As a parent, I found an enormous amount of joy in watching my babies develop and grow. Teething, however, was not one of the happy times. Fussy, cranky, drooling, tearful babies rend a parent’s heart and stretch everyone’s patience. There is nothing worse than feeling helpless while your child suffers. My grandmother used to call those first baby teeth “milk teeth.” Technically, however, the first sharp little teeth that break through the gums are usually the top or bottom central incisors. These front teeth often appear between four and six months old, but some babies start teething earlier, and my daughter didn’t get a tooth in her head until she was over a year. While the timing can vary widely, the symptoms are usually the same:
Some babies come through teething without a lot of fuss, and others experience longer periods of discomfort and the crankiness that goes along with it.
Fortunately, there is a tried and true natural way to help soothe those sore gums. By tried and true, I mean tried by thousands of parents and babies over many generations with great success. It’s a simple frozen washcloth! The cold temperature is numbing, and the spongy texture offers drool appeal. You can use plain water, but soaking the washcloth in an herb-filled tea can give your baby even more relief.
Happily, Juliet Blankespoor of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine was kind enough to share her excellent recipe for a Frozen Herbal Teething Compress!
Makes enough tea to soak 3 clean, cotton washcloths.
Ingredients
Directions
Pro Tips
You may also enjoy:
Heidi is an award winning freelance writer with a passion for urban homesteading. She has been honored to receive a number of literary prizes including the esteemed Pushcart Prize and an Individual Artists Award in Creative Writing from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. When she isn’t working in the garden, cleaning the henhouse, preserving food, crafting herbal formulations, or writing and editing content for really fantastic small businesses, you’ll likely find her with her nose in a book.
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As a parent, I found an enormous amount of joy in watching my babies develop and grow. Teething, however, was not one of the happy times. Fussy, cranky, drooling, tearful babies rend a parent’s heart and stretch everyone’s patience. There is nothing worse than feeling helpless while your child suffers. My grandmother used to call those first baby teeth “milk teeth.” Technically, however, the first sharp little teeth that break through the gums are usually the top or bottom central incisors. These front teeth often appear between four and six months old, but some babies start teething earlier, and my daughter didn’t get a tooth in her head until she was over a year. While the timing can vary widely, the symptoms are usually the same:
Some babies come through teething without a lot of fuss, and others experience longer periods of discomfort and the crankiness that goes along with it.
Fortunately, there is a tried and true natural way to help soothe those sore gums. By tried and true, I mean tried by thousands of parents and babies over many generations with great success. It’s a simple frozen washcloth! The cold temperature is numbing, and the spongy texture offers drool appeal. You can use plain water, but soaking the washcloth in an herb-filled tea can give your baby even more relief.
Happily, Juliet Blankespoor of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine was kind enough to share her excellent recipe for a Frozen Herbal Teething Compress!
Makes enough tea to soak 3 clean, cotton washcloths.
Ingredients
Directions
Pro Tips
You may also enjoy:
Heidi is an award winning freelance writer with a passion for urban homesteading. She has been honored to receive a number of literary prizes including the esteemed Pushcart Prize and an Individual Artists Award in Creative Writing from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. When she isn’t working in the garden, cleaning the henhouse, preserving food, crafting herbal formulations, or writing and editing content for really fantastic small businesses, you’ll likely find her with her nose in a book.
