Sore Gums | Parents discuss teething babies and toddlers

How do you cope when your baby is teething? This is the one where Emma and Elliot moan about the challenges and frustrations of toothy-pegs, first teeth, and painful gums. Biting fingers, symptoms, remedies, and tips (which mostly consists of Calpol). We can't claim this episode will help, but we chat about this relatable topic and the creature comforts that make us feel better.

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Unwind on sleepless nights to a wholesome mix of parenting stories, quirky humour, and cosy crafting. We’re not here to provide answers but to share our experiences, explore how parenting has changed, and build an online community of parents for mutual support.

A fun, honest and unscripted conversation between Emma and Elliot on non-judgemental parenting and millennial-based topics, as we relax on an evening attempting an artistic or creative activity. 

We are a project in partnership with The Kairos Movement and supported by The Methodist Church, of which The Kairos Movement is a part.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:15 Parenting Achievements
• 7:15 Main conversation - Teething
• 20:35 Why we do the show segment
• 24:05 Main conversation part 2
• 40:45 Stories from Listeners

Transcript

  So, dearest Emma, what are we discussing today?  Today we are discussing teasing. 

This episode is called Sore Gums. 

Welcome back to the Cozy Conversation. Pull up a chair to the coffee shop table and join in the podcraft full of tangents unwind from long hectic days with our quirky humour and funny toddler stories mixed in with honest jibber jabber and a relaxing craft activity. Uh, we have a new topic each week, so you can pick your conversation and listen in any order.

We're a husband and wife. I'm Emma. No, no, that's not right. Um, I'm Elliot and with me is my wife Emma. Factoid time. Uh, Emma, are you, are you into sport? Oh, who  would say? I once was.  Growing up, I quite liked badminton. And I liked cross country. And then up until recently when I got pregnant, I was quite into fitness and weightlifting. 

But that feels like a lifetime ago now.  I'm not really into sport at all, particularly. Well, I'd say we're both not really into, like, watching sports. Yeah, and like, as a, as a Man, I don't feel like I have much in common, like, with dad conversation about football or, um, Yeah, we don't. You used to be quite into rugby.

Oh yeah, I like rugby. Once again, I haven't watched it in years. Yeah, I did do, used to do a lot of swimming. I used to swim competitively. Quite into, like, water sports, I suppose. Yeah, we both like kayaking and things. Yeah, yeah. Just not what most people consider normal sports, I think. Well, I think we're quite relaxed.

People, like, competitive sport is just not our style. We're not competitive people. We want something laid back. Yeah. If crafting was a sport. Yeah, we could do that. But once again, I wouldn't like the stress of competition. So it'd have to be like one where everybody just, you know, we're just all happy doing it together. 

Ring, ring, ring, ring. It's Parenting Achievement Time! I thought that was the phone.  It was such a good impression.  I was like, are we doing a pretend thing where we talk on the phone to each other?  It's a new segment I didn't know about. This is our recurring segment where we share parenting fails, funny moments, or just kind of stories of things that have happened that are very relatable in parenting life.

So, you know, it's like a Xbox level unlocked.  What parenting level have you reached in your life this week?  I suppose most kids have a,  A comforter of sorts. A comforter, yeah. Um, in Lily's case she has  a massive adult sized, um, blanket cover. Yeah, like a, Throw. Throw blanket y thing, yeah. Yeah. Um, and she has three of them.

They're exactly the same. Identical.  Um, this is because we started with one, Uh, my parents actually bought it for, for Lily. They did, yeah. Um, and as is the case with these sort of things, I'm sure this is a very relatable thing. It kind of got grubbier and grubbier. Yeah. Because she would take it everywhere with her.

And it's been washed so many times, it's, it's fading. It started off pink. And now, I was asking Lily the other day, what colour did she think it was? And she said it was white. Well, it is like,  I would say a very light grey pink. Yeah. Um. So she's not far off. So my parents bought more of them, identical, thinking we could swap them out.

Yeah. But nope, that didn't work. So there's two that she accepts are her oldest ones and therefore the favourites. The third one, which looks slightly pinker, not the favourite because it's the imposter, um, cover or blanket, whatever you want to call it,  that isn't as good. So, um, yeah, it's crazy 'cause now there's very little difference but she still knows.

Yeah. Still knows. That's not one of the originals. Yeah. And it's just, it's one of those things where it is often been a parenting fail in the past where you go somewhere and it's like, ah, I didn't bring the blankets with us. And particularly often in the way back on the car, you'd have gone somewhere and just, if you gave her the cover, it would help her calm down in the back and have a nap as you were going home.

Or she'd suddenly remember and be like, where's my cover? Yeah.  In our house we call them covers. I've inherited it from Emma. Yeah, it's me. It's probably an old thing. They're really blankets, but we call them covers for some reason. yeah.  Get used to it.  Our weird little mannerisms. Um, and then the other like, pounding fail always is Like, you had to, you ended up taking, like, three everywhere.

