Teething sucks, for everyone involved! There's physical pain for your little one and emotional pain for you the mama, so keep on reading because I'm going to share with you all of my tips and tricks that I use for the physical pain which I know for me when I feel like I'm able to do something to give my little some relief it helps me with the emotional pain of seeing them suffer.
Before we really dive into my different pain relief tools, let's talk fevers. Now most doctors will tell you there's no correlation or reason that teething babies and toddler should have a fever when teething, especially during the time that those teeth are cutting through. But, talk to any mama, parent, or caregiver and I'm sure they've experience at least one of their children running a fever while cutting teeth and the baffling thing is that they are not sick so there should be no reason for the fever.
Well there is reason for that fever. One of the primary functions of a fever is to help move body building materials from one part of the body to another. When a child (or adult) is sick the fever helps to move the T-fighter cells to the area of the body that is being affected most by whatever is causing the sickness. During the process of cutting teeth a fever will spark if there is not enough calcium available in the mouth to push that tooth through, so the body will produce a fever to move more calcium from other areas of the body where it is not needed as much at that time and push it into that tooth to facilitate pushing the tooth through the gum. When I read about this process while going through my Master Herbalist program I was blow away! This also explains why some kiddos have such a hard time teething and other's are just not phased. So giving your child a good herbal calcium supplement that is easy to get down and super easy for their body's to assimilate is so helpful. One of my favorites is Dr. Christopher's Kid-E-Calc which is an herbal tincture that can be dropped right into the mouth and created straight from calcium rich herbs like: Nettle, Shavegrass, Oatstraw and Valerian.
You can snag Kid-e-Calc on amazon here
Ok, so now that we're giving the body the building blocks in really needs to do what it's got to do to push those teeth through, let's dive into my favorite pain relief tools...
First up, another of Dr. Christopher's amazing herbal tincture's for teething is Kid-e-Col which is a teething formula made form catnip and fennel herbs. These two herbs, which are usually used for digestion support, also offer great relief form teething (if your little also suffers from colic this is a must to have on hand!). I just takes a few drops in the mouth. I do my best to apply where the teeth are coming but when those babies become toddlers and have more teeth it always seems like there's a possibly of loosing a finger because they love to chomp down!
This is another one you can grab on amazon, just click here.
Now, let's touch on a little Homeopathic tools. This one got a little heat a few years ago, but for my kiddos in terms of homeopathic remedies it is what works the best even better than the one specifically labeled for teething. Hyland's Belladonna dissolvable tablets. Why did belladonna get some heat? Because it is a poisonous plant and when taken in large amounts can be harmful. As a little refresher, how homeopathy works is that you treat like with like. What that means is that you take a very diluted down version of the plant and use it to heal whatever is going on. During teething fever and inflammation is a big issue and belladonna when taken in a homeopathic dose helps to relieve those symptoms (but remember if that fever is spiking you babe needs some calcium too, we've got to give the body the building blocks it needs!) I've never had an issue with giving my kids a tablet or two of belladonna every few hours and it really does help to give them much needed relief.
Because amazon is our savior, head here to get it!
And the last tool in my toolbox is where my holistic journey all started, essential oils! I love making a teething roller for my kiddos to apply along the jawline. I use Young Living's oils because they are the most effective I've ever found and I've used A LOT of different brands in my 20+ years of using essential oils. My go-to oils for teething are PanAway and Copaiba. PanAway is an amazing oil blend that contains oils to help calm and sooth pain. Copaiba is one of the best oils too reduce inflammation, so these two make a powerhouse combo to relieve teething pain!
Making a roller is super fun and easy!
Just add 5-10 drops of each PanAway + Copaiba then fill the roller with fractionated coconut oil (or whatever your favorite carrier oil is!)
Head over to my Young Living website here to get these two oils and of course you can find my favorite organic fractionated coconut oil on amazon here.
Those are my tools! I hope this helps you and your little!
