Top 10 Teethers for Baby to Help Prepare for Solid Foods
Introduce teethers early to help get your baby ready for solid foods.
Something many parents don’t know is that there are actually activities you can be doing with your baby when they’re 3-6 months that will help get them get ready for starting solid foods. While starting solid foods is exciting, it can be intimidating. By building baby’s skills before starting solids, you can ensure you are having the best possible start! One of the simple activities you can do is introduce teethers before starting solids!
When should I introduce teethers to my baby?
When you hear “teether,” you may assume babies only benefit from them when they are teething, which usually happens after 6 months. If you wait to introduce teethers until baby is actually teething, this misses a critical window of time between 3-6 months of age when babies are building their oral experiences in preparation for solid foods. This is why I recommend introducing teethers around 3-4 months of age, so they can have plenty of practice before introducing solids around 6 months.
Why are teethers beneficial?
When baby is 3-6 months of age, they are building many skills that are getting them ready for starting solids around 6 months of age. These skills include:
bringing their hands to their mouth
bringing objects to their mouth
jaw grading (i.e. learning to control how wide they need to open their mouth)
activating the tongue lateralization reflex
activating the bite reflex
Teethers help build upon all of these skills! When babies spend the months leading up to starting solids by learning to bring a variety of objects to their mouth and activating their oral reflexes, when they are introduced to food, they will already have a strong foundation and will more easily know how to handle the food in their mouth.
In addition to this, teethers can help babies map their mouths. This means by placing objects in their mouths, they are learning to feel all the different parts of their mouth, which in the future will help them know where their tongue is in space, and how to accurately move food throughout their mouth.
The different textures on teethers also help babies become accustomed to different sensations in their mouths. While teethers are not the same as food, it still allows them to get used to having a new feeling in their mouth.
Why are the tongue lateralization and bite reflexes important?
The tongue lateralization reflex is activate when something touches the sides of the tongue, and causes the tongue to move to the side. This is important so babies learn how to push food to the sides of their mouth to chew. The bite reflex is activated when pressure is applied to the back molar gum surface. This is important so babies learn to munch and chew food. When reflexes are stimulated, is helps teach baby how to do these movements volitionally, or meaningfully, rather than just reflexively. This is important in order to control food safely within the mouth.
These reflexes integrate, or disappear, around 9 months of age, so it’s very helpful for baby to learn how to do these movements volitionally (or on purpose) before 9 months. Without these reflexes or learning to do these movements on purpose, baby will likely just suck on the food in the middle of their mouth, rather than push it to the side and munch/chew the food.
What kind of teethers should I give my baby?
Not all teethers are created equal. While there is nothing wrong with introducing several different shapes of teethers, you do want to make sure to introduce a few that have a more specific shape to assist with stimulating the tongue lateralization and bite reflexes. Teethers that are long and narrow are easier for baby to place to the side of their mouth in order to stimulate both the tongue lateralization and bite reflexes.
What should I do if my baby doesn’t like teethers?
When you first introduce a new teether, your baby may show little to no interest in it, this is common! Many babies take time before they actually start to bring the teethers to their mouth. Model chewing on the teether so your baby sees what it is for. You can gently place it in your baby’s mouth and see if they start to munch. Don’t force it if your baby pushes it away or becomes upset, as we want the oral experiences to be positive. Continue to offer it to your baby a couple of times per day until they show interest. Whenever I introduced a new teether to my baby, she really enjoyed when I sang the Brush Your Teeth song by Raffi, and this usually did the trick to get her interested in munching on the new teether!
Here are some of my favorite teethers for 3-6 month olds to help advance your baby’s oral motor skills and help get them ready to start solid foods at 6 months!
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. This means that at no additional cost to you, if you make a purchase through certain links on this site or any related social media platforms, we may make a small commission. We only feature products that we believe in and use ourselves. Your support means the world to us and allows us to host this website. Thank you!
ezpz Oral Development Tools - Stick
ezpz Oral Development Tools are designed by feeding therapists specifically to help advance oral motor skills to help your little one start solids. They come in a pack of 3 tools, and this is my personal favorite for stimulating the biting and tongue lateralization reflexes. It has the perfect shaped handle for your little one to hold, and has little bumps for added sensory input to help map their mouth.
Nuby Nananubs Banana Teether
This is another favorite of mine, which has a perfectly sized handle for little hands, and is the perfect shape for placing to the side to stimulate munching, and touches against the side of the tongue to stimulate tongue lateralization. It also helps you introduce a toothbrush to get your baby used to “brushing teeth” before they actually have teeth!
Frida Baby Get-A-Grip Baby Teether
This teether has a unique design that helps it stay on your baby’s hand to prevent them from accidentally dropping it. It has nubs on either side that reach back to your baby’s molar gum surface to stimulate chewing, and offer multiple textures to help reduce sensitivity.
NumNum GOOtensils Baby Spoons
Introducing these self-feeding spoons before starting solids will set your baby up for success when you do start solids, so they know exactly what to do with the spoon when you offer it pre-loaded with some mashed food! They are the perfect length for baby to hold and bring to their own mouth, the silicone spoon end is soft enough to feel good on gums, and the spoon is thin enough to encourage baby to put it into their back molar surface for munching.
Comotomo Silicone Baby Teether
This teether has four finger shaped protuberances for your little one to munch on and explore, with an easy to grab handle.
Sophie la girafe
This classic and cute giraffe teether has several spots including the ears and the legs that are nub and stick shaped that allow baby to place them to the sides of their mouth in order to practice munching and activate the tongue lateralization reflex.
Haaka Palm Teether
This soft silicone teether has a perfect handle for baby to hold onto with five fingers with different textures, perfect for placing to the side for munching and tongue lateralization.
Nuby Soothing Corn Teether
Similar to the banana teether, this corn on the cob has a perfect little handle to hold onto and stick shape for placing to the side to stimulate munching and tongue lateralization.
ARK's Textured Grabber
This teether has a handle and stick shape to stimulate chewing and side to side tongue movements. It also comes in textured and smooth versions, as well as different levels of toughness. Use the smooth option for more sensitive babies that need to work their way up to something textured. They also have smaller baby-sized P teethers on the ARK website.
ARK's Y-Chew Oral Motor Chewy Tool
Another great teether option by ARK, with three different stick shapes and textures for your baby to munch on.
Need some guidance for starting solids? Check out my blogs Part 1 and Part 2 for starting solids.
Check out my blog about how to use food as teethers, or hard munchables, once you start solids around 6 months of age!
Follow us on Instagram for “bite-sized” information on each blog post:
This website and information on this blog post is provided for educational purposes only. It is not meant as medical advice, intended to replace a speech-language or feeding assessment, therapy from a speech-language pathologist, or serve as medical or nutritional care for a child. It is recommended that you discuss any concerns or questions you might have with your Speech-Language Pathologist, pediatrician, and medical team, and develop an individualized team plan specifically for your child.