Yeah. Because she didn't want to just have one. She'd be like, well, where's the other ones? Yeah, because then, because originally we were like, oh, we'll just swap them in and out. But then she remembered. But yeah, I remember, like, pushing her along in the pushchair with, like, three covers, like, wrapped around her.

Trying to wedge them in behind her and, like, they'd just keep falling on the floor. And sometimes And she'd walk them out in winter to And sometimes, I was gonna say, but sometimes it's also just not weather appropriate. Like, sometimes it's really hot. And she's like, can I take my cover with me? And I'm like, no.

No, it's spoiling. Why would you need it? So, luckily, she's got to the age now where I go, Oh, we better not because we don't want it to get dirty. And she really understands that. Or I say, Oh, we don't want to lose it. And because she's at a better age now, she has this concept of loss. Yeah. Or getting something dirty and she gets upset.

She's like, Oh, okay. It can stay at home. But we did go through a phase where, oh yeah, I remember pushing her to nursery and we'd have all the covers with us. All the covers, and then it'd be like the middle of winter and it would like fall off and then get trapped under a wheel. Yeah. And go in the dirt and that the slush, oh, then you'd have the thing of washing them.

Oh yeah. It'd be like how.  How do we, because she didn't want to part from them. So it's like, mm,  we'll have to like sneak them off her in the middle of the night. We used to try and do it one at a time as well. Yeah, get one dry quickly so she could have it back and then swap them around. It's, uh, going on.

But there you go. Now some of them holes in. Yeah. And she won't let you properly do it. She just lets you put sellotape over the hole because she thinks that fixes it.  I'd be interested to know from others, um, if you've got slightly older kids, do they, do they grow out of having like a comfort thing? When, when will this end? 

When will we stop taking covers around with us? It's true because I would say she's got better, but we know if we're going through some kind of stressful thing for her, like a big travel or. Yeah. It's what reassures her. Yeah. I wish it was like, just a small toy or something. That would be so convenient.

Instead, she's got three adult sized blankets. Well, let us know, does your child have, um, you know, something they go to bed with every night or have to take around with them? Do they have a comfort blanket? And do you have any parenting fail stories of where You've forgotten it, or it gets dirty, or just managing that going on.

Just, oh dear. Yeah, there we are. That's it. Um, stay tuned till the end of this episode to hear some stories or comments or things listeners have sent in. Um, and if you want to send something in, get in touch with us and we'll feature it on an episode. 

Throw that baby in the bin and join in with our moaning about teething.  Don't you mean nappy? Nope. No. Throw the baby in the bin and let's moan about the teething. Poor baby. It's because you're pregnant. You're all hormonal. Can't even make a joke anymore. I nearly cried this morning. I often feel like, as parents, you have to retreat from the world for a few years.

You know, parenting is quite intense, and particularly when you've got babies and toddlers, you kind of have to compromise and give up. quite a lot of stuff up for a while to get through before you come out the other side, come out of the trenches. Yeah, it's true. And we've kind of, I feel like, you know, we're in a middle ground, we've got a three year old, feels like we've come out of One side, we're about to go back in with another baby.

Yeah, it's like we've come up for air. Yes, that's it. We're about to dive back down. Yeah, yeah. Um, and that's kind of how we have time and capacity and the mental  sleep, awakeness to record this podcast. But this episode, we're jumping right back into one of those topics that are kind of right in the trenches of parenting in the early years.

That's a big, tricky issue. It is. Um, that's a real pain, definitely. Like just, uh, you know, and um, I don't feel like we had the energy to talk about it at the time. Well, I'm not sure if we were doing the podcast at the time. I don't know if we were doing the podcast back then. But we'll deal with it now while we can look back and reminisce.

So I feel, I feel for all of you that are going Reminisce is an interesting phrase.  I feel for everyone who's going through this right now. Yeah. I don't know if we're going to be able to provide any Help or tips, but you know, we'll we'll say what we did talk about we'll talk about it So when I was looking up, you know, when does teething start?

When does it end? It's so individually different for everybody for every baby Once again, I was very um bitter some people it happened very quickly Yeah, not mention any names in my family, but you can guess whose children got their teeth very quickly and didn't have as big time going on.  Put your guesses in the comments. 

Whereas Lilly seemed to tease for an impossibly amount of long time because her teeth took quite a while to get through. So she like got some early but some quite late and it meant it went on forever. Yeah, I was, I was looking it up trying to work out how could I find out. Because I, I don't think we kept a record of a lot of this stuff. 

Um, but I was looking at WhatsApp messages when we'd like sent messages to family and things. So, um, on the NHS website they, they kind of talk about, you know, it is really individual, but on average it's kind of like four to six months, it kind of generally is averagely when it starts. And they often always talk about the teething pain itself lasting about a week and it's normally like preceding when a tooth appears.

