Chewing on his hand
So i’ve got it into my head that maybe the “newborn” is teething; he’s actually now 12 weeks old and probably not newborn any more, though.
I thought this from around 10 or 11 weeks. Why? Well he’s chewing on his hands a lot and this behaviour has increased in the last few days. He’s slightly more drooly but that could just be from the increased sucking and chewing on back of his hand. I think that i’ve seen something that could be teeth under his gum, but i’m not 100% sure. My first-born, now nearly aged 2, got his first tooth around 4.5 months, and never looked back sprouting all his teeth apart from the back molars by the time he was one (here’s a link to all the teething posts from the first time around).
Of course, it might not be teething at all, afterall it feels a bit early. I’m looking carefully around the space his bottom front teeth would be as they are apparently the first to come in according to sources such as the NHS on teething symptoms and how babies’ teeth emerge.
Teething symptoms
Some teeth grow with no pain or discomfort at all. At other times you may notice that the gum is sore and red where the tooth is coming through, or that one cheek is flushed. Your baby may dribble, gnaw and chew a lot, or just be fretful.
(NHS; link above)
As their teeth erupt, some babies may become fussy, sleepless and irritable, lose their appetite or drool more than usual. Diarrhea, rashes and fever are not normal for a teething baby. Prior to tooth eruption, the gingiva [baby-brain does not know what this is] may appear bluish and swollen as a result of a transient hematoma. In rare cases, an eruption cyst develops. The tooth will eventually rupture this watery sac as it pushes through the gums….
(pg 116; Gugwad, S., Bommanavar, S., & Garud, S. (2012) Teething: A Relook. Int J Dent Case Reports, 2(5):115-120)
Baby with tooth
So how long do I have to wait and see if it is a tooth, or not?
Tooth eruption takes place during an 8-day window that includes 4 days before tooth eruption, the day of eruption and the 3 subsequent days
(Markman, 2009, cited in Memarpour, 2015)
Read more on “tooth eruption and teething in children” here
Other references:
- Markman L (2009). Teething: facts and fiction. Pediatr Rev, 30:59-64,
- Memarpour, M., Soltanimehr, E., & Eskandarian, T. (2015). Signs and symptoms associated with primary tooth eruption: a clinical trial of nonpharmacological remedies. BMC Oral Health, 15:88