My 9 month DD is teething again... During the day, she is usually OK with frozen teethers, tablets, and distraction. She doesn't have any issues as long as she's awake. But at night, those things don't seem to cut it so I have been giving her ibuprofen. My question is if it would be acceptable to give her the ibu. before I put her down, so instead of waking up from the pain she can sleep straight through, or is it a better idea to wait until I know that she needs the medicine before giving it to her? I dislike giving drugs to my DD (I rarely take them either, only in extreme cases) but I don't want her to be in pain, so I do what needs to be done for her comfort. I hate to think of her in so much pain that she wakes up screaming, and if giving her the meds before bed can help, I'm willing to do that... but I also don't like the idea of unnecessarily dosing her. What do you do? when she cut the two teeth she has now, she didn't seem to be in nearly as much pain as she has been in lately... and it is definitely teething, she doesn't have an ear infection or anything like that. (that was my first thought when I noticed the difference in severity.)
Of COURSE it's okay to give either tylenol or ibuprofen before bed. It's okay to give prophylactically, much less when you already know somethingis wrong.
Babies are lucky, their nerves aren't wired completely, so they don't feel pain the same way / a lot gets lost in transmission. But take it from someone who cut a tooth as an adult: Go get a steak knife and slice your gums. That's how it feels to cut a tooth.
I've always given my kids tylenol or motrin at night for teething. I don't give them anything for daytime (unless they are REALLY miserable.) Let her chew on a cold wash cloth and massage her gums with your finger. Poor little baby...both my kids didn't handle teething well at all.
Anyway to answer your question specifically, if I know that teeth are coming in, I just go ahead and give them a dose of motrin right at bedtime instead of waiting for the screaming at 2 a.m. Our dr. says that's just fine.
Good luck!
Lynsey
.
Pain is always relieved much easier if you treat it before it gets out of hand - screaming baby in the middle of the night. Make sure that if you do give the ibuprofen to give the baby something to eat (solid or formula) at the same time. A compromise I made for tose times I was quite sure how bad the pain was to give teething tablets (Humphreys is still on the shelves). That works pretty well for us but we have an amazingly easy teether.
I really hate using or giving any of those pain killers to my family because they are so bad for you. They can really hurt your liver and kidneys. Instead, we have found that homeopathic chamomilla to work wonderfully. I would try that to see if you had good results. Of course, on the rare occasion, we would use the ibu or tylenol. But, I can probably count on one hand the amount of times any of my children have used it since I learned how bad it is for them. I would give it before bed. If they woke up in discomfort, I would give them more. Just rub the little tablet (we use hyland's brand) on their tongue. It dissolves very quickly.
Good sleep pros out weighs cons of meds.. IMO. Also I have found that during the day, to help the teething, I got one of those net bags that are used for pieces of fresh fruit for infants, where they can squish fresh fruit & eat it thru the net bag thingy, well, use that & put ice cubes in it. The cold numbs it out & they can bite down & most love getting wet & just playing with the melting ice. worked like a charm for my two. Best of luck.