Yeah. But, I don't know, our experience was, we started teething, um, about one month in. And I know some kids can like, be born with teeth and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nowhere near the worst scenario. I imagine many others have it worse. Yeah, yeah. It seemed to go on from like, one month and then right through till when they typically end around two, two and a half.

Two, yeah.  It's a long time. It was a long time.  Because I remember, I feel like people thought we were coming to excuses, and I'm so sorry she's teasing again. She's in a terrible mood. Mm. And I feel like, outside of parenting, people are like, how can they possibly still be teasing? It just goes on forever, okay?

Forever. You'd be like, yep, this is happening. Still doesn't have all our teeth yet. We could see them coming through. Mm.  So again, I looked up in our conversations, um, Lily's first tooth arrived in April, Um, so when she was about 10 months old, so it'd been 9, 9 months of teething we had as a baby before we even got a tooth. 

Just, ugh. Yeah. And they all go, oh, after the first tooth, and I will admit, I think after the first tooth, baby is more like, Accustomed. Accustomed to it. The first one was definitely the worst. Yeah. Yeah, the first nine months was definitely the worst, and then it got a bit easier.  But also there was a lot more kelp and stuff after that point, so I think it got easier.

We could give her more stuff to help cope. Whereas in the early days, you can't really give them anything. Yeah, and so all through that time, there's obviously loads of symptoms and things that you're kind of having to deal with. Again, the NHS website. Uh, says that the list of things that you may notice, um, sore gums and, um, kind of redness on gums, mild temperature, flushed cheeks, rash on their face, um, maybe they're rubbing or pulling their ear, dribbling more than usual, gnawing or chewing on things a lot, um, uh, getting more fretful than usual and not sleeping very well. 

I think there's one noticeable exception that they've not put on that list,  which is, uh, often debated by medical experts, which is definitely a thing, which is sickness. Yeah. Yeah. Like. Even temperatures debated. Yeah. So, um, sorry, this is on mum's net. Somebody's like their child was sent home from nursery with the temperature, which is kind of fair enough, but they were like.

They've been teasing and it's definitely to do with that. I showed them to the doctor and the doctor was like, Teasing does not cause a temperature. That's not a thing. And basically every other parent on mum's net was like, Nope, our kids sometimes had a fever with teasing. Like it could have been chance, but we're pretty sure it's connected.

Well yeah, this says mild temperature less than 38. Yeah.  But yeah, like, I think Lily had fevers with it. I think she had, yeah. She had definitely had a temperature with some of them. And like, sometimes the sickness can sometimes just be attributed to, uh, the babies, like, put their hands in their mouth because of the pain and then that causes them to be sick.

Lily often would have stuck her hand down her throat. Which is always annoying, isn't it? Like, just don't, don't put your hand in your mouth, you'll make yourself sick. But I think, you know, She was sick as well, like, despite that. But I think pain does make you feel, like, you know as an adult when you're in pain, you can feel a bit nauseous with it.

Yeah. So I think it just makes sense. Yeah. So we, we have a complaint.  Disagreement. Yes. But like, basically, all that list, that's all just like, illness symptoms. Yeah, true. That's just like, when they're ill. That's everything, that's every symptom. Every symptom. And so that just, that, it's like them being ill, constantly, all the time.

Yeah. Well, and like, I know it doesn't last, like, that nine months before our first tooth, it wasn't like, constant. No, it was on and off, because I think if it was constant, I don't know what we'd have done. It was relentless, in that it was often felt like, you know, one week on, one week off. Yeah, that's true, yeah.

Um, and just, when you're trying to get routines in place, and where you're trying to nail doing Sleeping. sleeping, and habits, and good eating. It's just Yeah, constant bane. I remember, for ages, this is, don't make this mistake, I used to let her bite my finger, and obviously for a long time she was very gummy, and that used to seem to really soothe it, but then when she got, like, some teeth, yeah, she'd still want to bite my finger, and I'd be like, no, that really hurts now, you can't do that anymore. 

But she'd be like, that, this really helps. I think, I think that's very relatable, I think we all do that, don't we? We all give teeth a I'm gonna give them like, something like a thumb to chew on. And at first it's like, well that makes them feel better. It's all good. It's fine, yeah. It's fine, it's not a problem for me.

And then they get a tooth and it's like, ow! Ow! Don't do that! Yeah, but they're like, no it helps! Yeah. Because I used to grab my finger and be like, come on, put it in my mouth. And then you feel bad because you know, they're your kid and they're in a lot of pain and sometimes you're just like, go on then, go on, bite my finger.

