Mar 21 2023 10 mins 1
The first signs of teething arrive around 4 months when your baby will start drooling like Niagara Falls and be constantly shoving her hands in her mouth.
When I saw these signs, I was excited and proud that a tooth was coming! And then I waited and waited and waited….
My anticipation was a rookie mistake, as most kids will drool like that for about 2 months until the first tooth actually materializes, generally around 6 months.
Chronic Teething vs Acute Teething
There are large variations in tooth appearance related to your genetics, but most of us will overestimate the arrival of that first tooth, which will be the bottom middle teeth aka lower central incisors. I refer to this stage of teething as chronic teething, when we are waiting, seeing all that drool and have no rewards.
Acute teething occurs when the tooth is piercing through the gums. This is the most painful part of teething and usually, lasts 1-2 days. It’s a hard diagnosis to make since you can’t be 100% sure that the pain / poor sleeping is related to teething until the tooth pierces through the gum and you can see it, and by then the pain is receding. It is a hindsight diagnosis.
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