I Wonder If Teething Is Like Itching

Recently, I had the radical thought that giving babies teething toys while they are teething just makes the situation worse.

I say this because I have bought a total of nine 'teething toys' for Adrian. Some have the fluid in them, some have no fluid but bumps around the place, others are just odd shapes of slightly rubbery material. Out of nine, there is probably only one that he gets excited about. The others all get one or two seconds of chewing and then are chucked. The favorite one seems to do something for his gums for awhile. He seems somewhat satisfied when he first starts chewing but after awhile, it ends up frustrating him and he very often ends up a grumpy baby after spending time with this teething toy.

It got me thinking of mosquito bites and itches in general. Scratching an itch satisfies it momentarily. But, you always need to scratch harder and longer to keep that satisfied feeling. And when you stop, the itch always seems itchier. So, maybe teething is similar. I have no idea what it feels like and I don't think any of the teething toy companies do either. All I know is that its some sort of discomfort and perhaps pain.

So, I've stopped giving him any of those toys whenever we go out (especially at mass where I thought that it was a way of keeping him quiet). He didn't seem to need them as there is plenty of visual distractions around. He also had less episodes of getting frustrated and throwing the toy, flinging his drool and arching his back.

I have tested my theory and gave him the favorite one day. There wasn't enough exciting visual distractions around for him to refuse it so he chomped down on it. And sure enough, he was satisfied for quite awhile but in the end, there was frustration, noise and grumpiness.

And that's all I have for you on this very long today. Bloggers block. I did have more thoughts on this earlier but as the day wore on, they all fell out of my head, one by one. *sigh*