It's gonna be painful.  But I know it'll help.  Shall we discuss then some of the things to help try and alleviate Yeah, what's going on? The best thing we got which we've now lost. I think I'll have to find it on Amazon I might send a link in the group chat debatable what it is. We called it the giraffe alien.

I Think we briefly I think we've briefly briefly briefly. I think we've briefly I briefly mentioned this on an episode in the past before the giraffe alien. I don't even know how to describe it. It's like a little It's like a bobble head. Yeah, a bobble head thing. So it had a tiny, tiny little body and then a kind of hollowed out head.

That's like plastic y. That was made of very, very soft, malleable silicone. Silicone, yeah. I think probably not plastic. And it had two little  antennae things and two little ears. Yeah. I think the antennae is what make it look. It's what's made for teething. That's what you meant a bite on, but also that's what made it look.

And I think what it was meant to be was a giraffe. Yes. Just had Gir giraffe? Giraffe. Giraffe, I would say. Giraffe. But I remember it was one of our games then when people came around and were like, What is this? What would you say is this animal? And of course it was, um, it was bright pink. Bright pink. So it wasn't in, like, it wasn't yellow or anything.

No, it wasn't in giraffe colours. of a giraffe. But that was, I think it was good because we started teething before Lily could kind of hold anything. Yeah. Before she could really, you know, a lot of the teething rings and soft things Yeah, they rely on the child holding it up to their mouth. By, yeah, a lot of it relied on them being able to hold it and kind of gnaw on it to help.

Yeah. But until she was six months, she Like, a lot of those weren't really suitable, so it was trying to find something that was useful for a three month  old. I mean, she was perfectly good at biting her own hands. Yeah. Um, there's a going on, so you have to put gloves on her all the time, but Oh, yeah, of course.

And when she was bigger, she liked holding that. And then I remember there'd be a panic, we'd be going, Oh, goodness, where's the alien giraffe? She's really bad at teething. Because that seemed to cause a lot of comfort. So if I find that on Amazon, I think that's where I got it from, I'll put the link in the chat.

Of course when they do, um, bite on a lot of those things. It often increases, like, the amount of dribbling and stuff, which in turn then means they have, like, a big rash around their mouth. Oh yeah, and under their chin. Yeah. Um, I was also looking back at conversations we had, and I'd completely forgotten about this, but we used to call her, or say she used to have a frog face.

Oh, she did? Because, like, she looked in kind of pain with her teeth, and so She had, like, a very funny expression. Yeah, in those early days when we were trying to take pictures with her, you know, we'd go to And like, see family, we had a kind of newborn and they'd be like, Oh, let's have a picture with the baby.

And we're like, Oh, she's pulling her frog face again. She's always been one for interesting expressions, hasn't she?  I think what else we had, we had those things you put in the fridge to keep cold. Yeah, I mean, there's lots of, there's lots of different styles. I can say though, I don't think they were actually that effective.

We didn't find them. We didn't find them that effective. Um, Yeah, I don't know why, like, all the cool, the stuff that you make cold that's supposed to be nice on their teeth. She wasn't a big fan of. Like, I think just very simply a kind of cold wet flannel to chew on. Yeah, yeah, she used to love that. It was quite good, like the corner of a towel or something. 

It was, it was quite effective. It was. There were quite a lot of stuff that we didn't really find worked very well. I don't know, maybe you can tell us if you're listening whether these things worked for you. Maybe it was just, Just us, I don't know. I'm trying to think what all the things are called. Those gels that,  um, you put on their gums that's meant to help.

It's called something but I can't remember what it is. Yeah, I think that worked semi, but not, not as effective as I thought it would be. Yeah. And sometimes she just liked, this one, if you've got a lot of Montessori toys, she liked just biting wooden stuff. Yeah. And that seemed to keep her quite happy.

Yeah. Like having a good gnaw on them. Well that's when she's a bit older and she had some teeth and you'd see bite marks and things. You could, yeah.  She was never really, I know some kids do go through a phase of biting lots of things and eating lots of things, but Lily was never really like that unless she was teething.

Yeah, and then she wouldn't try to eat things. No, no. Because I had a friend, their little boy liked eating like bits of books. Just ripping pages out of books and eating them. And she'd have like the corner of like the front, page of the book. Yeah. So she'd like leave the room and come back and be like a huge chunk out of the book. 

So she didn't do anything like that, um, but  she'd gnaw on a lot of things and it meant you had to be like extra careful and what was around when she could crawl and stuff because you had to be like, what possibly could she pick up and think, oh, that might be nice to chew on. The, the other thing, um, what do you make of, you know, those Bracelets, like, I think they're made of amber, that they often say, like I think they're dangerous.

Yeah. And I mean, are they, do they work? Are they a scam? Like, I don't really know Um, I try and be open minded, and I often think, modern medicine's great, but maybe there is stuff we just haven't looked into, we don't know why it works. Yeah. So I'm not, I'm not opposed to a lot of it. My main thing is  I'm just like, especially the necklaces and stuff, I'm like, that could easily strangle a child or get caught on something, it just makes me very nervous.

