Teething Experiences

Teething is one of the most painful experiences every person must endure and, for the most part, forget ever happened because of the young age at which it happened. For we who are the parents, however, the pain is quite memorable and it lives with us as we are faced with decisions every day on how to help our children cope with the powerful pain.

My mother told us while visiting a few months ago that I had two teeth already when I was three months old so we started preparing for teething experiences right away. What we did not know was exactly how much pain our young Chaim would endure during the course of these experiences.

Close to when he began actually teething, we went to our family pediatrician to ask for a recommendation as to what we should use for his teething pain. Our pediatrician recommended a small amount of baby acetaminophen and so I went to the store and got some for him. My mother later chided me for choosing this and sent me a link with various alternatives to acetaminophen. One of the more recommended ones was Camilia Teething liquid from the French company Boiron.

We had already used the acetaminophen on one occasion when Chaim was really screaming from pain and it seemed like not much of what we were doing was actually helping soothe his pain. This was before we found out about the Camilia Teething liquid, however. We were concerned that the Camilia Teething liquid might not help Chaim all too much with the pain but once he had some (he took to it right away as it has a “kid friendly taste” despite not having any revolting sweeteners or color added to it) he started calming down only a few minutes later.

We have tried many other solutions but Chaim just doesn’t really go for them. For example, teething rings are recommended for babies who are having problems with teething pain but Chaim has yet to take to any one of the numerous rings or teething toys which we have presented for him to try with one exception, and it was never meant to be a teething toy.

One evening when we were watching television, I had Chaim in my arms and one of my fingers happened to drift near his open mouth. He took to the finger like it were the best thing ever and used it as a teething toy — and he has been doing so more or less ever since then. We can only hope that he will at some point want to take teething toys because when the teeth come in, biting hurts! Until then, Tati’s finger will just have to be there for him.