Babies can begin to teethe as early as just a few months old, but it might take a while before the actual tooth even appears. Some babies never show any signs of teething apart from drooling and chewing on everything. Others will get fussy and cranky as the tooth is popping through. Some babies will sleep through it all while others will have numerous night wakings. Some experts have said it will not disrupt sleep, but I wholeheartedly disagree. As with everything else, all babies are different and they will all have different pain tolerances. I know that my son did seem to be affected and since none of us can go back and know what it feels like, I believe it’s our job, as parents, to be sympathetic, while also making sure they get enough sleep.
Here are my tips for handling teething and your baby’s sleep:
- If baby is extra fussy during the day when he’s awake (i.e. he is not fussy because he is sleepy), make sure you make him extra comfortable at bedtime. You can use a dose of Motrin or Tylenol or teething tablets and cold washcloth to numb the gums. (Please note that Orajel has now been discouraged for babies under two years old by the FDA). Note: My pediatrician did not OK Motrin until 6 months old. I prefer Motrin because it lasts longer (6 hours) than Tylenol (4 hours), but you should check with your pediatrician about when you can administer it to your baby.
- “Teethers” can be another great (and medicine-free) way to alleviate the pain of teething. We recommend The Nuby Teether, Baby Banana Teething Toothbrush, and the Zo-Li Teethers to our clients.
- Given a baby teethes for what feels like a constant 2 years, you should figure out a plan for how you will handle it. You can’t allow too much sleep deprivation in the name of “teething”, since you may think something is a teething problem, but it’s really a sleep problem.
- My plan with my first son was that if he was extra fussy during the day, I’d give him Motrin (and Orajel which is now a no-no) at bedtime. If he had any night wakings 6+ hours (give or take 1 hour) after the medication, I’d tend to him with another dose and then stay with him for 30 minutes until it kicked in and then put him back down. It was usually only about 2-4 days of super fussy times that he needed extra soothing until the tooth popped through. Other times, I’d have to be more stringent on my nighttime visits, because of the problems it would create.
- If you are nursing, expect baby to possibly nurse more frequently as it feels good on their gums. As always, you may have to set limits and be careful not to create a sleep association with nursing to sleep.
Should You Stop Sleep Training During Teething?
In general, my answer will be no. If you waited for all your baby’s teeth to pop through before you sleep train, you might wait over 2 years! Some baby’s teeth pop through at a few months old but others don’t until past a year old! Since you have no way of knowing, you need to just do your best and make sure you prioritize your baby’s sleep. Having said that, you may need to alter your plan a bit, as I suggested above, during the few days the teeth are about to erupt through the gums. (You might notice them right on the surface of the gums and your baby is extra fussy). Otherwise, help them feel comfortable, but continue to be consistent and help them learn to sleep better.
Need more sleep training tips while teething? Become a member and unlock more teething and sleep training tips along with access to all our e-Books, recordings, workbooks, live chat with a sleep consultant, ‘Ask the Author,” and more!
Nora says
My lo is 4months old now and before two weeks i finally moved him to his room but sleep has been a nightmare. Even though he falls asleep really easy at bedtime he only stays asleep until 1am and after that he wakes every hour crying. I know he is teething but he doesn’t seem that much in pain. I tried using Tylenol but it didn’t work. Im going mad. Any tips?
Danielle says
Hi Nora,
Thank you for visiting The Baby Sleep Site! I’m sorry you’ve been having some trouble with night sleep. Based on your description, I think you may be dealing with the 4 month sleep regression, which can cause a lot of night waking. We have an article on it that I hope will help here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-regression-2/4-month-sleep-regression-checklist/
Good luck!
Allison says
My baby will be seven months on Friday. Up until two weeks ago he slept pretty well only getting up once around 4 AM to breast-feed. In the past two weeks he has gotten up multiple, multiple times per night screaming sometimes for minutes, sometimes for hours. Any suggestions?
Danielle says
Hi Allison,
Thank you for visiting The Baby Sleep Site! I’m sorry to hear you’re dealing with these tough night wakings 🙁 When something like this comes on suddenly, we always recommend checking in with a pediatrician first thing, because it could be something like an ear infection or another medical issue that needs treatment. A pediatrician can also give you some advice on whether pain killers at bedtime would be a good fit for you, if your son is teething.
