I used Calgel on my son when teething was the bane of all of our lives(!) when he was between the ages of 5 months and 24 months (although you can use the gel from 3 months onwards).

The Calgel can be bought from Boots in a 10g tube for the very reasonable price of £1.99.

The Calgel contains two active ingredients who have a duel function to treat the symptoms associated with teething. One of the ingredients is Lidocaine Hydrochloride which is a local anaesthetic which works to block the pain pathway so that the associated pain in the gums is numbed. This is a tried and tested local anaesthetic which has been used safely and effectively for many years. In addition to this, the other active ingredient in Calgel is Cetylpyridinium Chloride which is an antiseptic whose function is to attack any bacteria which may be present in the mouth and may consequently infect any broken skin / gums in the mouth.

In order to use the Calgel, you need to massage the gel into the gum with a clean finger, preferably into the area where the pain is localized. Usually you can feel or see where the sore area is because the gum may feel very hard, and / or the gum will appear very red and / or the tooth will be visible breaking through the gum. I never actually needed to use very much of this gel on my son's gums (maybe 0.5cm of the gel as it comes out of the tube) - and this seemed more than adequate to numb the pain for him.

The gel is a beige / yellow colour and it has a medical smell to it which reminds me of a dental surgery! However, luckily my son isn't as freaked out by the dental surgery as I am, and so the smell never bothered him. The taste is also not unpleasant, and despite being sugar-free, it is surprisingly sweet. My son never seemed to mind the taste at all - which certainly made applying it to his gums a lot easier!

I obviously can't tell you whether the gel stopped him feeling pain, but I can tell you that once he'd had the gel applied, he would settle considerably - especially if I kept him topped up with Paracetamol when the pain seemed at its worse. I only had to apply it every few hours (it can be applied 6 times a day) and that seemed to knock the worst of it on the head. I'm not saying he was 100% happy following the gel application, but he was certainly a lot lot better.

Overall, I would recommend this for any parent with a teething baby who wants to hold on to a little bit of their sanity!!