Effects of Teething According to the Ayurvedic literature, teething may be linked with diseases. Teething gives rise to touchiness, increased salivation, rubbing of gums and painful gums. During teething, the child put everything into the mouth because of the desire to bite in the outbreak of a tooth. This offers an easy way for the entry of germs into the baby’s stomach and giving rise to vomiting and diarrhoea in the course of time. The beliefs and superstitions associated with teething all through the history appear amusing. Some babies also get fever, but it generally goes away within a day or two. Ritual of Teething A time is allotted and a place appointed for the ceremony. The child's mother goes to the place, outside the village, on the road that goes to her brother's house. When the brother hears about the arrival of his sister, he brings along with him an old copper coin with an iron nail and nothing else. When the brother is approaching, the sister takes her child up in her arms, so that his face is toward the way on which her brother is coming. The brother comes and opens the mouth of the child, touches its teeth with the coin and the iron nail, without showing his face to the sister or even seeing his sister's face. He then buries the coin and the nail on the very location and returns home. The ill luck for the maternal uncle is thus no longer effective. |