Understanding Oral Development
If one thing in this world is for certain, it is that babies grow fast. Right when you hit one developmental milestone, another one is just around the corner. When it comes to oral development and teething, we obviously want to make sure our little babes are as comfortable as possible while their mouths develop properly. You might be stressed about the pacifier, digit sucking, or other normal behaviors, but when does it start to become an oral development issue? Keep reading to learn more about oral development in babies and how to get a head start on great development with our line of oral development teethers.
What is Oral Development in Babies?
It’s not hard to tell when your baby is teething, and this is the first stage of oral development in babies. Teething symptoms are tricky, however. They can either come on quickly, or they can linger around for months before any tooth eruption occurs. Some of the signs of teething include:
- Sore gums
- Slight fever
- Flush cheek
- Drool rash
- Ear pulling or rubbing
- Extra drool
- Always looking to chew on something
- Sleep disruption
- Coughing
There are five stages of teething. (source: Pediatricdentalspecialist) They include:
- Stage 1: (0-6 months) Babies are born with a full set of twenty teeth beneath the gums
- Stage 2: (6 months) The first teeth to erupt are the upper and lower incisors (front teeth)
- Stage 3: (10-14 months) Primary Molars erupt
- Stage 4: (16-22 months) Canine teeth (between incisors and molars on top and bottom) will erupt
- Stage 5: (25-33 months) Large molars erupt
Signs of Oral Development Issues
According to Children’s Wisconson, there are certain sensitive periods when a child’s brain is ready to learn new eating skills such as spoon feeding and solid table foods. Introducing those skills too early or waiting too long can result in oral-motor and/or oral-sensory problems.
Symptoms of a motor problem could include:
- Delayed advance of textures because the child can’t physically manage chewing solid foods
- Slow or inefficient chewing
- Food left in the mouth
- Food falling from the mouth
- Gagging
- Coughing or choking
- Low intake of food (the child may not consume enough calories because it takes so long to eat)
- Delayed advance of other feeding milestones (such as transitioning to a regular open cup from a sippy cup)
Symptoms of a sensory problem could include:
- Gagging
- Refusal to eat
- Crying during meal times
- Vomiting
- Delayed eating milestones (the child may be able to tolerate liquids and purees but have trouble with chewable foods, or vice versa)
- Unusual taste preferences (such as salsa on eggs)
- Food falling from the mouth
How to Get a Great Head Start on Oral Development
When it comes to getting a great head start on oral development and working on those oral motor skills, it is never too early to start. Some of the things you can do to start working toward preventing issues in the future include:
- Breastfeeding
- Wait on solids until your baby can cough, hold his head up, can move the tongue to both sides of the mouth, open mouth wide, and brings hands or toys to mouth frequently
- Offering safe teethers that won’t break, rip, or harm their mouth
- Tongue exercises
- Offering your baby oral development teether toys instead of regular simple teethers
Oral Development Teethers
Why give your baby a boring, simple teether? Give them something that will not only soothe their aching gums but aid in their oral development and motor skills, as well!
Innobaby’s star teethers aren’t just great for teething pain; they’re considered “training teethers,” which means they’re great for a bunch of different reasons:
- They stimulate the muscles of the lips, tongue, and cheeks to improve oral motor skills
- Aids in nursing
- Gets mouth ready for eating solid foods or drinking from cups
- Aids in speech development
The light and easy-to-grip handle also improves your baby’s hand-eye coordination. Giving two to your baby will allow for bilateral movement and stimulation of both sides of the brain, as well. They’re not only having fun and soothing their gums; they are literally getting smarter as they use these teethers!
Innobaby holds its teethers to the very highest standards (conform to Toy Safety Standard ASTM F963 and EN71) and uses the highest quality TPE available because Innobaby wants the best for your baby, just like you! Other teethers may be too small or break apart easily, but you can trust ours.
Innobaby teethers are also freezer safe, which not all teethers can claim. Many teethers may get too hard in the freezer and cause pain or injury to your baby. Others can break easily once frozen, and tons of other scary issues. Make sure you’re only freezing teethers that are freezer safe, such as our line of teethers. They’re also BPA-, phthalate-, PVC-, latex-, and lead-free!
For more great parenting tips and high-quality, safe products for the whole family to use, visit us at innobaby.com!