'Teething seems to go on forever'

Marie Hardcastle is 32 and has a 3-year-old daughter, Evie. Here's her story about surviving Evie's teething problems.

When Evie first started teething, we didn't know what was wrong with her.

She was around 5 months old when she suddenly started getting really ratty, began drooling loads, her cheeks went all red and she started shoving everything in her mouth.

Now it seems obvious that these were signs of teething, but at the time we didn't realise - we thought she'd got some sort of cold.

Her first tooth took another 2 months to come through and these symptoms kept coming back during that time.

The most difficult thing was her waking up lots at night - the health visitors and nurses tell you afterwards that's often the worst time for teething.

We were unlucky with Evie because her teeth took ages to come through and every one came with lots of sleepless nights and crying - that's 20 teeth and 20 lots of very little sleep for a week or so.

We tried lots of different things, most of which didn't work. She never really liked the cold teething rings as a baby - she preferred chewing books instead!

As she got older, we found these teething powders called Ashtons and Parsons which helped a lot. We also gave her Calpol at night.

Lots of her friends had almost a full set of teeth, when she still only had 8 - teething seemed to go on forever.

When I think about how painful my wisdom teeth were, I feel so sorry for Evie and my husband and I just used to remind ourselves each time that it would pass in a few days.

She's now 3 and her final molars came through about 6 months ago - I know that some children don't get all their teeth till Evie's age now, so it could have been much worse.

Marie Hardcastle, 32, Shropshire - mum to Evie, 3

More help and advice

- Teething in your baby's first year - Taking care of your child's teeth