Teething is the process by which milk teeth erupts into the oral cavity by breaking through the gum pads. During this process it is very common to notice physiologic mediated inflammation around the site of tooth eruption. Teething is seen during 3months to 24 months of baby age. Most of the times gums of the erupting teeth look thick, fiery red in colour, tender, swollen and increased tendency to bleed on touch. Majority of the children feel uncomfortable and irritable during teething process. Some of the common symptoms what a child can present are:
•Irritability
•Biting their own fingers
•Lip biting
•Biting the hard objects between the gum pads
•Drooling of saliva
•Rashes over the cheek or chin region or sometimes over the chest area
•Not eating the food properly
•Sleep disturbance
•Increased frequency of crying
•Pulling their ears
•Diarrhoea, vomiting and fever in extreme cases which needs immediate medical attention.
Generally diarrhoea and fever are believed to be use of fomite borne infection. This is so because, during teething child generally puts any available hard object into its mouth and these objects harbour bacteria and viruses over it resulting in systemic symptoms.
The above mentioned symptoms may persists a week before and after tooth eruption. Once the tip of the tooth erupts the symptoms gradually decrease and disappear.
Managing teething:
If you find your child with any of the above mentioned symptoms then the following can be done to relieve their teething related problem:
•Caretaker should apply gentle pressure over the gum region and slowly rub that site with their clean fingers.
•Place a cold or chilled spoon or clean cotton cloth over the site of irritation. Using the freezed items helps in numbing the area and thus relieves the pain.
•A clean teething ring or rubber nipples can be given for the child to bite. This may or may not be refrigerated depending on how the child accepts it. It is very important to monitor the child while biting such objects as it may cause choking.
•Using hard vegetables like cleanly washed carrots to bite.
•Under doctors guidance give your child acetaminophen to relive the pain
•Antibiotic and related analgesics should be used only if fever or diarrhoea is seen and this should be given only under the guidance of the doctor.
Medications to avoid for teething problem:
•Benzocaine containing numbing gels or creams should be avoided. This is so because, benzocaine has the tendency to cause serious and life threatening condition called meth-haemoglobenemia in the child
•Asprin should be avoided, because it may causes a rare life threatening condition called Reyes syndrome.