illness. It just seems to go on so long.

[becky1969]

I'm glad someone posted this! Great Becky's must think alike! 

My LO is a horrid teether. The worst part is he got his first tooth at 4.5 months (started teething at 3.5 months), so it's been a VERY long year.  .  Each tooth takes exactly 2 weeks, almost to the hour! He's such a textbook little guy.

 His naps are generally good, only because after tooth #3, I finally figured out he gets easily overtired while teething, and started putting him down for naps earlier (as much as an hour!), so that he would sleep well. While teething, he might sleep as much as 4-5 hours during the day - our 5 hour nap day resulted in the best night's sleep he'd had in months.  This last round of molars (#4 is just about in), made him go from a consistent 1 nap day to 2.  so, though naps change in timing and duration, he usually sleeps really great. (Of course, just as I wrote that he woke from a 30 minute nap.  I think the tooth is almost in today and it's bugging him hard).

Night sleep SUCKS though! He's never been a NWer until molars started coming in. Even as an infant, he was such a great sleeper - 4-5 hours at a go, straight home from the hospital.  Now, he usually has 1 NW which we've turned into some AP by a bottle feed. He will sometimes have an EW too (around 4-5 am), but he always goes back to sleep - after as little as 5 minutes are as many as 60.  He goes to sleep fine, and independently still, but he just can't stay asleep the whole night. We've noticed the NW occurs 1 hour after the meds wear off. No matter which we give him - Motrin or Tylenol - he'll only sleep until 1 hour after they wear off.  We've tried going without meds entirely, but then he's up every 45 minutes, which is definitely NOT better.

DH just asked me yesterday to remind him how many teeth are left. To our dismay, we think we saw one of his eye teeth starting to come thru too. We thought this molar might be it for a month or two. WE HATE TEETH!!!!!

[ablack]

Well, i'm not sure if our bizarre behavior is from teething.  i blamed it on that for a while, but it's been nearly 3months now.  Anna is 16 months old.  Before molars, teeth affected her but only for a couple of days.  The molars and eye teeth are taking a long time to come in and they have affected her naps and her behavior.  I know her dr. said that teeth wouldn't make her poo poo weird, but the smell and consisteny have been terrible with her molars.
Our biggest problem is with Nightwakings.  She typically doesn't cry, but plays.  I mean plays and talks and carries on.  Last night was really the worst one, she was up from 1:30-5:15am  Our Nw's are usually not that long, but typically anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours.  Most of the time she just goes back to sleep on her own.  She goes to bed just fine with no fussing.  I have tried adjusting naps, bedtime, thinking she was overtired, then undertired, and everything in between, but nothing helps.  She wakes usually between 2am-4am.  She has just cut her last bottom molar and the top 2 eye teeth have been just below the gums for the past 2 weeks.
Has anyone tried the wake to sleep thing with the naps or nighttime wakings?  i was reading about it and wondering if it would work - i've tried everything else.

[macsmum]

my ds is a nightmare teether, he gets a constant runny nose and usually an ear infection, which we have again just now, which inturn leads to waking every 2 hrs, well this has how the last 2 nights have gone.

Emma

[mari]

When I was having sleep issues with Alex i used to put most of it down to teething.  Now that she is sleeping well I realise that I used teething as an excuse.  She is teething at the moment, she told me today that her teeth hurt, that was about 2pm.  She told me again at 3ish and I gave her some neurofen and she hasn't complained since.  She went to sleep at 7pm and I haven't heard her so far.  If she wakes duing the night, I usually just go in and put the blankets back over her and she usually is back to sleep straight away, if tonight she doesn't go straight back I will presume that it's teeth and give her more neurofen and she should resettle.
It usually lasts no more than 3 days and that's about as bad as it gets.  She does have red cheeks (both face and bum cheeks!!!) and I put cream when I change her nappy.

She did have thrush once and will get a flare up if I don't plaster her with cream during teething.

[ablack]

stacy - that is what i was thinking about the wake to sleep.

we are currently going to try early bedtimes again and try it for several days to see how it goes.  At this point, the worst thing that will happen is that we will wake during the night.

[aidenmc]

I know the effects of teething on NW is less bad now that Aiden is going to sleep on his own. His tooth is still waiting just below the gums, but he is still dealing with very runny nose and cough and has had diarrhea for about 5 days now. I guess teeth pain is the least of our worries now. Last night was his worst in ages. He was up 3 times (after skipping yesterday's nap due to blowout while trying to fall asleep) and the 3rd for over an hour. He woke this morning with him and his bed covered in poop. Into the bath with him! Wondering now, whether any of this is because he is finally drinking milk and not tolerating it well. I know Aiden has always had wierd poops with teething, but what we have now can't be from that. Frankly I was relieved he woke with the poop as at least it meant there was a good reason for him being up and not bad habit!