Using alcohol to relieve baby’s teething pains

Lately, I?ve been getting in the mail these magazines with cute little babies pictured on the cover. I don?t know why because there?s no newborn in my house.

And I haven?t bought any new-baby items with my credit card recently. The only baby in my house are some dolls I got in a box lot at auction once that I?ll soon take to the Salvation Army. So, how in the heck did American Baby magazine get my name? I was about to toss the magazine when one headline popped out: “Comfort Your Baby. How to Help Her Learn to Sooth Herself.” I know there a lot of people who believe there are different ways to make sooth a baby especially when they are teething. I remember a friend of my jokingly asking is teething pain a myth? He was joking of course but it made me want to look through this a magazine to see if there were any answers given.

I thumbed through the magazine ? twice – to find the article, and saw not a single piece related to the subject. I also did not find a single African American baby pictured with any of the articles in this issue, except for a dark brown doll a mom could knit for her little one. The only black babies and people were in the ads (thanks Babies R Us, Fisher Price, Gerber and Ergobaby – with an African American father kissing his baby).

I was disappointed that I didn?t find the article because I wanted to know the mag?s solution for comforting a baby after coming across at auction a remedy for baby’s teething pains. It was called Dr. Hand?s Teething Lotion. The bottle was ? full of a raspberry-colored liquid that looked like cough syrup but less thick. I wasn?t sure if it was the original product or if someone had poured in their own mixture.

The first thing printed on the label were the contents, starting with “alcohol, 11 percent.” Whoa, I thought, alcohol in a baby?s teething medicine. Now, that would comfort and quiet any child. The medicine was to be used to bathe the gums to relieve pain and distress, and it was also good for calming toothaches of mom and siblings. Of course, nowadays, we would just head to a Dentist in Seattle, or our nearest clinic, to resolve toothache.

The label warned, though, not to allow baby to swallow too much of the solution. As soon as I read this, I had the image of a baby loving it so much that she swiped the bottle from mom?s hand and started downing it on her own.

The thought of alcohol or whiskey in baby medicine seemed a little out there, but then I remembered that mothers for years had rubbed a bit of it on gums to relieve teething pains. My mother probably did, too.

It?s an old wives? trick handed down from mother to daughter. Some consider it a safe way to ease the pain of teething, as long as you?re using the drinking alcohol and not the rubbing-on-the-skin kind. Better yet, according to a doctor in one article, give the child a teething ring to bite on. I found on the web all kinds of discussions on whether you should or you shouldn?t. I also found some do?s and don?ts on teething.

I drink an occasional glass of white wine and wondered how much alcohol it contained compared to Dr. Hand?s mixture. My white wine has 10 to 11 percent alcohol. Overall, alcohol content in wine can be as high as 14.5 percent or more. When I have mine, however, I?m drinking by the glass and not rubbing it on my gums.

Dr. Hand and his medicine appeared to be pretty popular during the latter part of the 19th century and into the first half of the 20th century. Testimonials from an almanac published by the Philadelphia Record newspaper in 1894 were very complimentary of the then 25-cent product. I found ads from the 1920s assuring mothers that the teething lotion contained no narcotics that could drug her baby, along with a Teething Lotion box noting the absence of opium or cocaine.

Life and Ebony magazines in the 1940s carried Dr. Hand?s ads, again promoting the teething lotion. Some ads had testimonials on the labels from what seemed to be actual mothers.

David B. Hand (1848-1923) was a Scranton, PA, doctor who manufactured remedies for children and babies. His products included the Dr. Hand?s Teething Lotion, Colic Cure, Chafing Powder, Diarrhea Mixture and Worm Elixir, among others. He published several manuals that were included in a 2008 catalog of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American Popular Medicine, Vol III.

Hand graduated from the New York University School of Medicine in 1870. He seemed to have published his manuals in the late 1880s to 1916.

For 2 cents, a mother could get a sample of the teething lotion from Hand Medicine Co., based in Philadelphia, according to one bottle label. Another noted that Hand had been making the product since 1885. The label on my bottle noted that the company was the successor to the firm of D.B. Hand, M.D.

I?m not sure if companies still put alcohol in baby?s teething medicine. But mothers do have alternatives: teething or sucking pads, a natural product for rubbing cheeks (not gums), teething powders and gels. They seem a lot safer than the booze.