In a paper presented over 100 years ago (1896) at a meeting of the American medical Association, Dr. S.W. Foster said the following about teething:
“The [teething] child becomes wakeful, restless, and fretful, refuses nourishment; the alimentary canal becomes more active, diarrhea follows, and if relief is not given, relaxation of the vital forces follows, and we have nausea, vomiting, confulsions, paralysis, and not infrequently, death.” (Source)
Fortunately, modern medicine has come a long way since the late 1800’s and we now know a lot more about teething.
Want to know what symptoms teething does cause? Learn about ten real teething symptoms.
10 Symptoms that Teething Doesn’t Cause
1 – Congestion
2 – Diarrhea
3 – Rashes that aren’t on the face
4 – A high fever (teething can cause a minor fever)
5 – Nausea
6 – Convulsions
7 – Paralysis
8 – Vomiting
9 – Sicknesses such as croup and primary herpetic gingivostomatitis
10 – Death
Although it can be argued that death isn’t a “symptom”, but I thought I would add it to the list since many years ago it was a very common belief that teething caused death because so many deaths occurred around the teething ages. These deaths were likely caused by sicknesses.
Find Out the Real Cause of the Symptom
A study that examined 125 children’s teething symptoms concluded the following:
“We discovered no evidence that teething was associated with any severe, health-threatening conditions. Thus, before attributing any signs or symptoms of a potentially serious illness to teething, physicians and parents must rule out other possible causes. Additional prospective studies may help determine whether occasionally individuals experience signs and symptoms in association with tooth eruption not described in our article.”
If it appears that teething is making your baby sick then you should try to figure out the real cause of the problem.
Do you have a question, comment, or story to share about teething symptoms in your baby? Go ahead and leave a comment in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!
Hi there!
My daughtet is just coming upto 7 months and i have noticed that the last few nights she isnt sleeping at all, when she was sleeping through the night. She is drooling alot, has a snotty nose, and is irritable at times, she is also very tired which i put down to not sleeping, but she has also gone very quiet and isnt her usual lively self which i guess is a sign of tiredness!
Do you think she maybe teething?
I will have a look at her gums this evening and compare to the photos which you have uploaded
Thanks
My almost one year old son has a tooth growing in the roof of his mouth. I have no idea if its suppose to be there or not, i would think not. It showed up about five days ago and he has been throwing up since then. And yelling like hes in pain. Its on the top left behind a moler thats already coming in.
Wow lady he’s been screaming and yelling for 5 days with a tooth sticking out of the roof of his mouth and you don’t take him to the doctor? Seriously, what’s wrong with you?? You go on the internet and post a comment yet don’t call your doctor.
In real life practice, not parents in a study, when a child is screaming we tend to let them chew on whatever to soothe them. Which then leads to the common diarrhea and upset stomach that is often reported with teething.