Your Baby's Teething Timeline

One night last fall, as I tried every trick in my repertoire to get my cranky, drooling 1-year-old daughter to go to sleep, I realized something: Teething is nature's idea of a practical joke. Think about it. A baby's first tooth usually comes in somewhere between 4 and 8 months, just after you've finally gotten her to sleep through the night. In my case, we had a few months of peaceful slumber before Molly began cutting her first tooth. When she started working on her molars, I was back to pacing the floors, bouncing her around, and frantically searching for the Tylenol -- for both of us.

Of course, I have friends who swear that their babies barely made a peep while teething. "Jake just woke up one morning smiling with two new teeth," says my pal Randi. But a baby's reaction to teething depends upon many factors, including his tolerance for pain, his personality, and how dense his gums are, says Michael Hanna, DDS, a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.

Teething Signs and Symptoms

In a study published in Pediatrics, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation followed 125 children from their 3-month checkup through their first birthday. They found that during teething, there was a notable increase in:

• biting

• drooling

• gum rubbing

• sucking

• irritability

• wakefulness

• ear rubbing

• facial rash

• decreased appetite

• mild temperature

No one knows why teething babies produce all that saliva, says Dr. Hanna, but the theory is that the increase of muscle movement in the mouth during this teething period simulates chewing, which activates the salivary glands. (The excess drooling can in turn cause a rash around the mouth.) Biting and gum rubbing are the baby's efforts to relieve pressure in his gums.