Baby Teething and Not Sleeping!

HELP!! My baby is teething and not sleeping. 

Many babies start teething anywhere between the ages of 4 to 7 months; although some babies can start earlier or later than that. It can be hard to tell if your baby is teething or not for any new parent or even veteran parent. Check out some of the common signs for teething below, but remember that fever, diarrhea, cough, loss of appetite, vomiting and congestion are not reliable indicators of teething.

In this blog, we will cover:

• signs of a teething baby

• teething or sleep regression

• research about teething

• how to help your baby sleep while teething

• what if it isn’t teeth causing an issue?

Signs of a teething baby:

Parents are very quick to blame teething for their sleep woes (GUILTY!) but after a lot of research (that I’ll include in this post), teething doesn’t actually affect sleep that much. *gasp* I know, it’s a bit of a shock. It shouldn’t be weeks on end of sleep disruption without.a tooth showing up!

Here are some common symptoms or signs you might see when your child is teething:

• Swollen red gums

• Increased biting or sucking

• irritability/fussy 

• Excessive drooling

• Chewing 

Disclaimer: I personally have horrible teething children. Literally, the only thing I prayed for during my pregnancy with my second child was that she would be a better teether than my son (she’s not, they’re the same). It takes them forever to cut teeth. She’s 11 months now and just getting the bottom 2 teeth in. It’s been about a week and they’re still very slowly coming up from the gums. Every day I look in her mouth, hoping to see more  of a tooth than the day before and it’s so minimal. My poor babies. My son actually developed ear infections when teething all of his molars because he would stay swollen for SO LONG, his ears couldn’t drain. Like I said, HORRIBLE at teething.

**Edit to add: my third child was less inconvenienced by teething and actually got teeth sooner than his siblings! My 7 year old just got another set of molars and he had no idea it was happening this time around, so there’s hope!

Teething or a sleep regression?

Teething is different from sleep regressions because you can actually DO something about teething, right? There’s all sorts of options from homeopathic tablets, oils, bracelets, teethers, to ibuprofen for pain management. 

Sleep regressions usually last for 1-2 weeks, maybe a bit longer depending on how they’re handled and often have a probable cause (ie crawling for example).

Is teething actually causing your sleep issues? Or is it a sleep prop dependency that’s starting to backfire/not work anymore?

In the first few years of life, your child will get 20 teeth in. Thankfully, some will erupt simultaneously and not all teeth will cause a problem. If you think that a tooth could cause issues for the 3-5 days it takes to erupt, then you’re looking at ~100 disrupted nights. (just for teething alone!) Yikes. 

If I’ve thoroughly freaked you out, imagine this scenario: You’ve got a 6 month old, who is now waking up every 2 hours at night. It’s about time for her first teeth to appear so duh, it must be teething. But WEEKS go by and no teeth erupt… OR a tooth does erupt and yet you’re still up every 2 hours. How can it still be teeth then? 

Because it’s not. Unless you see the evidence of it coming up.

Teething sucks because we know it’s going to happen at some point but when is such a mystery! My first child got his last set of molars when he was almost 3. THREE! That’s when he got his 2 year molars, okay? So yeah, I feel you. We just want to blame something to justify the sleep deprivation and teething is an easy choice. (or growth spurts & wonder weeks, but I won’t get on that soapbox…today.)

Research about teething

The one thing that almost all experts agree on is that teething is not as painful as us parents think it is. The tooth isn’t actually stabbing through the gums, but more so the gums remodel to allow the tooth to emerge. Most don’t even bleed, right? You would think that if teething was that bad, there would be consistent symptoms across the board but there’s not.

I love this study – it’s one of the most in depth, meticulous studies out there. The researchers sent dentists into the home of 47 children between the ages of 5-15 months EVERY day for 8 months. They checked temperature, examined gums, interviewed parents, etc. The study found that teething was associated with sleep disturbances, drooling, rashes, runny noses, diarrhea, appetite loss, irritability, and slight rises in temperature (not clinical fevers). But the interesting thing is that these symptoms consistently occurred only on the day that a child’s tooth erupted and one day after. No symptoms regularly occurred in the days before the tooth appeared.

Another study from the Cleveland Clinic stated that despite thousands of data points, there was nothing that could determine a child was teething BEFORE the tooth erupted. Because teething happens so frequently in those age ranges, other things often coincide with teething, but it’s not an actual result of teething.

How best can you support your baby during the day when teething? The best way is to give your little one some extra TLC. This can be done in the form of snuggles, nursing on demand or giving a pacifier, frozen teething rings, breastmilk popsicle, babywearing for naps, gentle gum massage, or even allowing your baby to gnaw a cold or chilled piece of fruit or vegetable (supervised), etc. 

Teething and lack of sleep can be related in the 1-3 days leading up to your child’s tooth cutting through. A common reason for your baby not sleeping well at night could likely be caused by the pain and discomfort they are feeling during the night. Pain tolerance is lower at night, but also when your baby is sleep deprived.

Baby teething and not sleeping!

How to get baby to sleep while teething is a common question we get, and with good reason— if baby isn’t happy, no one else is either. Here are our top tips:

How to get a teething baby to sleep?

• Keep a consistent schedule

• Relaxing and regular bedtime (naptime) routine

• Need a break? Take turns with your partner or call in friends to help when needed

• Ask your pediatrician about pain control

• Continue using a dark sleeping environment with white noise and a lovey if your baby is over 12 months old

• Stay calm and consistent

• Allow your baby to chew on cold teething toys during bedtime routine

Remember that teething will continue off and on for the next 2-3 years and that the only tell-tale sign of teething is swollen/red gums with little white nub under the surface. Try your best to have a plan, offer comfort when needed and be consistent in your routines and schedules.

What if it isn’t teeth causing an issue?

So what is causing the sleep problems if it’s not teething? It could be that they have mature sleep cycles now and when they’re being supported to sleep all the way, they will likely need that assistance back to sleep throughout the night during their many sleep/wake cycles throughout the night.

That means if they’re being nursed to sleep at the beginning of the night (rocked, bounced, etc) then that’s what they’ll need each time to go back to sleep.

Here’s another disclaimer: if your mommy gut says something is wrong (teething pain, sickness, etc) THEN TRUST IT! But if this is an ongoing thing, it’s okay to take control and help your child learn some independent sleep habits.

When you’re ready to do that then apply to work with me here!