Teething trouble

Sir,— I read with interest the article by M. P. Ashley 'It's only teething. A report of the myths and modern approaches to teething.' (British Dental Journal2001; 191: 4–8). As a dentist with a nine month-old daughter, this topic is definitely of my concern. I would also like to share with you one of the myths that my baby sitter told me when my daughter's lower incisors were erupting at the age of eight months. She said that my daughter's stool would not only be watery but also presented with a mixture that was granular-like in appearance. Indeed her stool was in this appearance for a few weeks before her first teeth erupted. Until now, nobody can explain this phenomena and I wonder whether it is related to some gastrointestinal infection, as during teething they might have ingested some contaminated material when biting on different surfaces of objects. However, this feature was not seen after her teeth had erupted although she is still actively biting on different objects