If he is medically cleared, there is sometimes a growth spurt around this age, and some babies will add a feeding back in for a couple of weeks at night. If you feed your son and he goes back to sleep easily, hunger might be the issue. If you feed him and he’s still waking a lot, though, then it may be a scheduling issue or something else with his sleep environment causing the waking. We have an article on the most common causes of night waking here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-training/baby-toddler-night-waking-15-reasons
I hope this helps, but please let us know if you have any questions!
Danielle Loveless says
One of my twin girls is getting all 4 of her molars and we are on a full week of waking up in the middle of the night. She had always been an easy sleeper and STTN so I only imagine it’s her teeth. Some nights are easy to get her back to sleep, others it’s taken 2-3 hours. How long does it normally take for molar pain to be over?
Debbye @ The Baby Sleep Site says
Hi @Danielle – Thank you for writing and I am sorry that your daughter’s teeth are causing sleep disruptions! As you can imagine, the molars may take longer than the other teeth to emerge. since they have a larger surface area that needs to break free from the gums. Every toddler is different and responds differently to teething, but if you are concerned, or if this continues over another week, do check in with her doctor, to rule out any troubles with the teeth or other reasons for her waking.
Good luck Danielle!
Kylie says
Hi there. My poor baby is only but struggling with her teething, her first bottom two came out about 2 months ago, although the process started at 3 months. She wasn’t nearly as fussy and moody as she is now, then it lasted about 3 days and now with the top two it feels like it’s been forever. What I’m most concerned about is that she has hectic diahoria in which she poops atleast once every hour sometimes 3 times in an hour. Shes not really interested in eating but she does drink a bottle of milk every now and then. Do you have any advice at all? Any remedies that can help her sleep better as well?
Neosha says
@Kylie – Thank you for reading and for sharing. Such awful diarrhea sounds terrible! If you haven’t checked in with her healthcare provider about it to make sure hydration and nutrition is covered with such frequent bowel movements, we’d encourage you to do so. Increase in bowel movements or looser stools could definitely be caused by the teething. If your daughter’s healthcare provider okays and you haven’t considered Motrin or Tylenol to help with the pain or some form of teether, those would be a great first place to start. My LOs never much cared for teethers but the Motrin was a lifesaver for us! Hang in there, Kylie!
Nicole says
So I have a 6 month old who used to sleep through the night but now is waking up to 6 times a night, she has cut her first bottom tooth and is likely getting the other side. She can put herself to sleep for naps and at bed time but cannot get back to sleep when she wakes up every two hours. I have tried the cry it out method, I’ve tried feeding her or cuddling her and that works but doing that 5 times a night is wearing us both out. Any suggestions or ideas of what I can do
Janelle Reid says
Hi @Nicole, thank you for writing to us. I am so sorry to hear you are struggling with teething! I have been there with my son as well. I know you are likely trying everything you can, it will just be important to walk the line of comforting without creating bad habits which can be very challenging. Even though she is able to put herself to sleep at night initially, it still sounds like she may be waking more out of habit (and may be extra agitated because of the teeth) since it’s that every 2 hour mark which is a classic sign of a sleep association. Here is a link to a free guide to help getting your baby sleeping through the night (and a few wake ups at this age to feed are still ok, just not every 2 hours) that may help: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-sleep-through-night-free-ebook/
If you need more help let us know. We have a team of sleep consultants that can help troubleshoot any sleep issue you’re having – teething related or not – and can help get sleep back on track so you also feel like a better mom and more functional human being! Here is a link to all of our options to work with a consultant: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-toddler-sleep-consulting-services/
I hope this helps, hang in there!
Rebecca says
My LO got his first teeth at 4 months. His teething timeline seems to be a bit long with him becoming agitated for about 2 weeks before teeth erupt and then it takes about 2 more weeks for the discomfort of the teeth growing in to subside.
He started teething again starting around 8 months and has been teething for a month and a half with no end in sight. At 9.5 months he has all 4 top teeth and 1 lower lateral incisor (total of 7 teeth) and is currently cutting the 2nd lower lateral incisor and his 2 top molars!! His doctor confirmed it’s unusually but not unheard of and said to try to keep him comfortable. It also looks like he may start cutting lower molars as well ? At this rate he may have 12 teeth by his first birthday.
