6 Common Teething Symptoms

How do you know if your baby is teething? What symptoms should you look out for? Here are some teething symptoms to keep an eye out for:
• Drooling. It’s hard to believe so much fluid can come from the mouths of tiny babies, but teething stimulates drooling, which usually starts from about 10 weeks to three or four months of age or older.
• Teething rash. If your teething baby is drooling, the constant drip may cause chafing, chapping, redness and rashes around their mouth and chin.
• Coughing and/or gag reflex. All that drool can make babies gag and cough but it’s not a cause for concern if your baby has no other signs of cold, flu or allergies.
• Biting. Pressure from teeth poking through under their gums can cause a baby a lot of discomfort. This can be relieved by chewing and biting, usually babies will chew on whatever they can find to relieve the pain.
• Crying. Some babies breeze through teething with hardly a whimper, while others suffer from a good deal of pain due to the inflammation of tender gum tissue. First teeth usually hurt the most (as do the molars, because they’re bigger), although most babies eventually get used to what teething feels like and aren’t quite so bothered later on. Talk to your doctor about when to offer pain relievers.
• Irritability. Some babies may be irritable for just a few hours, but others can stay fussy for days or even weeks as those little teeth press on the gum and poke through the surface.

Ian, the Mosman dentist. Dentist Mosman.
Image:Pixabay