Does Teething Cause Diarrhea in Babies?
When babies are teething, it can be frustrating. Babies are fussy, in pain and sometimes have other symptoms. Most babies will start getting their first teeth between 4 and 7 months old. Babies' teeth develop beneath the gums while they are in the womb and will break out one at a time. Many times the first are the bottom two teeth followed by the top. By the time a child is 3, they will have a set of 20 baby teeth.
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Symptoms
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Many parents find their babies experience many different symptoms while teething such as excessive drooling, fussiness, sleep problems and biting. Diarrhea is also often related to teething. There is some discussion as to whether these symptoms are caused by teething, or coincidentally seem to happen at the same time, according to BabyCenter.com.
Diarrhea and Teething
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Diarrhea is common in infants and includes an increased number of bowel movements and loose stool. If your child is having more than three loose bowel movements a day, he may have diarrhea. Many times children with diarrhea have other symptoms such as fever, irritability or fatigue.
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Excess Saliva
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Pediatrician and author William Sears feels teething does cause diarrhea, which may also cause a diaper rash. Sears contends that the excess saliva the child produces when teething may settle in the stomach causing diarrhea.
Teething Stress
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Many child development experts, such as Penelope Leach, feel that symptoms such as diarrhea and fever are a sign of illness that happen at the same time as teething. Stress the child is going through due to teething may make it more susceptible to becoming sick.
No Scientific Proof
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Dr. Vivian Lennon of Children's Hospital in Atlanta feels teething and diarrhea are not connected and a connection has not been scientifically proven, according to BabyZone.com. She feels that children often have unrelated illnesses during teething and that the teething is blamed for the other illnesses.
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