Could you imagine anything worse than a teething baby? No? Then you have never experienced a teething toddler. Why does nobody talk about this hidden horror? I wish I could give you hope, but I can't because there is nothing nice about this stage! Let me repeat. Nothing!
Even worse if your baby is a late developer in the tooth department – Older, wiser and faster but angrier, louder and vicious.
Let me take one for the team and tell you about this shit show. Remember those bedtimes that took you months to master? GONE. Wave goodbye to those.
That lovely appetite your baby had? Replace that with crying, screaming and kicking.
The somewhat well-behaved toddler you had will become a distant memory.
Everybody knows teething babies are bad but at least they aren't as troublesome or as mobile for that matter. I'm pretty sure those back teeth kickstart the terrible twos. It has for each of my children anyway. Now I have to look back at old photos to remind myself that once upon a time they did behave to an extent.
Now there is the usual medicines, teething gels and crystals that can be given BUT that is also accompanied by a toddler that is more likely to try and fight you off when they see what you’re offering.
You'll probably be on the ball already but just because those pesky back teeth are a little harder to spot, here are a few signs your toddler could be adding to the tooth collection.
- Teeth Grinding
- Irritability
- Pulling ears or rubbing cheeks
- Disrupted sleep
- Lack of appetite
Biting is another problem you might run into, whether its chunks out of the bath sponge or chunks out of their siblings. Now's the time to be firm. Understand why they are doing it, try distraction techniques but truth be told, nobody wants to live with a piranha. And you definitely don’t want your kid to be ‘the biter’ at the local nursery.
I suppose there is a silver lining in that the food choices that can be given to help ease the pain are more variable. Whether its frozen jelly or frozen breastmilk ice-lollies. There are a lot more foods that can be offered to help those little gums.
Thick fruit smoothie in a bottle worked for us. Just thick enough that it won't flow freely from the teat. My little ones would chew the teat to get the smoothie which in turn helped their teething pain. It's worth noting that we blended with ice so that it was cold.
Or even stab a spoon through the lid of a yoghurt and freeze for a soothing snack. Just prepare for the mess.
Now I know its stressful, I know you’re tired and I know you hate having to choose between time for yourself, cleaning, napping or eating in that rare 5 minutes you might get to yourself.
But it will pass and when it does, you'll be thrown a whole new set of challenges to face that will probably make these days seem like a piece of piss. So relax, look after yourself and from one mum to another Good Luck.
