Puddles O' Drool

Oh for the love! 2 year molars are officially on my list! Will I ever get my lovey, happy, giggly, playful boy back? I can't even imagine the anguish he is going through. 1 molar has officially popped out, another is right under the gum & on the verge of breaking through...the other 2 are a mystery. I'm looking forward to no more teething. Rumor has it that this could be the last of it for years and I am happy dancing as I type.

I think I've read more about teething and teething symptoms for toddlers over the last 2 weeks than there is coverage of the Olympics (which by the way...USA still in lead with most Gold!)

I hate how Dr's contradict each other when it comes to teething causing fevers, runny noses, or any other random virus symptom your child gets just before a tooth breaks skin.

I like to call it the $10 conspiracy. You Kaiser members know exactly what I'm talking about. Kaiser has a habit of insisting everything is a virus & nothing can take it away except Ibuprofen. And you find out this wealth of knowledge only after you pay the glorious $10 co-pay.

My son had 3 days of low grade (100 - 101) fevers followed by 2 days of fevers ranging from 101 to 103 right before molar # 1 popped out. He had said fevers without any other symptoms for 3 or 4 days...then comes the congestion & the drool factory. I almost regressed to bibs, but his little neck was too big for the ones I had on hand.

For the 3 or 4 days when fever was the only symptom of something being wrong with my child (well, fever and crankiness, and irritability...) Kaiser Advice Nurses were pretty stumped by this but insisted I bring my son in to rule out Meningitis. (Hello Advice Nurses...the Puddle O' Drool I kept referring to in each of my calls was not clue # 1 what he was going through?!?!) I'm sure each advice nurse was fairly irritated that I kept bringing up the teething as a possible guilty party for the fever, but let's face it...all other symptoms of Meningitis did not apply in our situation...so let's continue to trouble shoot together.

When the fever finally broke...so did Josh's gum and Viola! Molar # 1 made an appearance. Coincidence...I think not.

Rule # 1 of teething...every baby is different. No child will react exactly the same. There is no perfect example to follow. I will say there is a wealth of knowledge out there via Google search...and I now consider myself a teething specialist.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that I think the worst is over. I think now that the 1st molar has broken through, Joshua has also learned to cope with the pain a little easier and the next time he feels it (which can literally be at any time,) it won't be so foreign to him & hopefully he can express where it hurts so we can be ready with Tylenol & teething tablets in hand.