3 Surprising Developmental Benefits of Teethers

Think all teethers are created equal? Think again! Choosing the right teether for your baby doesn’t seem like something you would need to worry about. A teether is a teether, right? Unfortunately, some teethers can crack, break, leak, or otherwise cause issues with your baby’s mouth. However, when you choose the right one that is beneficial for their development, wonderful things can happen. Keep reading to find out the three surprising developmental benefits of teethers and the best oral development teether you (and your baby!) can get.

Become Better at Nursing or Bottle Feeding

While your baby is going to town on that teether, much more is happening than just soothing aching gums or keeping their hands busy. Teethers can actually help them become better at nursing and/or bottle feeding and are a great way to practice latch, whether that is on the breast or on the bottle.

Using a teether helps your baby strengthen their jaw muscles, lips, and tongue, which are all important skills for feeding. If your baby is having a tough time latching or is making clicking sounds while they bottle feed, grab a teether and start practicing!

Learning these skills with an oral development teether will help your baby latch, learn how to suction better, and create a better seal. This stops milk dribbling, assists with the suck/swallow/breathe pattern of feeding, and assists with jaw and tongue placement to lengthen feeding times.

Even if your baby has a tongue tie and you feel like you’ve given up hope on having a successful breastfeeding journey, practicing with an oral development teether can help!

Motor Skill Development, Including Hand-Eye Coordination

Gross motor skills refer to the muscle groups that perform large movements, such as walking, jumping, and crawling. Fine motor skills refer to the groups of muscles that do smaller movements, such as using a crayon, cutting with scissors, or grasping. Hand-eye coordination is the ability to use both your hands and your eyes at the same time, such as playing an instrument, writing, or juggling.

And, using a teether as a baby can help with all of these!

By allowing your baby to reach and grab for their teether, then holding it up to examine it, and moving it all over their mouth to explore the different textures, you are helping them develop these important skills. That’s why it is so important to choose a teether that is visually stimulating, easy to grasp, and has multiple textures. Putting multiple teethers on the floor and encouraging your baby to reach or crawl to them is also a fun way to practice these skills.

Easier Transition to Solid Foods and Speech

Babies who use oral development teethers can have an easier time transitioning to solid foods and are set up with the best foundation for speech development. With the jaw, tongue, and lip muscles being stimulated and exercised at such an early age, babies will no doubt have an easier time with these milestones.

In addition, using a teether moves the baby’s gag reflex further back on their tongue. Babies begin with this towards the front of their tongue, and as they learn to eat, it moves back farther to their throat. By using a teether at an early age, they may be able to move their gag reflex back early, which allows them an easier time at the solid food transition stage.

By using a teether, babies are practicing rounding their tongues, rounding their lips, and moving their jaws. These are all important skills that are practiced during speech therapy sessions, which makes oral development teethers a big help for setting your baby up for speech success.

The Best Teether for Oral Development

Want to set your baby up with the best possible chances for oral development? Innobaby has an entire line of oral development teethers, each with their own unique look but with the same amazing benefits.

All of our oral development teethers are:

For more teething help, parenting tips, and safe family products, visit us at Innobaby.com!