This is more for me than anyone else, but I noticed that Rachel had her very first tooth on Saturday! We were wondering if she was just going to keep gumming everything down or if they would ever come in. She has been sick for about a week so fussiness wasn't anything new for her, but for some reason I stuck my finger in there and yup, she had her first tooth on the lower left side. How exciting. She has been my latest on getting teeth.
But, I must admit it also brought me to a question: what does everyone use to help their kids with teething? There are chewy toys you can freeze, numbing gels, and all sorts of other advice that seems to come from the strangest of places, so I wonder what everyone uses. My Mom swears by letting kids chew on her keys...she sorta wipes them clean (which is hilarious coming from the original germophob). I was letting Rachel do that out of pure laziness until Bart flipped out on me a few months ago. Shhhh....his Mom still lets her chew on the keys. I know it is gross, but if it eases pain, oh well I guess. Don't anyone turn me in to the bad parent police. Which brings me back to the question, what do you let your kids teethe on?
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Congrats Rachel! I wish Alex would have waited as long as my other kids did. Melinda, who was my previous earliest teether, got her first tooth at 9 months. Jacob got his first tooth the week of his first birthday. Alex has to be the one that throws me for a loop, and he's already got 6 teeth at 8 months, and I think he's already working on his next pair. Ugh.
I honestly don't do much at all for my kids. If it's bad enough that I'm *really* noticing it, I usually give them those homeopathic teething tablets. I can't decide if they actually help much or not. Although they did help reduce a teething-related fever when Alex was first teething. Otherwise, I just let them chew whatever they want to. An ice cube in one of those little mesh feeders is wonderful, and provides a good 10 minutes or more of distraction, as well.
I used to let my kids chew on my keys, too. But I read just recently that many keys can be high in lead content, depending on the type, so be careful with that.
Well, I do remember that Zoe was *not* into the cold rags or plastic toys with water in them that you can freeze. She had a couple of plastic teething toys gifted to us that seemed to work. Now, even though I'm not super-educated about it, I worry about plastics, so I've seen some beautiful wooden teething toys...but they're pricey. Hooray for the tooth, though! Progress is good!
Okay, I know how you feel about the car keys, but it is really gross! Think of where those keys go. They touch as much as the bottom of your shoes. Plus there are things in those metals kids probably shouldn't be gumming on and ingesting. Is that really what you want to be giving to your baby?
Chloe loved the Hyland Teething tablets. You can find them at Target now. They are really great and I didn't feel bad about giving them to her.
I liked the mesh bag things you can fill with food (made by Munchkin), but I put in ice cubes. That way they are just getting water and if they get wet, they will dry without staining. That and Tylenol or Ibuprofen seemed to ease the pain.
Now that I read the other comments, it looks like Becky and I said basically the same thing. Funny!!
My sister, Amie's mother-in-law claimed that chicken bones were perfect for teething babies. I don't think any of us every actually tried it out! Ha! So gross!
So I feel I should clarify that I DO, in fact, think it is gross to let her chew on keys. I just hadn't thought about it and as I said, I was being lazy. I have stopped giving them to her, but I suppose I should stop my mother-in-law, but I just haven't. I figure if I come up with something else I can just take it over instead of verbally telling my mother-in-law to stop something. She would likely handle it okay, but why be direct when you can avoid such a discussion? I am a pure wuss. But, thank you all for the suggestions and just realize I do know how gross the keys are. The only defense I have is that I wiped them off first most of the time!
I'm a horrible mom but I honestly didn't do anything for Pearl. She never wanted those teething toys so we gave her the occasion Tylenol but really just let her chew on whatever she wanted. Now that she's bigger, that teething gel stuff is ok but really I make her tough it out.
Oh and congrats to Jacob and good job on the decorations!
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