See that? He’s teething. And not just drooly, shoving things in his mouth, a tooth may arrive sometime in the next few months teething- there’s an actual tooth pushing through the surface. His gum has split and you can feel that fucker. The Fiendling, brow furrowed, can’t stop poking at his sharp spot with his tongue. He wants to be his usual happy-go-lucky self, but that shit hurts and he’s got the middle-of-the-night waking and tugging on his ears and scrunching up his face and whimpering to prove it.
I blame it on Boyfiend. Though she can’t remember when he got his first tooth, his mother tells me he had eight teeth by six months. Eight. Most kids don’t even get a tooth until after six months, but Boyfiend had to go ahead and be an overachiever.
So yesterday, while Boyfiend helped his dad cut up a fallen tree, his mom stayed with the Fiendling so I could run to Target and pick up some teethers. Every single one of them said not to put it in the freezer. I’d already given the Fiendling one frozen rattle which he seemed to enjoy immensely, but because I’m cautious I put the new ones in the fridge. Useless. Even though it’s cooler here than it has been in weeks, as soon as they left the fridge they were room temperature. So now they’re all going into the freezer. And if they explode and the Fiendling ingests some of that weird gel I’ll probably win some kind of award for the worst mother of the year, but at least he’ll get some relief in the meantime. 
zennist | 24-Jul-06 at 12:33 pm | Permalink
What a cutie pie! I hope you’ve managed to give him some relief from the pain.
ggirl
Fraulein N | 24-Jul-06 at 1:49 pm | Permalink
If you can’t put a teething ring in the freezer, what good is it? I seem to remember hearing something about freezing a washcloth for a teething baby to gnaw on. I guess that’s what they did back in the day.
GinaMarcela | 24-Jul-06 at 10:40 pm | Permalink
wet/frozen washcloth sounds good. Gordito had 8 teeth early, I did gave him lots of ice using the Baby Safe Feeder Starter Kit. Is truly truly helpful. I even froze pieces of banana and gave him that. He Absolutely loved it.
karmajenn | 25-Jul-06 at 9:25 am | Permalink
Wait until he starts grinding them. The sound makes me want tear my own eyelashes out.
I second the cold washcloth idea.
sarah | 25-Jul-06 at 11:19 am | Permalink
dude. why wouldn’t you put them in the freezer? MINE were all in the freezer when i was a tot. fucking ‘new parenting’. it’s just as bad as new math.
erika | 25-Jul-06 at 1:06 pm | Permalink
I’ve actually heard that they say not to freeze them because it could cause damage to their teeth when they clamp down on it. In all fairness, Sammy clamps down on some pretty hard toys, so who knows.
lizcjones | 26-Jul-06 at 2:45 pm | Permalink
I found one at Babies R Us the other day that is like “freezer safe” or something. Something about the gel that’s in it doesn’t get as hard as the normal stuff that’s in them (gel/water/whatever).
clipper829 | 27-Jul-06 at 6:50 am | Permalink
I got 2 teething rings at Target and I put that shit right in the freezer. It says “refridgerator only” but they barely get cold. Charlotte loves the frozen ones. She, too, has a tooth on the bottom that has poked through. It’s awesome, too, because she’s not even four months old.