Taking care of your child is one of the toughest, but most rewarding jobs in the world. Part of raising children means teaching them right from wrong. Being a parent can also mean countless sleepless nights and a lot of nappies. But most of all, parenting involves raising a happy and healthy child.
Children begin getting their first teeth around 7 to 11 months of age. It is a painful process where your little one might cry uncontrollably at night and may even stop eating. While some parents turn to metaphysical elements, such as the healing properties of amber gemstones, others may opt for over-the-counter medications for assistance with pain management.
Whatever way you choose to handle the situation, it is important for you to know the right foods to feed your kids during this ordeal, as to avoid causing them further distress while maintaining their health and well-being. Listed below are some food items that have been reported to be both nutritious and comforting for your baby during the teething process. Read more
On N’s monthly updates I usually tend to say that the time has gone quick – this month for some reason, it seems to have dragged (no idea why). But, I still can’t believe he’s 6 months old. He’s half. a. year. old!
He was weighed at 24 weeks and he was 20 lb 6 oz. He is still shooting ahead of what J was at the same age. The health visitor sounded a little concerned about how much he was gaining and how much he was feeding – I’m not worried though; what am I supposed to do, not feed my baby when he’s hungry?! I know he’ll level out when he starts crawling, just like his brother did.
He’s still developing his cheeky personality and still loves blowing raspberries. Though he now makes a tune and sounds a bit like something from Gremlins! He has the most infectious laugh, especially when we blow raspberries on him or when he’s being tickled. He loves his brother doing ‘this little piggy’ with him and lets off such a high pitched giggly squeal!
I think he’s having a sleep regression. He’s started waking up half way through the night – usually between 1 am and 3 am. Sometimes he will go straight back to sleep with a cuddle if he comes in bed with us, but others he will need a bottle to settle him back down.
He’s finally found his feet – he loves sucking his toes (why do babies love to do that?!). He will also hold both of them and lift his bum up in the air up & down – getting some exercise in! J has also been putting his feet in N’s mouth to chew – lovely!
He has come so far with his rolling. He now rolls all over the place – when I go out of the room he will be in one place, when I come back he will be right at the other side of the room. Also, when he laying on his front he’s started trying to bring his knees up. I think crawling may be on the agenda soon!
He is finally mastering sitting up! He can sit unaided but is still a bit wobbly – cue lots of cushions around him. He now gets grumpy when he’s laying down as he wants to sit, but he can’t quite pull himself to sitting position yet so we still have some practice with that, with us holding his hands.
He still has no teeth. I thought he had one coming through a while ago but it must have just been a spot of milk or something (even though I couldn’t get rid of it at the time). His gums are so hard though and it hurts so much when he chomps on our fingers, so I’m hoping one will appear soon.
Weaning has started! I will be writing more about that in another blog post, but we are doing baby led weaning from the beginning with N so it’s all good messy fun – he hasn’t had anything mashed, pureed or from a spoon (yet – it may happen for convenience at some point when we are out and about).
He also had some other firsts when we were on holiday – his first taste of ice cream (I’ll accept the bad parent award [insert chuckle here]), his first time swimming, and his first time on a swing! I didn’t realise this month had been so busy for him!
He looks nervous on the swing at first but he loved it after that.
Not one facing the camera this time as he wouldn’t sit still and was too focused on the card – think I may have to hold it next time!
As a parent, teething is a horrible thing to see our
babies go through, no matter what their age. With J, his first tooth didn’t
come through until he was 9 months old, but looking back I think he was
teething from around 10 weeks old. He had a couple of the usual signs – hand biting,
dribbling – but though I kept checking for teeth emerging I never actually saw
any until then.
With N, although all babies are different, I have to be
honest that I was expecting pretty much the same. But, I think he started
teething from around 7 or 8 weeks old – the same signs, hand biting &
dribbling. Differently to J though his first tooth is starting to poke through
already, at the grand old age of 5 months old. Compared to when J got his first
tooth, he still seems much too young to be going through the pain of teething.
When you tell people that your baby is teething, they
suggest so many different remedies. From the older generation, I’ve found that
it’s usually whiskey on the dummy (not that N has one) or rubbed on their gums!
Other remedies that have been suggested to me are amber anklets/necklaces,
teething powders, teething gel, teething rings, ice lollies (obviously for when
they are a little older), or ice cold fruit & vegetable sticks. With J we
tried the powders and gel; he never really took to a teething ring. So far with
N we have tried amber & the gel. He can’t quite grip a teething ring yet as
it’s a little heavy. Though as a mum, I am always on the lookout for new
teething pain remedies.
Camilia oral
solution is a unique teething relief product. It was only introduced in the UK
in 2013 but it has been in production since 1994 and is available in 9 other
countries around the world. Camilia is a natural homeopathic medicinal product
used within the homeopathic tradition for teething pain and other minor
symptoms associated with it, including painful swollen gums and irritability.
Camilia contains no sugar, no lactose, no alcohol, no
flavour, and no preservatives. The only ingredients are chamomilla 9C,
phytolacca decandra 5C, rheum officinale 5C (all active ingredients) and
purified water (inactive ingredient) – you can read more information on these here.