Yeah, maybe it's meant for older children really. I know, because they cater them to teething children, the child can't be that old. Right, like six months to a year or whatever. So, I just personally think it's definitely a health thing. 

Our podcraft here is a discussion starter. This isn't the end of the conversation. Do get involved with the community, uh, over on YouTube, on Facebook, on Instagram, on all the social mediary places at don't wake the baby underscore podcast.  Um, our aim of this project is to connect with other parents out there, whether you're in Yorkshire or wherever you are around the country or beyond or abroad.

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We're a group of people that, that meet online, um, all around Yorkshire as kind of a pick a mix group. network of groups and activities. Some stuff is partnered with it like this pod, like this podcast. So that's where we get our support. But we also have discussion groups and a photography church and all sorts of other bits and pieces.

A craft retreat in York that takes place once a month.  So if any of those sort of things interest you, if you want to explore spirituality with us, we're very liberal, non judgmental, Um, you know, we're not all hellfire and damnation. We're very open Christians, open minded, open to other religions, other ideas, other spiritualities.

If any of that's of interest, um, then do check it out. Or if you just want to know how we're supported and what they're doing for us, um, you know, I work for the Methodist church, um, and Emma volunteers for the church and we're very involved, um, but we're not very religious. Um, and, um, Or, you know, all that sort of stuff.

Well, I'd say for most people we're religious. Yeah, but not in like a, you know, a negative way. Not in a traditional way. If religious has a negative connotation for you, then, then we're not that. I'd say we're more like spiritual. Yeah. And like, if God's a, you know, a, bearded man in the sky and you think it's ridiculous and nonsense then we don't really believe in that either.

You know, it's, you know, it's, I can't really explain now because it's just a tiny little thing to say, you go, go look on the website and you can find some more stuff there, um, about it. Uh, www. curiousmovement. org. uk forward slash don't wink that baby!  That's Emily yawning again. Must be time to get back to the show! 

Of course, the only real solution we found is just plying her with lots and lots of cowpoll. I would love some cowpoll, yeah. And people don't like doing that either. Some people don't, yeah. I saw a thing on TikTok, they were like, they don't need cowpoll like, if you had a teasing child that's like, our child was.

Yep. Through that period, we would give her cowpoll every night. Because I was like, it's the only way she's gonna sleep. It's the only way she's gonna cope. And every morning. Yeah. It's like, right, it's time for cowpoll!  It was really hard at first because she did not like cowpoll. She still is a bit iffy, like, she's never taken to cowpoll.

I know like, this is like, as kids, I loved cowpoll. I still love cowpoll. Like, sometimes, sometimes when I was given us cowpoll, I'd take a swig myself.  I'd feel guilty because cowpoll is so expensive. It is expensive. But I was like, this just tastes so good. I mean, is it as good as when we were young?

Because there's a lot less sugar in it. But still. And we do get the sugar free one most of the time. I don't think they sell a non sugar free one anymore, do they? I think they do, it's just harder to come by.  It still tastes pretty sweet, it's something you think she'd like, but No, never keen. Now she's more keen because she wants to do it herself because she's a big girl.

Yeah, and we used to mix it in with milk. Oh yeah, often we'd put it in a bottle because she didn't want to have it. Yeah, which was quite, quite good. Yeah. Um, so yeah, just Pliner with with lots of that and that kind of kept things at bay. Yeah Which I'm the giraffe alien. Yeah, the other good thing we had was we had our Arabic color song Oh, yes, that was a godsend in a lot of ways  So we picked this up from your Uh, Sister in France, Becky.

Easter egg tick. Yep. Um, uh, and I think it could be anything really, like you might have your own little YouTube video that's your go to. I will say that if you're struggling, type in YouTube, Arabic colour song, and I think it's because it's got so much going on, and the music's so lively, they just stare like, wow. 

Yeah, I think, yeah, probably. But to be fair, Lily, even the music itself, like if she couldn't see it, it would make her just Yeah, it just became her comforter. Yeah. It became her thing that would really distract her. So it doesn't alleviate pain. But when she's really struggling with her teeth, you just stick that on her phone on YouTube.

Yeah. And It would just take her out and she'd, for a few moments, be really calm.  Um, we used that for a long time. I remember. And to provide some context as well, um, Becky's husband is Arabic. Yeah. And so that's why they've picked up the song and then we saw it, them using it. Yeah. And so we've  borrowed it.

We that seems to work. Yeah. Let's try that. And it did. Yeah. So it has, like, little Blobs that go through and it sings a song in Arabic telling you all about the different colors. It's like, I won, I won, I won,  I won. You're giving me flashbacks.  I'm trying to think what all the colours were. So it's hilarious because I never knew what it was saying really.

