As our household enters the dark part of the teething season I am forced to write this post from a remote location as my safety continues to be compromised in my own home. Our son who has just turned 7 months old is currently salivating like a starved dinosaur as he endures his second bout of teething pains, this time it’s the turn of his front top teeth to cut through.
As a first time Father I can afford myself a few naiveties but when it comes to teething I should have prepared myself a little better. I actually thought we wouldn’t be going through the teething stage until he was at least two, so imagine my surprise when it all started when he hit five months! “How could this be?” I thought at the time, my baby boy was turning into a man before my eyes. “Why can’t babies just be babies anymore the boy doesn’t need teeth yet and anyway he looked good with just gums”. I had all sorts of odd images passing through my mind as I tried to imagine what he would look like with teeth. Anyway I survived the arrival of the bottom teeth albeit barely and I am now trying to survive the top two.
Before Teeth & With Teeth?!
During my limited experience of teething I have quickly realised that any illness or random symptom that my son develops during a time of teething will always be put down to teething. It’s hard to believe what teething can cause for example we have gone from good solid log bowel movements to Russian roulette style exploding nappies, mysterious rashes have come and gone yet the wild rabid dog behaviour continues.
During teething season it doesn’t matter if you are an innocent squeaky plastic giraffe or a caring Father attempting to comfort your teething Son, you are not safe! The overwhelming desire to bite hard on something comes over in waves and there is no prior warning. In fact I am lucky to be able to type this post, after an attempt at rubbing in some pain relief liquid nearly cost me my index finger. Anyway you live and learn and I now use a wooden spoon to test my son’s combustion levels from a safe distance.
I actually feel sorry for the boy as there isn’t much I can do to help him apart from the usual tips and tricks but none of them are that great. Therefore in the meantime I feel obliged to let him chew and bite on what he wants, within reason! One of his favourites is my work tie which seems harmless but just lately I have been going to work in a rather less than presentable state.
In fact on a side note the work tie doubles up as a good toy as it can easily be transformed into a snake or a whip and before you start dialling Child Line it is not me doing the whipping, it is me getting whipped. [Please feel free to continue dialling but if you replace the last two digits with 55 you can lodge a report to Parent Line on my behalf.]
All I can hope for is that his teeth force their way out sooner rather than later and he is given a little breather before the next ones decide to thrust their selves upon us.
