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Now in terms of mouth, I mean the action of placing a SAFE toy inside the mouth for the purposes of licking, gnawing and biting. What I mean by SAFE include products marketed as infant teethers that are sold by reputable companies (i.e. Sassy) and in reputable places (Target, Babies R Us, Walmart). These items are very large, therefore not  small enough for them to choke and they do NOT have small pieces that can be bit off and choked on. In terms of teethers and rattles I have purchased and utilized many items from Sassy in particular, as they are strictly labeled paint free and SAFE FOR MOUTHING. 

I often find a lot of parents believe that infants should NEVER put items in their mouth.  However, it is important for the development of a baby’s tongue in preparation for talking and eating more textured table foods that providing access to SAFE toys to place in the mouth is important in so many ways. As children get older, they should place objects in their mouth less. For an infant, consider the mouth their third hand, they learn to recognize toys and objects first by how it feels inside their mouth.

I began to introduce my son Gavin to rattles that could be placed safely inside his mouth at 3 1/2 months of age. I did this by placing the toy in his hand first to hold onto, then placing it inside his mouth for him to explore different textures with his tongue.  Initially he did not have the grasp pattern to hold on for longer than a few seconds on the toy, so I needed to help him hold the toy there first for a minute or so while he chewed and sucked on the unfamiliar textures. He also liked the vibrating teethers, though he wasn’t strong enough to activate them himself by biting I would hold them on for a few seconds myself and place it near his mouth. Get your camera ready, you’ll see some funny faces that’s for sure!

The next stage of development included him bringing a toy to his mouth to chew on automatically when a light weight rattle was put in his hand.  When he was more supported in a feeding booster seat or his bouncy chair as they are semi-reclined, he tended to be more successful as his core muscles were more supported, which gave him the stability and access to then work with his hands.

Teaching a baby to bring toys to their mouth is also a skill that will be helpful later on when they are ready to finger feed themselves small pieces of food and to self-feed by spoon. Listen for any more vocalizations that may occur during this activity, you are helping your baby to stimulate the receptors and muscles inside their mouth. Get a bib handy, this will also produce a lot of fabulous drool!

The above teethers are from Sassybaby.com.  Though Sassy provided these rattles and teethers for my review, the above information in this blogpost are the author’s own opinions of the toys.

Disclosure: www.cmp.ly/2/e1uz40