We slowly picked up the individual words for the colours.  We don't speak Arabic. I can't remember any more. One sounded a bit like the Spanish like Azul for blue. Oh yeah, yeah. Um, but I can't remember what it was now. See we've already forgotten.  That, that's that Arabic gone. We'll wait for the next one to learn it again.

Yeah,  yeah.  Be interesting to hear though because I reckon other people have other different YouTube videos and things that they were go to little songs and things to distract. Distract the babies. Babies and toddlers. I remember once a delivery man came and he looked really, like, confused. Because I think it sounds like another language, obviously, when you're listening to it.

But he saw me and you, and I think he didn't tell you, he was like They're not foreign. They don't look foreign.  Like they look very pasty.  That's what pops his music.  Yeah. I suppose the final, uh, part of this chronological journey through teething, um, once they've got some teeth, um, you kind of get onto brushing.

Oh yeah. And like, I mean, they do recommend, don't they, that you should,  as soon as they've got teeth, you should start brushing and that you should set up a dentist thing as soon as they've got teeth. Which, if you live in the UK. You know, that is difficult. Diffic um, we've not done it yet, and Lily's had teeth for a long time.

Yeah. So I do find it a bit ridiculous when they're like, Well, you need to do it from this age. I'm like, well, how? We have, not this is to go on a tangent, but how are you meant to get them in anywhere? They're, they're nowhere's taking anyone. I think a lot of it, I think, for, this is why I want to sign Lily up soon, is just to have the benefit of going to the dentist and getting used to it and it not being scary.

Right. And I guess you could see if they've all come in in the right place and everything. Mm. But um,  my main thing is I didn't enjoy going to the dentist as a child particularly. Right. Who? Who does, but I don't wanna enjoy it. I dentist was very scared, but no. Now I really enjoy going to the dentist. Well, you have good teeth.

I try very hard. You do  . You enjoy it. That's because you don't have them complaining at you. No, but now because we pay, we pay,  well, we pay. My work pays privately for our dental. Now I always get a cleaning and I love getting a cleaning. 'cause I feel like you're so fresh afterwards. Yeah. Like his face isn't looking impressed.

So I want, I want Lily to have that positivity about the dentist when we go to be like, Oh, it's been a very nice experience.  He's looking at me like, why would, why would anyone think that?  Terrible. I disagree. I disagree.  We want her to start going to like appointments with us.  So like the reason she's not scared of injections is because she's gone and seen mummy have injections.

It's just hard, isn't it? Because it's time consuming. Like, you know, it means I've got to try and find a dentist appointment when Lily's available to come with me. And then I've got to go through the faff of having her there with, like, you know,  or do we take her out of nursery for it? That seems ridiculous.

I had a brief pause there while I ran down and collected the delivery. Actually on. On top of this, I've collected my toothpaste that's come in the post. Um, because you know, my teeth are so bad that I have prescription super toothpaste.  I think it's genetics. I think, yeah, I've inherited my parents. And I'm hoping that our children inherit my teeth.

Yeah, yeah. I mean,  outside of dentists, I do think, like, brushing teeth is a good thing to try and get into the habit of straight away. And you've done well. I've done well. Lily always brushes. I'm going to pretend this was a joint decision and that we both put equal effort into this endeavour. Yes, for a long time, when Mummy put Lily to bed, we always did our teeth.

And when Baba put Lily to bed, they didn't do their teeth. But now, she's got into the thing, it's routine ish, she just does it. Yeah, pretty good. Um.  Especially, I mean, what helps if people need, you know, how to get them doing it? How we did it. How we did it. Have a fun toothbrush. Yeah, yeah. And pleasant tasting toothpaste, because a big thing for her was she doesn't really like  the normal mint flavours.

You need like a fruity one. Yeah. Or!  If mommy's toothpaste is purple, she'll have mommy's toothpaste. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think those first things were a given, you try and get some fun kid stuff. But I think that second one is the main thing. It's like basically, this is why I'm not very good at it, is brush your teeth with them.

Yeah, so I always brush my teeth with Lily. Lily always wants to do what you're doing. And if you're brushing your teeth, she's like, Hmm, I want to do that.  Yeah, so me and Lily always brush our teeth together. Yeah. So that, then, I think also helps. Teach her how to brush. So it's like she doesn't do it quickly.

She sees you've got to go this way and that way, you know. Yeah, yeah. Do more of a thorough job.  There we are. I mean, it's basically all down to Emma. I've, I've been no help with  teeth brushing. That's been an entirely Emma thing she's achieved.  I like, I like getting some work out of you.  Uh, Cherub, what time is it? 

It's the 90s! It's the 90s! I was like, I don't know! It's the return of a segment, uh, where we discuss what it was like for us growing up, um, and how things have changed, not limited to the 90s, but kind of, you know, that was roughly when we were toddlers.  Um, and of course, We can't really remember teething, I don't think.

