Last weekend the girls were still recovering from their gastroenteritis and so they were just starting to return to their normal selves. Then, on Sunday, Eleanor seemed really crabby. She would be fine for a little bit, and then suddenly she would burst out crying. She would eat a little, and then refuse to eat more of what she had been enjoying. It was kind of bizarre behavior. She didn’t seem to be running a temperature. Finally, during one of Eleanor’s bouts of crying with her head thrown back, I took a look inside her mouth and saw that a molar had just started cutting through. It was on the upper right side. It’s a little unusual because Eleanor still doesn’t have all eight of her incisors. She’s missing the bottom two lateral incisors.
Anyway, apparently the first molar can be painful. In general, the girls haven’t fussed about teething, but this one definitely hurt. We switched over to pureed baby food and Eleanor did a lot better with her meals. The two other foods Eleanor would eat while in pain were cheese and goldfish crackers. The mild cheddar cheese was apparently soft enough that it didn’t hurt to eat. With goldfish crackers, Eleanor would nibble on them with her front teeth so that there was no danger of any whole pieces touching her sensitive gums. She didn’t put in that effort with any other foods though. After a couple of days, Eleanor was back to eating the full range of foods. It’s good to know that her crabbiness had a source to it–it just took a little bit for us to figure it out.