Does teething effect sleeping?

[mrscricket]

DS is 5 months old (yesterday!) and after a lot of hard work and tears from both of us, he has been a beautiful day sleeper - 2 x 2-3 hour sleeps and 1 x approx 1 hours - self settles, rarely cries when put down.. Until this week when he wont sleep for more than 20-30 mins. Does teething have an effect on their sleeps? His top gum is super bumpy and the dribble coming out of his mouth is amazing (he is a reflux baby so many many outfit changes!!). I have been giving him little amounts of Panadol and rubbing on teething gel - but how worried should i be about his sleep patterns? Should i assume its teething that is causing the problem?

[MantaRay]

MrsDaisy, I think lots of things can affect the sleeping patterns, including teething and developmental milestones. I know that both my boys went through periods of a few days before teeth cut where they kept waking up crying or screaming. Also when they are about to learn a new skill (like crawling) or just have learnt a new skill, they tend to start practising it all the time, including when they stir from sleep, meaning that instead of dropping back off to sleep, they stay awake. In my experience the sleeping does mostly go back to normal, but I did have trouble with DS1 sleeping both during the day and at night from the time he learnt to crawl. I would keep treating your DS for teething and give him extra cuddles and things as needed for a few days. If he is still unsettled after that and you are worried about bad habits forming, then mabye go back to the techniques you used before to establish the sleeping patterns. GL with it all.

[~Trish~]

Yes, teething can affect baby's sleep. My DS would have 2-3 unsettled sleeping days/nights before a tooth would cut the surface of his gum. Once it had cut, he would go back to sleeping normally again.

Hopefully it is just teething and your little man will be back to normal really soon!

[Kazbah]

I found Pip's teething has affected my sleep patterns greatly!

He would have 3-4 awful, horrid days before everything would settle, a couple of days later the gum would be cut and then it's all good.

[rosehannah]

My children have all seemed a bit unsettled before a tooth would pop up. I think I noticed it most at night, I would feel like a yoyo getting up to them for a few nights.

[~Kim~]

Travelling a different path here, but not in my experience - no. Darcy as the world's most changing sleeper for many many months. She did however have some of her best night sleeps in the days before 11 teeth popped through in a fortnight (no joke) and we didn't even notice the teeth (great parents huh?)