Tylenol and teething - did you use it, and if so, how often?

[Anonymous]

Our DD had a horrible week around 5.5 months - right before her bottom two front teeth came in. She was miserable much of the time, drooling and gnawing on everything, and kept waking up crying. We ended up giving her tylenol once a night, every night for almost the entire week. (Even the nights we tried to skip it, she would wake up crying and we'd cave in and give it to her at 3 AM.) Once the second tooth came through, though, it got much better, and we stopped giving it to her about a week after we started. The "teething" continues on and off for a while, but at least for our DD, she seems to have peaks and valleys around tooth eruptions, and so we reserve the medication for when she is most miserable and/or when her temperature is on the high end. I, too, sometimes think about skipping it entirely, though, out of concern about long-term effects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not try the homeopathic teething tablets and gel? They're natural and definitely work.

They creep me out, personally, with tiny amounts of poison (belladonna) in them.

plus caffeine... me too. I try to avoid Tylenol as much as possible but at least it has been tried and tested and is recommended by my ped.

Oh dear, I used these almost every night for 6 mo.!

[Anonymous]

Our ped said Motrin over Tylenol.

[Anonymous]

I did Tylenol (our ped never said motrin - but I also didn't ask). I used it when my son was totally miserable and couldn't sleep. The first tooth was bad and then molars was really, really bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our ped said Motrin over Tylenol.

Just curious - why? Was it a safety thing or an efficacy thing?

[Anonymous]

Motrin is not safer than tylenol. Motrin is dangerous to the stomach lining and tylenol bad for the liver.

Use medications with care, and within dose.

Yes, as pointed out above, the homeopathic remedies work because of belladonna. However, belladonna and caffeine are the least of your worries in those remedies (many medications are poisonous if abused). The bigger problem in the homeopathic tablets is the willow bark. Willow bark's active ingredient is identical to that in aspirin, and thus completely inappropriate for children. I'd stick with motrin or tylenol before the homeopathics. (camomile is fine, but not very effective for teething.)