Simple homemade teething solutions
You can get lots of BPA free teethers these days, but if you want to skip teething toys altogether, try these:
- A frozen wet washcloth. Baby will chew on the icy surface for some quick relief.
- A chunky carrot. But watch baby carefully! She can bite off a sizable chunk and choke on it.
- A frozen banana. Then let her gnaw at it and quickly become covered in goo.
- A teething biscuit. Baby has to be nine months old at least to enjoy this treat, but enjoy it he will. Also, remember that he will create quite a mess with this too!
- A large polished agate. Of course you’d need to supervise, but my son loved his agate and the smooth, cold surface was quite soothing to his gums.
Other ideas? What did your great grandmother do before plastic? We’d love to hear.
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April 26th, 2010 at 6:48 am
My mom always swore by the washcloth trick – but she’d wet hers with apple juice prior to freezing it. It is what I plan on trying!
April 26th, 2010 at 7:24 am
My daughter loves wood, her rubber Sophie giraffe (expensive, but she does love it), a thick pretzal (I use TJ’s whole wheat ones, and scrape off the salt), a thick apple slice (before they have teeth), cold celery (very hard to bite through), stainless steel spoon, silky border of a plush blanket, etc. I have bought several BPA-free plastic teethers, and she doesn’t like any of them. I’ve also given her very, very hard pieces of toast and crackers like TJ’s woven wheats (imitation triscuits). I’ll have to try that polished agate idea — if it were big enough, you certainly wouldn’t need to worry about it being swallowed!
April 27th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
My little guy loves frozen whole wheat banana pancakes! I make a large batch and freeze them (on parchment so they don’t stick to each other) and keep a zippy bag full in the freezer.
Other frozen whole wheat breads like bagels or even just a slice of sandwich bread are favourites.
We also use those thin baby washcloths to wrap a piece of ice in and use a hair band to hold the washcloth tight around it and he loves this!
May 3rd, 2010 at 2:42 pm
I have heard that Italian mamas used to use (maybe still do) parmesan cheese rinds.
May 25th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
In addition to some of your ideas, we also used homeopathic remedies, made breastmilk popsicles, teething necklaces, frozen apples, liquid eccinacea extract (rubbed on gums).
http://parentingtips365.com/2008/08/25/teething-bites-natural-and-alternative-ways-to-ease-pain/
I’ve seen some new teething products that are BPA free. One is a blankie where they can chew and you can dip one part of the blankie in water and freeze it, then they can chew on that frozen end. It also contains a removable plastic water-filled ring, that’s BPA free. There are even special wooden teethers. Neat. I definitely want some of those next time!