Camilia comes in single dose containers meaning it is sterile, and also easy to
carry for on the go relief. It can be administered in a single dose, 2 to 3
times a day, to babies and toddlers aged 1 month up to 2 years, and children
aged 2 up to 6 years.
As with any medicines, please make sure to read the
label before use.
Little man J was a late starter with his teeth coming through (compared to his peers anyway) and didn’t get his first one until 9 months old. He still doesn’t have them all so is still teething at the minute. N has started teething too, so I currently have two teething babies!
With both J & N teething, I gladly obliged when I was offered to review some Dentinox Teething Gel.
This teething gel:
is suitable from birth.
numbs pain.
helps eliminate infection.
is pleasant tasting.
is sugar-free.
To use Dentinox teething gel, you simply apply a small amount onto a clean finger or a cotton bud and rub along the gums. It can also be reapplied after 20 minutes if necessary.
As with any teething baby or toddler with sore gums, you may have to fight them to apply it and they may try and lick it off, but otherwise it is a doddle to apply. Once I had applied it, it did take a while for N to settle down but when he had, he was much happier. I did have to reapply it soon after though so I’m not really sure how long it lasts regarding pain. It seems to do the trick at the time though.
Dentinox teething gel
Our rating – 4/5
As N is still so young and only having milk for food, we were offered to review the Dentinox Infant Colic Drops too. Colic is very common in babies and both bottle & breast fed babies can suffer with it, causing pain & crying which is horrible for both child & parents.
These colic drops:
are suitable from birth.
gently disperse trapped air.
are pleasant tasting & alcohol free.
can be added to a bottle or administered via the syringe.
should be administered with or after a feed.
should only be given up to 6 times a day.
The liquid is quite thick so is not what you would expect from something describing drops, though this is incredibly minor so didn’t really bother me. I had a smell of it too and it smells like mint! I have no idea what it tastes like as I didn’t go that far.
I have mostly been adding the drops to N’s bottle, but for the purposes of this review I also used the syringe a couple of times. The syringe is similar to other syringes used to administer medicines. With this syringe though I found that it didn’t actually draw up to the full 2.5 ml as marked on it (which is the amount that should be used each time), so I’m not sure whether this would have changed its effectiveness.
Administering via the syringe was easy as N is like his brother and will take anything if he thinks it’s food, but I did find it dribbled out of his mouth a little so prefer adding it straight to his bottle (though obviously not always possible whilst breastfeeding). Whilst winding him I did find that he would bring up a burp much easier using the colic drops than without, and he had much less crying afterwards.
Dentinox infant colic drops
Our rating – 4/5
The teething gel retails from £1-£2 depending on store. The colic drops retail for £2-£4 depending on store. The Dentinox range can be found at Boots, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, and independent pharmacies.
Disclosure
We were sent these products free of charge to review. All thoughts & opinions are honest & our own.
I can’t believe N is 3 months old already. That’s a quarter of a year! No, I refuse to believe it. Time must slow down now!
N is gaining weight steadily now and heading along the 75th centile – he was on the 25th when he was born! When he turned 3 months he was around the 15 lb mark, so he has more than doubled his birth weight and is a proper chunk now, just like his brother was! He’s in his his brothers 3-6 months clothes now and even some of those are getting small for him!
He obviously loves his milk, and now has 8oz at a time, every 3-4 hours still – any less and he screams blue murder! But then because he’s so greedy, he brings half of it back up, usually all down my chest… lovely!
He has also had his second lot of vaccinations. I think these ones went worse than the first ones, he just wouldn’t stop crying and wouldn’t even have his bottle to calm him down, poor little fella. Only one more lot to go now until he turns 1, thank goodness!
I mentioned in his last update that he was co-sleeping a lot. We haven’t done as much since then, I think that’s mainly because he has started sleeping through the night! He goes down with J around 7 pm and then goes until 4.30 am, but usually goes back to sleep after his bottle. If he does wake in the middle of the night for a feed he usually goes straight back down without a fuss, I guess he’s what they’d call a “good baby” (I hate that!). Sometimes though if whoever had fed him is too tired to even get back out of bed, he’ll snuggle in with us, which I am glad of really as I’ve mentioned before, I do love co-sleeping.
The poor wee soul has started teething already, he has had a lot of hand chewing going on, and is very dribbly. We have an amber anklet on the way and are currently reviewing some teething gel so hopefully we’ll be able to take away the pain a bit, it’s awful seeing him like he is at such a young age.
We are getting proper chuckles from him now, and he’s a chatty boy! He loves to talk to himself in the mirror on his play mat. He loves us bouncing him from knee to knee and gives us some proper chesty laughs, it is oh so cute. He also loves us blowing raspberries on his belly and cheeks. I forgot how cute the “doing funny things to make them chuckle” baby stage is!
He is getting a strong boy now and will sit himself up if he is laid down and we hold his hands. He’s not so keen on tummy time (his brother never really was either so took what felt an age to roll over) but when he has it, he loves to hold his head up to have a good look around. Which leads me to say he hates being laid down now, he much prefers sitting up as he is so nosy!
