When will your baby's first pearly white start to poke through? Most babies get their first tooth at around 6 months, but your child's chompers may appear as early as 3 months or as late as 14, depending on such factors as when Mom and Dad started sprouting teeth and whether or not your baby was a preemie (preemies tend to teethe on the late side). How babies experience teething can vary widely, too. Some have teething symptoms—such as excessive drooling and crankiness—weeks before a tooth actually emerges, while others show no signs at all.
Baby-tooth timeline
Typically, babies get their teeth in pairs. First come the middle two on the bottom. A month or so later, the two above those arrive. Still, it's not uncommon to see a baby with four bottom and no upper teeth, or the reverse. A general timeline:
6 months: lower central incisors
8 months: upper central incisors
10 months: lower and upper lateral incisors
14 months: first molars
18 months: canines
24 months: second molars
Signs of teething
Short of actually seeing a tooth poking through, and given that the process is different for every baby, some possible symptoms to watch for:
The need to gnaw
The pressure of an emerging tooth beneath the gums may be relieved by counter pressure, so teething babies often want to chomp on things. The chewing instinct may also be a response to the odd sensation that something's going on in there.
Puffy gums
Before a new tooth erupts, it can cause a red, swollen and bruised-looking area on a baby's gums. Sometimes the gum bulges with the emerging tooth, which you can see faintly beneath the skin (if you can convince your baby to open his mouth for long enough).
Excessive drooling
Increased spittle can herald a new tooth—but it's also a normal developmental stage of infancy, so don't assume that drooling means teething. There's no way to tell whether your baby's saliva is the result of teething or not, though it may be if you also see...
Fussiness, especially at night
Tooth eruption—when the tooth moves through the bone and gum—tends to come in stages, with more activity at night than during the day, so your baby may be more irritable then.
Ear pulling
While it can also be a sign of an ear infection, tugging can be a symptom of teething: The pain from the jaw gets transferred to the ear canal.
A change in eating habits
Babies who are eating solids may want to nurse or bottle-feed more because a spoon irritates their inflamed gums. Others may do the opposite, eating more than usual because the counterpressure feels good. And babies who are still on the bottle or breast may begin feeding eagerly but pull back because the activity of sucking puts uncomfortable pressure on the gums and ear canals.
Ways to soothe the pain
You may need to try a few methods to see what works best for your child:
A wet, frozen washcloth(leave one end dry so she can get a good grip)
The thick fabric feels good, and the icy cold numbs sore gums. A teething toy that's been chilled in the refrigerator also works, but frozen toys may be too harsh on an infant's sensitive gums.
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