Um, but, um, I've got I've been giving interesting advice from my mum, though, about teething. Oh, okay. Well, I'll get on to that in a second. I just thought we'd mention off the top, though, um, you have an interesting kind of story because you still have baby teeth. Oh, I s yeah. This is the person who has the best teeth in this household still has baby teeth.

Some of them, anyway. Um, yeah. I have four baby teeth. Because we were mul well, me and my sisters, if you don't know, um, Missed it. Quadruplet. I'm sure everyone knows by now, but you know, identical quadruplet over here. So it meant  They think when we were like growing the womb because obviously people don't know you already have your teeth They just come down for the baby teeth and they think at that stage.

We just didn't have enough Nutrients like calcium. Yeah, and therefore  Four of my teeth, there's no other teeth behind them That's just it. I have, I have four baby teeth. There were no adult teeth to replace them. No adult teeth to replace them.  Um,  but recently my dentist was like, it's incredible how strong your baby teeth are.

For them being baby teeth. And I wanted to be like, I think they've just had to adapt. Yeah. Once again, Emma has fantastic teeth, and four of them are baby teeth that are more susceptible. They are. I'm just, I'm just bitter. Because you seem to have good genetics, or good teeth, I do try very hard though, don't I?

Because I do floss most nights. You do.  Yes. I know.  Yeah, yeah. I've got the dentist in a few weeks. He does, that's why it's called otherwise. Tell me off again, I've not been flossing. He's bitter because two weeks ago I had the dentist and they said despite being pregnant, you've done so well with your teeth, you've not had any bite.

Yeah, let's all celebrate Emma. Isn't she wonderful? Wonderful Emma. And I came back and I said, I hope you get a glowing report, and then he was like, don't, don't even go there. Um, anyway, um, so before Not sure I was getting jabs at each other. Before, um, my question about the 90s, what, what's your mum's thing?

What was her comment? Well, I don't know she did this.  She said, people used to, like, I think it was brandy, and put it on their finger and then put it on the baby's gums. Ah, I think I've heard your mum say that before. And I remember being like, what?  Like, I probably wouldn't hurt, but the idea of putting alcohol in your child's mouth.

Part of my mind, yeah, reacts like, that is crazy, don't, you can't give a baby alcohol, and then part of me's like, I get, maybe if you didn't have Calpol or anything. Would it not burn though, is my thing. Oh. Oh, maybe. Because I'm thinking about Oh, that doesn't sound good. You know, like, like Yeah, when we put alcohol in your mouth.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, maybe no. Maybe don't do that. You know what I mean? And just to be clear, we are not recommending this at all. Oh, no. It's just, I remember what my mum said. In my head, I was like, is that what you did to us? Hahaha.  And she did, I don't think she did, but I remember her suggesting it and me being like, that sounds very crazy.

That's hilarious. She's come out with an old wives tale, but she didn't do it herself, but she's like, well, you could do it. Yeah, I think she was just like, well, I've heard.  Yeah. I was like, great. Anyway, what my thing was, because you know, we can't really talk about what teething was like for us as, as babies and toddlers, but I was thinking, you know, um, looking back at our childhood, what were the kind of your creature comforts or kind of guilty pre or guilty pleasures, those kind of go to things that made you feel better as a kid when you were under the weather? 

I liked going to mom and dad's bed. Yeah. That was very like I was the same. special. Yeah. Because you were ill, you gotta go in their bed. I mean, that's true for now, isn't it? Like when Lily was teething Yeah. we used to put her in our bed. We did. Because she wouldn't sleep well, and that's such a challenge when they don't sleep well.

Yeah. really like if she's throwing up I'll lie on the floor next to her bed so she's not alone in the night. And the regression is so hard like, Kirsty's going through this at the moment isn't she, your sister, that just sometimes you feel like you're through it and then teething hits again and they're up at night and you're back to square one.

It is. Anything else? Um, I'm trying to just, just think. I mean,  they let us have the TV on while we sat in bed. This is because we were like quite strict about television and stuff. What, what, were there any shows like, did you have the Arabic colour song? What, what were your, what was your comfort show? No, ill and snooker was always on.

Because we didn't have fancy channels back then. So I remember for some reason when I was ill it was always snooker.  And I was just sick. And neither of my parents liked snooker. I think it was genuinely all that was on whatever time of night. I was ill, right?  Put the snooker on right? Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember much live tv, but Like, we had DVDs of stuff, and I suppose, uh, I think, yeah, tapes in the early, early childhood,  but we'd watch a lot of Poirot's.

Um, or you know, like, my parents instilled in me, like, a love of things like The Railway Children, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, um, and like, a lot of those old classics. So yeah, they were like, quite comfort shows to me. For me, I think growing up. See, I was thinking about like when I was laid in bed We didn't have a thing so you just had to watch live TV.

