What NOT to Do When Your Baby is Teething

We’ve partnered with Doddle & Co. to separate fact from fiction when it comes to teething.

When your baby is teething, it can be tempting to do just about anything to ease the pain. But many of the perceived teething treatments are not only myths, they’re actually dangerous for baby. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration even issued a warning that over-the-counter teething products containing the pain reliever benzocaine pose a serious risk to infants and children.

So before you try to calm your teething baby with one of google’s “best” remedies, get the teething facts from Dr. Jen Trachtenberg, a nationally renowned parenting expert and board-certified pediatrician. Below, she shares the biggest teething don’ts, plus some healthy alternatives to get you through this trying baby stage.

Baby teething don’ts

Teething is not only uncomfortable for baby, but it can be pretty uncomfortable for us too—all that whining, drooling and not sleeping makes for a generally unhappy household. Avoid these risky remedies:

1. Don’t rub alcohol on your baby’s gums for pain. It can get absorbed into your baby’s bloodstream, and become a potential intoxication.
2. Avoid gels with numbing properties like benzocaine. These over-the-counter treatments can have potential serious side effects, like numbing the back of throat which causes difficulty for your baby to swallow.
3. Stay away from homeopathic teething tablets. They’re unregulated and may contain belladonna, which is a hallucinogen.
4. Say “No” to amber teething necklaces. There’s no evidence to support that amber decreases the pain of teething, and these necklaces can be a choking and strangulation risk.

Related: Olivia Munn is every mom struggling with a teething baby

How to help a teething baby

Here are a few coping mechanisms you can try until baby’s finally got a full set of chompers.

1. Massage your baby’s gums with a clean finger.
2. Give baby a clean, cold, wet washcloth to suck on.
3. Comfort your baby (and yourself!) with a high-quality teether like Doddle & Co’s Chew.

A version of this story was originally published on June 20, 2018. It has been updated.