There are certain stages of parenting that can be very stressful and none might be worse than when your child is teething. The constant discomfort causes crying, irritability, and stress for your child and an overwhelming feeling of helplessness for you. Seeing your child in pain or even just uncomfortable is an awful experience. More and more parents are choosing not to treat teething with over the counter products like Tylenol because these drugs can cause other issues that in the long run might be even more serious.
I searched all of the “mommy blogs”, parenting websites and asked friends and family how they dealt with this difficult issue. I was told about using the age-old teething rings that you can put in the freezer, about gel-filled teething toys, using frozen mini bagels and even letting my child chew on my bent knuckle.
I tried the frozen teething ring first and thought it was going to be the answer that I was looking for, but in about 10 minutes it was beginning to melt and spent more time on the floor than in my son’s mouth. The frozen bagel lasted a little bit longer but I think that the dog ended up liking that concept better than my son and I. And chewing on my finger really didn’t interest my little guy, however, he really liked being held all of the time. I, on the other hand, got nothing accomplished for about 4 hours. So it was back to the Internet.
A natural option: This time I was more selective and searched for a natural teething remedy. This got me to a product that I had ever heard of, a Baltic amber necklace for babies. And to be honest, I had to read several articles before I started to believe that I might be on to something. The explanation was that these pieces of Baltic Amber contain a substance called Succinate.
So I googled that and found that it is a natural compound that is found in the human body and other natural sources. When these beads are worn next to the skin you absorb this compound which has multiple benefits including pain relief, anti-inflammatory properties, a calming effect and an improved immune system.
Our experience: In all honesty, after the first week of teething I was willing to try anything and this set of bead cost less than the bag of frozen bagels and one freezable teething ring. When the beads arrived I immediately scanned the literature and slipped them on my little guy. He really didn’t seem to notice it or care about it so I think that we both forgot about it for a few hours. At bedtime, I decided to just leave it on his ankle and see if it would even survive the night as he was sleeping very little and kicking and crying a lot.
The next morning, I was amazed to go into my son’s room to see a smiling child! He was much calmer and happy. We have been using the beads for a few months now and we have had no more sleepless nights even as he cut two more teeth. Not only am I happy to have found a remedy for my son’s pain but also I am happy that it is a natural product.