Right. And then I think if you were really, really ill you weren't allowed downstairs because you could infect everybody else, couldn't you? So, because remember when you're in a big family, you don't want everyone to get it. Yeah, see I was, I was just, So you're like, you're like confined to your room.

Anywhere in the house, lie on the sofa.  Yeah. I also used to, you know, when I was Feeling under the weather. I used to love having like those lucas aid bottles. I think I must have been slightly older  But the orange flavored lucas aid I only ever had them when I was like laid in bed ill Weird that but we had I liked the lemon flavor Lemon, I don't even remember that.

Yeah, they don't do it anymore. I don't think I used to love it I have a complaint as well because they've updated the recipe and now there's like barely any sugar in it. So it tastes, tastes horrible. Also, my mum used to make us eat, um, fig rolls. Ah. Apparently they were good when you were ill. Right.

Don't know why. So I used to be a big fan of fig rolls. Ha ha ha ha. When I say so, I don't know if it is meant to help you, but that's what, that's what we'd have with a fig rolls and like lemonade. I mean, that'll be your, your illness meals. Okay. Um, so. How would you rate our topic of teething today on my very sensical scale?

I'll just wait for you to finish yawning there. It's been, it's clearly been a very engaging conversation. You're so exhausted from it. I'm very tired. I know you're pregnant.  I'm making you stay up and early in the morning to do Uh, podcasting. At this point I should be sat on my bed with my laptop working.

I shouldn't be sat here. Right, back, back, back to my, back to my thing. My question, um, I've got four categories for you. Ooh, let's hear the categories. What category would you put teething in? Is it dentist dread? Is it, ouch, that's my finger. Is it cowpole survival? Or is it at the top of the scale, I love a screaming baby and a lack of sleep.

Well, I think nobody's gonna go for that.  I'd say, ouch, that's my finger. See, my scale has, um, rather drastically veered towards the negative end of the scale. I don't think anyone, unless you can tell us, and I'll be very bitter, they've had a fantastic time at teething. Yeah. Well, we do know some people that, like, basically it's all over in a month.

They, they teethe and then they get, like, loads of teeth through all together. And then it's. It's kind of over. True. Those terrible people. Those people. If that's you, don't tell us. Don't comment. I don't want to know.  I hope our next child is better at teething.  I think, I think it's genetic, so I think a lot of it will be similar.

I really am not looking forward to going through that again. Yeah. It's just because parenting is so hard at the best of times, you're going through so much stuff. Well that's why I've said like the finger thing. And then you have teething on top of it. Because I want to be like, we're not in it right now, so it seems like a distant memory.

Yeah. But I know it's probably only like  Six months away, maybe? No, seven? What? Well, like, until the baby's out, until we start teething. If, if she starts teething at one month, like Lily, then we have three months.  Well, that's from when they've been born, so we've got at least four months. 

Emma, do you want to share any stories or comments that people have sent in to us this week? One of my friends, I messaged her to say, Oh, what did you find helped with teasing? And, uh, she's now on her, got her second child and she was like, I can't remember. I'm panicking because it started to happen and I can't remember anything about what we did last time. 

And I feel like that might be us. Yeah. So, we'll have to listen back to this podcast and any tips people have because it It slips your mind so quickly. Yeah. And then you'll be back in the midst of it and going, Oh goodness, what did we do then? I would say maybe this podcast has helped, but I think, to be honest, we've not really provided that many tips.

It's more just been moaning. The problem also is every baby is different. So  our baby loved the alien giraffe. You might bother buying an alien giraffe. Might not be any good. Yeah, that's true. But then they might love the cold things you put in the fridge, like Yeah. Any other stories from last week's episode when we were chatting about surviving holidays?

Oh, yes. And how to cope on holiday. They had a tip? They had a tip that was, they used to go out because of the heat in like the early morning, and then like, in later in the afternoon, just to avoid It's assuming you're abroad and in a hot place. Yes, yeah, but to avoid the heat of the day. I think probably just to keep everything manageable.

Yeah, and they said then it's quieter, there's not as many people about, and you know, the kids have had like a little rest and it's just There we go, good tip based on our last week's episode, you can go check that out if you want to listen to that one.  Fun with your teething. Enjoy  the lovely stuff. We'll just, you'll get through it.

It'll end. I know it seems like it goes on for a terrible long time. In the meantime, thank you very much for joining us at the table in the coffee shop. I hope you've enjoyed your tea or coffee or iced drink, uh, your juice, your squash, whatever you're doing. Iced matcha tea. And it's time to say goodbye.

We'll see you next time for another different conversation. Different topic. Yep. Same people. Yep, same people. We won't change. We're always here. Always here. Bye. Sleep well. God bless.