Teething is very different for every baby and twins are no different. You may find that one of your babies sails through teething without a fuss, while the other has a long, drawn out, painful experience. Sometimes you can see the little lumps under the gum line are sore and red, other times the first teeth just seem to magically appear!
On average, the first tooth usually appears somewhere in the seventh month of development. It is not unusual though for some showing up as early as the third month or as late as one year of age. Generally the first appearance of baby teeth are somewhere close to when you and your partner's first teeth made their appearance. Make a point of finding out when yours came in. It will give you a little advance warning !
Teething itself actually precedes the appearance of a tooth by as much as 3 months. While some doctors will tell you some symptoms have nothing to do with teething, from my experience - these are the things to expect from your teething twin babies.
Drool - and lots of it. It is normal in babies starting around 10 weeks or so until 3 or 4 months of age. It increases with the teething process.
Your babies may get a chin or a face rash due to all the extra saliva. Try to gently wipe away the excess drool as often as you can during the day and change your babies bedding if they are drooling a lot while asleep. This will help their baby skin to not be in constant contact with saliva. All the extra drool can result in loose bowel movements - which can bring about diaper rashes. If you are sure your babies are not ill, this is probably due to teething. All four of my children experienced this.
Your babies may cough a little due to the extra saliva as well. Again, as long as you are fairly certain they don't have a cold or flu, it's nothing to worry about.
Your babies will want to bite everything that comes in contact with their mouths. It helps to relieve the pressure from the new teeth forming under the gums. Have lots of safe toys on hand , and consider keeping them in the fridge ( not the freezer ) for added comfort.
Your twins may refuse to eat. Sometimes the pain of teething makes sucking on a bottle or breast painful. If your babies have already started on solid foods, they may not be interested for a while. Try to be sure that your babies are getting as much milk as possible during this time. If you are nursing, you may find that your babies are using your breasts to gnaw on to soothe their gums. While this may be soothing for them, it can be very painful for you. You may need to break the suction with a finger and say a firm 'no biting' quite a few times for them to stop.
Some other things to try that may help are rubbing your clean fingers firmly along their gums to offer counter pressure. Cold can help as well. You can try offering ice water in a sippy cup. This replaces fluids lots through all the drooling as well. A cold facecloth soaked in water and put in the fridge helped us. If your babies are eating some solid food, try serving cold applesauce or yogurt as it can be soothing to their little mouths.
With twins there are no set rules. You may find they are teething at the same time , with the same symptoms or they may be weeks apart with different symptoms. I can't vote on which is easier - if they're teething at the same time then chances are it will end at the same time as well. If they are on different teething schedules, then the process is more drawn out , but you're only dealing with one cranky baby. As with all things with twins, expect the unexpected and roll with the punches.
I'm the the founder and author of a website for parents of twins at Raising Twins
I am a stay at home mom of four beautiful children, 2 boys and 2 girls. I have a degree in Applied Counseling and Early Childhood Education and has previously worked as a special needs worker, a Counselor for abused women, and a Counselor for High Risk Youth and pregnant teens. For a more complete discussion about the ways to cope with teething visit Twin Teething
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