But, does it help? Is it necessary?

I personally don’t think so…and here are 4 reasons why:

1. I don’t treat numbers, neither temperatures nor times.

When your child has fever, sometimes it’s not such a bad idea to let it be. If the child isn’t too uncomfortable and they are drinking well, it’s reasonable not to treat even if their temperature is high. If you’d like more information, read this great post from Dr. Paul Offit called, “The Case for Letting Fever Run It’s Course.” The bottom line is that treating fever may in fact cause the symptoms to last longer and the child to be contagious longer than just letting it run it’s course.

Bottom line: If treating the thermometer is not the best idea, should we be treating a child every three hours, around the clock, just in case? Maybe not.

2. It might keep the temperature lower, but it doesn’t make kids feel better.

There have been a few studies that suggest treating fever on a scheduled basis might keep the child’s temperature lower. So, it probably does work to do that. The interesting thing with those studies is that when you ask the parent how well they thought the fever was controlled, both groups reported that their fever control was adequate.

Bottom line: Even if the temperature was lower, the parents couldn’t tell the difference in how the child felt.

3. It increases the risk of extra doses.

When your child is sick, you are tired and stressed, things are complicated enough. The risk of extra doses is significantly higher when you are alternating medications. While the risk of an extra dose here and there probably isn’t high, if there is little to no benefit, I choose not to risk it.

Bottom line: If you are going to do alternating doses, write them down somewhere to keep track.

4. I’m lazy and it’s too much trouble for me.

This is not one of those issues that I’m willing pick a big fight with another doctor or patient over…but given the three points above combined with my desire to keep everything as simple as possible, I don’t personally alternate fever reducers for my kids and I don’t routinely recommend it for my patients.

Well, it is not from teething but it could be from the treatment you are using for it.

Fever, congestion, diarrhea, fussiness, putting things in their mouth, not sleeping well, you name it and someone has attributed it to teething.

So how do you treat the pain associated with teething?

There are lots of products available most of which are not helpful and can be potentially harmful.

Avoid products with benzocaine and lidocaine (oragel and other gels). These have been known to cause a problem in babies called methemoglobinemia where your child will turn BLUE. I mean smurf crazy blue and is obviously a medical emergency. Also, avoid products with belladonna (teething tabs) as this has known to be poisonous and doesn’t have studies proving that it decreases pain anyway.

This quote comes from the healthychildren.org article on teething (click to see full article):

“To ease your baby’s discomfort, try gently rubbing or massaging the gums with one of your fingers. Teething rings are helpful, too, but they should be made of firm rubber. The teethers that you freeze tend to get too hard and can cause more harm than good.) Pain relievers and medications that you rub on the gums are not necessary or useful since they wash out of the baby’s mouth within minutes. Some medication you rub on your child’s gums can even be harmful if too much is used and the child swallows an excessive amount.”

So what symptoms really do come up before babies cut their teeth? When can we expect teeth to erupt? What can we do for our children when they are teething?

The best study I have found about teething was done in 2000 and included lots of kids and 475 tooth eruptions. Click here to see the study.

The symptoms that they found to be associated with teething were the following:

• Biting
• Drooling
• Gum-rubbing
• Sucking
• Irritability
• Wakefulness
• Ear-rubbing
• Facial rash
• Decreased appetite for solid foods
• Mild temperature elevation

The following symptoms were NOT associated with teething:

• Congestion
• sleep disturbance
• stool looseness or increased stool number
• Decreased appetite for liquids
• Cough
• Rashes other than facial rashes
• Fever over 102 degrees F
• Vomiting

I have seen some studies that will include congestion in the symptom list for teething. I think one of the main misconceptions is about fever. I commonly have parents ask if 102-103 temp could be caused by teething and the studies are pretty clear that if the fever is that high, it probably isn’t just teething.

If our children are particularly fussy from teething, we will occasionally use Tylenol^® and if more than 6 months old Motrin^® according to weight appropriate dosing sporadically for a day or 2 until symptoms subside.

The main thing is that you have to be flexible with your child and allow them a little extra grace for changes in sleep and feeding habits. Teething is normal and should be consider a normal developmental stage. It can be disruptive to schedules and the extra fussiness can make things stressful. Hang in there, this phase is temporary.

Related article:

4 teething myths every parent should know