All this teething plus a period of time of LO learning to crawl/pull up had disrupted his sleep. Before 8 months he was sleeping through the night but now he wakes super early 4am with a hard time going back down or he wakes multiple times at night unable to return to sleep. I’ve definitely may have started some bad habits by cosleeping/holding/rocking him.
My questions are can I try to prevent these new bad habits from sticking and how can I deal with this unusually uncomfortable time for him without causing bad habits?
Janelle Reid says
Hi @Rebecca, thank you for writing! I am so sorry you’ve been struggling with your LO’s teething! Yikes! I am in a similar boat to you with my youngest son (not quite as fast at growing teeth but it seems they are all coming in for me at once) so I understand the struggle for sure. 🙁 It is super challenging. It is likely some bad habits have formed as you’ve been comforting him because you know he is uncomfortable, but know that you can definitely get back your sleep! It’ll just depend on when you want to start and finding the right balance of comfort and firmness for him. Here is a link to download a free guide with tips to help with his sleeping so you can get instructions on how to break the bad habits: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-sleep-through-night-free-ebook/
Something I reminded myself during the time of my son getting all his molars at once was that being overtired with teething will make things worse, so I think it’s awesome you’re here trying to figure out how to help! I personally found an amber teething necklace (taken off during sleep times) did wonders for us, but I definitely still had to use medicine at times too.
If you need more help breaking the habits let us know and we’d be happy to walk through this with you. Feel free to contact us directly anytime at [email protected]. Hang in there!
Mary Katherine says
It can be super difficult, but I agree – it is crucial to try and maintain a normal sleep schedule even once the teeth start to appear. Unfortunately, some people are more sensitive and easy to wake up than others!
Neosha says
@Mary Katherine – Thank you for reading and for commenting. We’re so glad you enjoyed our article!
Rachel says
Hi,
My 5 month old little boy has had trouble sleeping since about 3 months old. He fights day time naps, if he does take a nap during the day the longest will be 30 minutes max. He has NEVER slept through the night, his longest sleep at night was 3 hours. He wakes up through the night every hour too. He is a fully breastfed baby and he has just cut his first tooth! Please help!
Janelle Reid says
Hi @Rachel, I am so sorry you’ve been struggling with your son’s night and naps. We would love to help. It sounds like there may be a few things going on, and I think you would most benefit from working with a sleep consultant. We have an amazing team that can help create a plan that will work with your family and get your son on a schedule that everyone feels good about! If you are interested, you can visit our services page here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-toddler-sleep-consulting-services/ and if you have specific questions about which package would be best, feel free to contact us directly at [email protected]
Hang in there!
Lydia says
Our 11 month old bub is fully sleep trained and has been since 5 months. He’s working on his first tooth and it’s taking FOREVER. For the last two weeks, he’s woken probably two thirds of those nights between 2:30 and 4, something that he hasn’t done since we sleep trained. We give him a dose of ibuprofen and if I feed him he immediately falls back to sleep. If I don’t feed he cries for 45 minutes (we do 5 minute check-ins) and then I feed him and he goes back to sleep immediately. We haven’t pushed it until he’s gotten himself back to sleep for the sake of keeping him well-rested but it feels like we are starting an unhelpful sleep association. No idea what to do and any advice will be helpful! Thank you so much!!
Debbye @ The Baby Sleep Site says
Hi @Lydia – Thank for visiting us, and I am sorry to hear that your son has started waking in the night! Teething can do that to many babies! Hopefully, if the wakings are due to his teeth, that first tooth will pop out any day now, and he will start sleeping straight through the night again! If/when you do feed him in the night, if you put him back to bed while still awake, that will help to not create long term sleep associations too.
Hang in there, and please contact us if you need any further assistance!
Lydia says
Thank you for the advice! I really appreciate you getting back to me. I have done so much reading and searching with few answers about this so it’s so nice that you wrote me back so quickly!
I have been putting him down drowsy but awake, so it’s very reassuring to know that we didn’t undo our long term progress. Thank you very much!
Adeel shehzad says
nice and easy tips for my baby i think
I always found those plastic teething rings that you freeze always worked well to sooth sore gums. Buy 2 or 3 so there’s always one frozen ready to go.
Debbye @ The Baby Sleep Site says
Hi @Adeel – Thank you for sharing what worked for you! Many/most teething rings that are sold today say on the packaging to only refrigerate, and not to freeze them, so DO be sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions for safe use!
Thank you again for visiting us today!