Don’t discount an infant’s fever just because he’s teething. No link was found between tooth eruption and severe symptoms like fever, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.
Researchers in Brazil surveyed the parents of 47 infants between the ages of 5 and 15 months. Over the span of eight months, the study authors visited the families’ homes to check the babies’ temperatures daily.
Primary tooth eruption was associated with "irritability, increased salivation, runny nose, loss of appetite, diarrhea, rash, and sleep disturbance," wrote the researchers. They found no link, however, between teething and more serious symptoms.
"Results of this study support the concept that the occurrence of severe signs and symptoms, such as fever, could not be attributed to teething," they concluded.
Lead author Joana Ramos-Jorge, from Brazil’s Federal University of Minas Gerais, urges parents and doctors to look for other causes of fever before assuming teething is the reason for an infant’s high temperature.