Teething Blues

Ying Ying got her 1st serious bout of teething blues yesterday. Right now, she has 2 top and 2 bottom front teeth. One more coming out on the top left and it was all red and swollen.

It all started the day before yesterday - she started biting me a few times whenever I breastfed her. Then instead of wanting to be nursed to sleep (like always), she cried herself to sleep. She cried for so loud and long that we decided to turn on the air-con in case the neighbours complained.

But yesterday was terrible - she went on a total nursing strike. Everytime I tried to nurse her, she would suckle for like 1-2 seconds, pull away and scream even louder. The pressure from latching on must have been painful on her gums. Not only she rejected the breast, she also refused to eat or drink. We had a hard time consoling her. I had to pump out my breastmilk every 4-5hrs because she simply refused to nurse. Eventually, she gave in to solids when she got really hungry. I fed her cold stuff like yoghurt or her favourite avocado-mango-pear combi hoping to numb the pain in her gums.

For the second time since birth, she had low-grade fever - she looked listless, her lips were redder than usual and her face was visibly flushed. (The 1st time was after her 6th mth immunisation at the polyclinic. But she recovered quickly on her own.) We couldn't take her temperature because the battery of our digital scan thermometer was flat! Of all times!!! :<

I tried to stick one of those fever cooling pads on her forehead but she kept taking them off. In the end I was so desperate that I fed her liquid panadol not once but twice (as prescribed by the polyclinic nurses last time). I had been reluctant to give her medication because I hated the idea of putting chemicals into her body. Initially, I thought Ying Ying would put up a struggle when being fed with medicine. To my surprise, she was quite cooperative. It was obvious she liked the sweetness of the syrup - she even smacked her lips a few times! The panadol seemed to work because the fever subsided noticeably after that and she cried lesser too.

No parents enjoy listening to the cries of their children. It was all very distressing for us. We tried everything we could think of: giving her frozen teether, rubbing teething gel etc. but their effect didn't really last long. Luckily, hubby took a day's off to help me. I had persuaded him to do so because I was afraid I could not cope with all the round-the-clock hysterical crying. I am so glad to have a supportive husband around otherwise I would probably die of exhuastion. Thank God!