Clove Oil for Teething Babies: What AAP and FDA Say Instead

Do not put clove oil on a baby's gums, and do not use it as a teething remedy. Our oils are labelled for aromatic and cosmetic use only, never internal use, our bud oil page says to keep it away from children, and the one thing the case literature agrees on is that swallowed clove oil has caused liver failure in infants. We will not give a home protocol for this, and the rest of the page explains why and what pediatric sources recommend instead.

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What the pediatric guidance actually recommends

The American Academy of Pediatrics' parent site says first teeth typically appear between 6 and 10 months, with discomfort possibly as early as 3 months. Its advice is to massage the sore spots with a clean fingertip or knuckle, offer something safe to chew, never anything frozen solid, and avoid benzocaine, lidocaine and homeopathic teething tablets or gels. It also says numbing gels made for a baby's gums "usually aren't helpful" and warns about teething necklaces (AAP HealthyChildren, Teething Pain). The page does not mention clove or essential oils at all.

The FDA's consumer update on teething (page current to June 2024) is blunt: benzocaine products "should not be used for teething pain in children because they can be dangerous", prescription viscous lidocaine solution is not for teething pain in infants and young children, and homeopathic teething products "offer little to no benefit and are associated with serious risks". Its alternatives are gently rubbing the gums with a finger or a firm rubber teether that is not liquid-filled and not frozen, with supervision (FDA consumer update on teething pain in infants and children). Clove oil is not on the FDA's list of recommendations. We read that as meaning no regulator is steering parents toward it, though neither page assesses clove oil directly, so that is an inference from silence.

A common question is whether clove oil is the "natural" alternative to benzocaine. We cover that comparison in clove oil versus benzocaine; the short answer is that both categories carry documented infant harms, and the pediatric advice for both is the same: don't.

What a clove product's own label says about under-2s

A UK general-sale clove oil dental product (100% clove oil) says in its prescribing information that it is "Not recommended for use in children under 2 years of age due to lack of adequate data", and its overdose section reports life-threatening effects after oral ingestion of clove oil in children under 2. It also states that eugenol may irritate skin and mucous membranes and lists hypersensitivity to clove oil, eugenol or Peru balsam as a contraindication (Clove Oil BP summary of product characteristics, medicines.org.uk). So the manufacturer of a licensed clove oil product, whose purpose is dental, says not to use it in infants. A bottle of aromatic oil carries no such licence at all.

The documented harm: three infants and toddlers

None of these concern teething, but all concern swallowed clove oil by very young children:

These are individual case reports, so they cannot give a threshold dose or a rate. A half-ounce bottle is roughly 13 to 15 mL depending on whether the ounce is weight or volume, which is our arithmetic: more than either child swallowed. A bottle on a nightstand is the realistic route, not a deliberate dose.

Why a baby's mouth in particular

Reasoning from the sources above, and not from any trial in infants, which we could not find: a clove oil dose is spread over a very small body; oral soft tissue is already documented to react to eugenol in adults, with irritative and cytotoxic effects and hypersensitivity (Sarrami et al., British Dental Journal, 2002); and anything placed in a baby's mouth gets swallowed. Poison Control says children have "thin skin and immature livers" that might make them more susceptible to essential oil toxicity (Poison Control, essential oils). We know of no pediatric clinical data for clove oil used on infant gums, so there is no evidence base to build a protocol on, ours or anyone's.

Diffusing and skin around a baby

We found no study of diffused clove oil exposure in infants, so we cannot report one. Our bud oil page says to keep the oil away from children and to dilute for skin use, and clove is a documented skin irritant (see our side effects guide). Reasoning from that, a pediatrician is the person to ask before diffusing near a baby or putting any clove dilution on a child's skin. For a bottle in a household with a crawler, the rule is storage out of reach and out of sight, in line with Poison Control's advice to lock essential oils away from children.

What to do instead, and who to call

One more reason we will not offer a dilution for babies: the only published skin maximum we fetched, 0.5% for clove bud oil (Tisserand Institute, eugenol article), is a general topical figure, and nothing we found sets an infant figure or says a gum or mouth application can be calibrated at any strength. Any number we printed would be invented. Our own 0.5% to 2% range is for adult cosmetic use with a patch test, and our bud oil page says to keep the oil away from children.

Our ingestion article covers the food-flavouring rule and why it does not apply to a bottle, and our pregnancy article covers the other life stage where the answer is "ask first".

We sell clove bud and clove leaf oil for aroma and diluted cosmetic use by adults. They are not a teething product, and we would rather lose the sale than leave you with another answer.

Clove Essential Oil bottle

Clove Essential Oil

Clove Essential Oil from our own shop, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

From $10.99

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Sources & Further Reading