What I've Learned about Teething: Amber is a Fad and Orajel is Just Plain Bad

Rosie was at it again with teething recently. Elevated temperature, crankiness and all. My poor little baby finally had her second tooth push through, hopefully buying us a little reprieve from the teething madness. With so many of fellow mamas dealing with the same situation I figured I would throw some of things that I feel work for us and things that I recommend staying away from.

Hyland's teething tablets and gel have been our choice when her wooden teether, a wet washcloth and nothing else work. The tablets are amazing: they dissolve fast and give instant relief. Same goes with the gel, I just personally think it is slightly messier. It's 100% homeopathic and a far better alternative to the mainstream stuff like Orajel. (However for the sake of honesty, hyland's tablets were recalled briefly a few years ago because of the natural ingredient belladona in the tablet. However for a child to get an overdose of belladona they would have to ingest at the same time over a hundred of the tablets.)

Speaking of orajel though, when I started to do my research I was kind of horrified with what I found. FYI, Orajel had a recall this past year because of the presence of benzocaine in it. Because of how easy it is to overdose with orajel, I recommend staying away from this product.

Also if you are considering using an amber teething necklace, I'd say you are better off saving your money. It has really baffled me that mothers are embracing this fad so eagerly on nothing but a bunch of ancedotal evidence ("well I am not sure if it works but I swear my baby's teething would be so much worse without it"). If a company came out and said they had invented a product that leaks soothing chemicals into your little one's body I highly doubt people would be so eager to use it. I haven't found a single scientific journal, .gov or .edu source to verify that the amber necklaces actually works. In fact the only information I have found is from a bunch of websites that sell them, talk about a very biased source.

I forgot to mention that I also liked Humphrey's dissolvable teething sheets but not as much as I liked Hyland's. My first solution will always be to offer a cool washcloth or frozen teether because that seems to help with the pain associated with swollen gum.