All you need to know about Teething

Teething is a process of teeth eruption from the gums for the babies. It usually occurs between 4-24 months of age. However in rare scenarios babies have been born with 1-2 teeth and in such cases based on the discomfort caused to the baby or mother while feeding doctors even remove these.
Eruption of a teeth can take several days and the entire teething process for all the teeth takes several months. Every child is different in terms of the time it takes for teething and the symptoms shown during teething. Also the younger the baby is when teething the more difficult it is to handle the pain and discomfort, so as a parent you need to be more careful and aware.

Symptoms of teething-

1. Irritability- Its the most common symptom of teething. Teething causes pain and discomfort, as the babies do not know how to express that they show signs of irritability.
2. Mild fever- Lot of kids might run mild temperature so keep the fever medicine handy.
3. Diarrhea- This is another symptom, though not every kid will have this. 
4. Swollen gums- teeth eruption causes gums to swell. 
5. drooling-  This is a very common symptom that tells you that the kid has swollen gums and is teething
6. Biting-There will be urge to bite as the gums would be swollen and paining. You could be at the receiving end when breastfeeding.
7. Sleep discomfort- The pain and discomfort during teething can cause sleep discomfort among babies
8. Sudden changes in eating patterns- Lot of kids stop eating during the teething phase or they would eat very little, at-least mine used to eat hardly anything and that is how we diagnosed that she has started teething.

What can be done to ease out the teething process for babies?

1. Give them hard food to chew on-This relieves the urge to bite, try carrots, cucumbers etc.
2. Keep it cool- Keep finger sized chunks of carrots and cucumbers in refrigerator and give it to your baby to chew on. The cooling effect will reduce the pain and swelling.
3. Massage the gums- you can simply massage the gums with a clean finger. It relieves the pain.
4. Use natural teethers- you will find variety of teethers in the market but trust me the best teethers are the raw vegetables and fruits. These are 
5. Use medicines if baby gets fever or diarrhea- Keep medicines handy but avoid giving things like gripe water or honey as precautionary measure. These are not recommended till 1 year of age for the baby to consume.