Teething can be a difficult time for a baby for many reasons. For one, they’ll be experiencing extreme discomfort in their mouths. For another, they don’t have any means of expressing or channeling their pain healthily. Fortunately, there is a solution: get a teething toy, like a fruit teether.
Here are some benefits of getting teethers for your baby and the different types you can choose from.
5 Ways a Fruit Teething Toy Can Help Your Baby
A fruit teething toy, while often cute and colorful, is more than just aesthetic. Teethers are engineered to be helpful for babies in their teething stage and for the parents who stress over them. Specifically, here are reasons why.
Soothes Teething Gums
During teething, the teeth emerge slowly and painfully from a baby’s tender gums. This can be extremely uncomfortable, and babies only know how to address this painful sensation by pressing their gums up against solid objects.
Teething toys are a shock absorber for a baby’s urge to chew. They are hard enough, but not so hard that a baby will hurt themselves while gnawing on the toy. In fact, this is one of the reasons a baby teething toy is a must-have for teething babies: they are much safer to chew on than the alternatives, like plastic toys or utensils, which can be sharp and dangerous.
Teething toys are often made from soft, baby-friendly materials like food-grade silicone, allowing your baby to chew as they please without any consequences.
Helps Develop Oral Motors
While teething can be painful, it is essential to a baby’s development as long as you have the right tools. You can use teething as a developmental opportunity for your baby since the sensation in their gums will prompt them to chew and, consequently, develop their oral motors.
Teething toys can help your child chew productively since their safe, baby-friendly nature allows them to chew to their heart’s content.
Helps Prepare for Solid Foods
During teething, a baby’s first teeth will begin appearing from their gums, and the presence of teeth is a sign your baby is finally ready for solid foods. But you can’t make the jump from baby food to table food in an instant. You have to wean them slowly.
Teething toys are great practice for chewing. Once your baby has enough experience chewing on harmless toys, they can start practicing on solid food and chew their food well enough to prevent choking.
Then, once they’re ready to eat, it’s time for some extra learning, like potty training.
Improves a Baby’s Mental Health
Since teething is painful and babies don’t yet have the mental capacity to endure or channel pain healthily, it can lead to extreme irritability. During teething, a baby will cry and thrash around to express their frustration, but their efforts will be useless.
Teething toys serve as a healthy outlet for babies with a need to release their frustration. Chewing on teethers can stimulate some much-needed satisfaction in a baby’s mind that helps them relax and improves the quality of their mood.
Feels Good, Looks Good
As long as it’s safe and FDA-approved, virtually any teething toy can help babies with teething. However, in this article, we’re talking specifically about fruit teethers. There is a simple reason why: they feel good and look good, too.
Letting your baby explore their senses is a crucial part of their development, which is why the color and textures of a fruit teether matter. The fruit teether teaches them about different sensations and, in turn, teaches them more about the world.
And the looks, well, that’s a plus: fruit teethers are cute, and seeing your baby chew on them is a sight for sore eyes.
5 Different Teething Toys for Infants
While a necessity, teething toys for infants don’t have to be boring. There are many types of teething toys to choose from, all with different functions to suit your baby’s needs. Here are four of them.
Teething Rings
A teething ring is a teether molded in a ring shape designed for a baby to hold and chew on at the same time. A teething ring stimulates a baby’s oral and tactical motors, improving hand-eye coordination and providing your child with a learning experience.
Teething Toothbrushes
At this stage, your baby will be too young for dental care. But that doesn’t mean they can’t have their own toothbrush. A teething toothbrush is a teething toy designed like a toothbrush. It is a long toy with nubbins and bumps towards the end, which make it look like a toothbrush.
However, even if they resemble toothbrushes, teething toothbrushes are not designed for infant dental care. Instead, check out baby tongue cleaners to stay on top of your baby’s oral health.
Teething Blankets
During teething, the nearest fabric is one of the first things every baby starts chewing on. However, their bed sheets, blankets, or baby clothes are unsanitary options for teethers. Instead, get them teething blankets designed specifically to be soft teethers.
Teething blankets are great to put beside your baby in case they get the urge to gnaw on something during their afternoon nap.
Teething Toys
Lastly, we have teething toys. Teething toys are exactly what they mean: toy teethers. They can come in the shapes of food or animals and are designed as such for aesthetic purposes. In truth, they’re just cute (and safe, of course), but who doesn’t love a cute baby with an even cuter teething toy?
What Makes a Safe Teething Toy?
Of course, safety is a natural characteristic parents look for in baby products, especially teething toys. After all, babies put teethers in their mouths. So how can baby brands guarantee the safety of a teething child?
To be safe for children, a teething toy must be non-toxic and made from safe materials, like food-grade silicone. It must also be soft to ensure the safety of a child’s gums and avoid injury. Specifically, teething toys must meet the following criteria in order to be considered safe:
- Phthalates-free
- Lead-free
- BPA-free
- Toxin-free
- Freezer-safe
Get This Fruit Teething Toy Set From Ashtonbee
Are you in the market for a fruit teething toy set? Then today’s your lucky day. Ashtonbee’s fruit-shaped teethers might just be the teething toy your baby needs. They’re made from the highest quality food-grade silicone and are free from harmful toxins. Plus, each set comes with four different fruits, giving your child a garden of choices!
Get our silicone fruit teethers here or through our Amazon store today.
