Does Teething Actually Affect my Baby's Sleep?

Teething gets blamed for just about every problem imaginable when it comes to babies. Baby’s got a fever? Probably because she’s teething. Crying more than normal? It’s got to be sore gums from those teeth coming in. Baby’s got runny poop for a couple of days? I’ve heard that diarrhea can be caused by teething. Excessive drooling? Must be teething!

Now, all of those things are potentially the result of a tooth coming in, that’s true. But most parents are too quick to blame teething for any and all deviations from the norm as soon as they notice that first tooth appearing below the gum line. And often times, even before they notice any swollen gums or that first tooth popping through.

But there will be plenty of things that will arise in baby’s life that we won’t always know the cause for. We can’t always jump the gun and assume it’s because of this reason or that. Obviously, as parents, we’re predisposed to preventing discomfort in our babies, and that’s a good thing.  And this is especially true when it comes to sleep. Of course the natural reaction when baby starts crying in the middle of the night is to go in and do whatever we can to soothe them.

But then what I see start to happen is that the parents, in most situations, have unintentionally made the situation worse. The new problem now becomes baby being unable to get to sleep without that comfort.

Let’s say you’ve been sleep training for a couple of weeks, everything’s been going well, and then suddenly, you start to see a regression. Baby is suddenly waking up crying two or three times a night. Or maybe, out of nowhere, it’s harder for them to go down to sleep at bedtime. Naturally, you’re going to start looking for a reason. And if a tooth is coming in, or if it’s about the time when they usually do – you just found the quickest and easiest answer.

And, no, it’s not fair to leave baby to cry if they’re actually in pain and not just looking for Momma to come nurse them back to sleep, so you give in and decide you’ll get back to sleep training once this whole teething thing is over with.

Cut to a year later, and baby is still getting rocked or soothed to sleep every time they wake up, because hey – I think there’s a tooth coming in! The reality is baby will be teething until they are 2.5 – 3 years old!

So here are a couple of things to bear in mind before you give up on your sleep training routine due to incoming choppers.

First of all, teething symptoms typically last for around eight days (and some studies even say they last much shorter than that!), so if you’re looking at two weeks of baby crying through the night, it’s either due to some other ailment, or baby has once again learned that crying when he wakes up will bring his favorite person into the room, and she’ll be helping him get back to sleep.

Second, teething symptoms are not nearly as uncomfortable as parents typically imagine they are. We hear about teeth “breaking” or “erupting” through the gums, which conjures up some cringe-worthy images, but nature is not nearly so heartless in this instance. Baby’s gums move out of the way to allow for incoming teeth.

Long story short, according to many experts, teething does not cause a significant amount of pain.

So, once again, I’m not suggesting to ignore the teething thing altogether. Just keep in mind that new teeth are not the villain they’re often made out to be. And remember, baby’s going to be a lot happier while going through the process if he’s getting full nights of uninterrupted sleep.

And the same thing goes for his parents.