Dana Obleman: Hi. I’m Dana. Welcome to this week’s video blog. Today, I want to talk about something called “Teething.” If I had a nickel for every time somebody told me their child was teething, that’s why they didn’t sleep well, I’d have a lot of nickels.

Teething, in my opinion, gets blamed for almost everything, “She’s got a runny nose, she must be teething.” “She’s got some diarrhea, she must be teething.” “She’s not sleeping well, it’s got to be teething.” [laughs]

I’m not saying that those things don’t happen. I’ve been around long enough to know that some babies don’t handle teething very well at all, but what I do know is that it is not an excuse for poor sleep habits. Could it be an excuse for a bad night here and there? Sure, that makes sense.

If a tooth is actually cutting through the gum and you can see it, I can believe that that’s causing some discomfort. Yes, a night or two, sure. Months or years? No way. There’s something else going on there. It is not teeth, and it shouldn’t be blamed on that.

Another thing I hear all the time is “I don’t know when to start the “SleepSense program,” or any kind of sleep change because I think she’s teething.” Well, some kids drool from the minute they’re born until they’re two and a half.

If that’s what you’re gauging it by, you might as well wait until all her teeth are in, and then worry about this problem because teething’s going to come and go for a couple of years. Is it really legitimately teething? I’m doubtful.

From the research I’ve done around teething, it’s not actually uncomfortable or causing pain unless the tooth is actually cutting the gum. Just drooling and chewing on things, in my opinion, is not full teething. Keep that in mind.

Also, there really is never going to be an opportune time to do this. You’ve got a trip coming up, she’s got the sniffles, or dad’s got a business conference, or you think she’s teething. Life is life, people and things come up, and we all have stuff. There’s never going to be a perfect time to go, “Oh, great, nothing’s happening. We can do this now.”

I don’t want you to use teething as a reason to postpone doing this. I say, go for it. Again, could it be? Maybe yes, maybe no, but you need to do this. If you’re to that point where you’re considering doing it, obviously it needs to be done. Let’s just jump in and get it done.

Now, good news is that when a child is sleeping well and is well rested, they’re going to handle their teething much better than a child who’s not. My kids, I never thought about their teething. I just would see a tooth in their mouth. I never checked, I didn’t think about it. One day they had teeth, that’s just the way it went.

I did notice that my daughter, when a tooth was actually cutting through, did get a little grouchier for a day or two, tended to need a little bit more sleep on those days. That’s really all the thought I gave it. My kids did really quite well with it. It’s like if you’re tired and you have a headache, headache feels worse than if you were well rested.

Another piece of good news around getting your children sleeping well is that they’re going to handle illnesses, teething, surgeries, you name it, much better than those children who are not sleeping well. I hope that helps you today. Thanks for watching. Sleep well.

Transcription by CastingWords