When baby is around six months old, the milk teeth will start to emerge through the gums. This is clearly a painful episode and causes much discomfort. Though there are many gels and medications now available, the best way to treat this is with natural teething remedies.
An early sign that baby is teething is starting to chew on their toys, fingers, or pretty much any object they can get hold of and put in the mouths. As such, it is good to give them something healthy to chew on.
Pieces of raw fruit and vegetable are excellent here, whilst it also works to familiarize them with these excellent foodstuffs. Bread or bread sticks are also good, but many prefer apple, pear, carrot and cucumber.
If this is your chosen route, it is important to steer clear of sugary foods. Even at this early stage, baby can suffer with tooth decay, which should be avoided at all costs. Whenever baby is eating or chewing on anything, it is essential that somebody supervises them at all times to ensure they do not get into any trouble and begin to choke.
Although foods are effective natural teething remedies, so too are drinks. Cool drinks will help soothe baby's gums, and can be particularly useful if they are dribbling excessively. Simply using cool water is often the best way forward here, but anything sugar free can be considered.
It is important to understand that it should be cool liquid, not cold straight from the refrigerator. This will be too shocking for baby at this stage. It is also important not to use sugar laden drinks, again for the risk of causing tooth decay at such an early age.
Often, the best of all natural teething remedies do not involve baby's mouth at all. Surprised? It's actually quite true. Often all baby needs is a little comforting, a hug, and someone just being there for him or her.
Playing with your baby is also an excellent distraction. As when we take our mind off of something troubling us, so too this works with teething. Introducing something for them to do, with games and shiny or colorful things is really effective. Sometimes, if baby is irritable or tired this may not work however.
The symptoms of teething can be alleviated through cleaning too. This will have a soothing effect as baby's gums will be massaged of course, but is also important to ward off tooth decay. At first, using a piece of gauze will be enough, but as more teeth appear, a specially designed toothbrush should be used.
Babies can become very cranky when they are cutting their first teeth and it is tempting to use commercial teething medications to soothe them. However these can contain several powerful chemicals which baby is better off without. Visit me at natural teething remedies to discover better options to help baby through this difficult time. Wendy Owen(HH Dip)is a holistic health therapist.
