When is the right time to start using a teether for a baby? The teething process for a baby typically occurs between the ages of six to twelve months old. However, there has been the rare occasion a newborn may already have a tooth on the way upon birth or just a few weeks afterward. It’s also not uncommon for babies to have their first tooth grow in when they’re as young as three months old or as late as fourteen months old. This should not be a cause for concern for you as a parent. However, if you suspect something isn’t quite right, don’t hesitate to contact your family doctor or dentist.
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Keeping Watch
The first year of your baby’s life will be met with a series of milestones that make the experience of parenthood an exceptionally exciting one. During this time, your baby will have a series of firsts. While the growth of the first tooth seems exciting enough, it can also be a painful one for your baby. As a loving parent, it can also be a painful experience for you. This is all the more reason to watch your baby closely so that when the signs and symptoms of teething begin, you’ll have a better understanding of how to cope. It should also be pointed out that sometimes a baby’s teething process may take a bit longer than twelve months to begin.
Every Baby Is Unique
Bear in mind, no two babies are exactly alike. Like you, they are members of the human race that have their own personalities and tolerances. When they start teething, the duration of this process depends entirely on your baby’s physics. In the meantime, it’s your responsibility to check for signs of teething that include body temperature issues, drooling, irritability, tender gums, and the desire to gnaw on something such as your baby’s own hands. These are indicators your baby’s teeth are beginning to grow in. Normally, the front bottom gums will be the first to expose two new teeth moving in before the two at the top follow suit. Again, however, no two babies are exactly the same.
On average, the full set of twenty primaries (baby) teeth should appear in your baby’s mouth by the time they’re three years old. This means the teething process may span for a period of approximately two years before your baby’s teething process is over. Usually, teething symptoms begin just before a new tooth sprouts forth inside your child’s mouth. These remain until your child becomes six or seven years of age. At this time, the primaries fall out to make way for permanent teeth. This can take as long as several years before all thirty-two secondary teeth officially move inside your child’s mouth.
Personal Experience
Speaking from personal experience, I actually had two primaries remain in my mouth until I was fifty years old. The first of the two finally dropped out when I was forty-six while the second did so just weeks after I turned fifty. They were located at the very back of my mouth, on the left side. The bottom came out first, then the top one. At the time, I thought this was an anomaly. Although my situation was indeed rare, I learned from my dentist that I wasn’t the only person to be what he described as a “late bloomer.”
When your baby begins the teething process, this serves as a catalyst behind the “terrible twos.” Typically from two to three years old, your growing baby has to deal with a little body that is determined to develop the best way it knows how. During this time, the laws of physics couldn’t care less how you and your baby feel about it. Your baby’s body is going to do what it is designed to do, which is to grow and mature over time. Because of this, growing pains are guaranteed to occur during the process.
The Growth Experience
Teething is part of that growth experience every human being has to go through whether they like it or not. While this painful reality for your baby is unavoidable, the severity of the situation can be reduced when investing in teethers. Like all products, not all teethers are necessarily created equal. Although designed with a common goal in mind, the quality level of teethers depends entirely on how it was manufactured.
Check out our next article are the ten most recommended teether-related products that will help you and your baby get through this experience together with the least amount of discomfort possible.
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When To Use A Teether For A Baby? article published on BabyCareGuru.com© 2023
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