Best Food for Teething – What Will Help?

I often mention that frozen bagels are a go to of mine for gum and tooth pain with my kiddos, but the truth is there are a ton of foods that can HELP relieve teething pain. The best part about using food as a teething toy is that you are getting a two-for-one deal, soothing baby’s mouth and feeding them at one time! Woot woot. I really love multi-purpose things. So here we go: The Best Food for Teething!

Before Baby is Eating

In the 4-7 month range your baby isn’t really eating yet, but you can still use food to help with swollen gums and hurting mouths. Using harder foods that are easily chilled (and won’t melt all over) is key. Focus on carrots, celery, or raw sweet potato. These foods get nice and cold, won’t melt when sucked on and can be cut up into pieces that are easy for little ones to hold but very difficult to swallow. They are all pretty mild in taste as well, so baby will get a little flavor but nothing too strong.

If you don’t mind a mess you can also try breast milk/formula popsicles! These are a great solution if you are hell-bent on not introducing any solids until that 6 month mark. Just fill an ice cube try with breast milk or premixed formula and freeze. You can use one of the food mesh feeders to hold the ice cube or you can stick a baby spoon in while it’s freezing to act as the stick (so when it melts baby is not sticking anything sharp in his or her mouth). There are also a ton of baby food popsicle makers out on the market if you are so inclined.

Once Baby Begins Solids

Once you are comfortable with baby ingesting whatever they are putting into their mouths and you have introduced solids, the whole world opens up as far as teething options! I am very partial to frozen mini pancakes, waffles or bagels because they don’t make as big a mess and they don’t get rock hard when frozen. They are the perfect, hard but soft texture and who doesn’t love a mini pancake?

There are also a multitude of teething crackers/cookies/biscuits made specifically for baby on the market. Some are great, some are ok. My experience is that the products are baby specific. Some babies will like one more than the other so it is kind of the best just to experiment with what looks good or what’s on sale. That being said, I would HIGHLY recommend finding a cookie that has arrowroot as an ingredient, especially if your child in prone to an upset stomach or gas. Arrowroot is very easily digestible and aids in these issues, which teething can exacerbate. Plus, every kid I know likes arrowroot cookies!

When Baby is Eating

The act of eating is likely going to be helpful in itself, if your child likes to apply pressure to their sore gums. However, don’t be surprise if you see your kiddo’s appetite drop when a tooth is coming through. Not every child enjoys chewing with swollen gums.

This is also the time when molars will start coming in and those are BAD. Also, a perfect time to try out more frozen or semi-frozen foods. You can blend up smoothies and freeze them popsicle style or have your little one drink them as is. This allows you to keep the food intake up, but alleviate the pain that can come with chewing. We started this with my son as he was getting his 2 year molars and at 3.5 years old her still asks for a smoothie every morning! He also still eats his pancakes and waffles frozen… some habits are hard to break, lol.

If your toddler is into meat, try tougher cuts or beef or pork. They require more chewing and will thus massage the gum more as they eat. Just make sure you are cutting it into pieces that your little one can handle.

Things to Avoid

Anything acidic for two reasons. First off, like I mentioned above, teething can create some tummy issues and acidic foods are not going to help with that. In addition, if your child is like my second when they cut their teeth they literally CUT their gums (yes blood and everything). Acid and open sores do not mix. That would be incredibly uncomfortable.

I would also recommend avoiding sharp foods. Foods like tortilla chips, thin pretzel sticks, etc. can poke mouths and when mouths are already very sore that just adds insult to injury, well injury to injury.

There you go, the best food for teething! Was there a specific food that your baby or toddler loved eating when teething? Anything that helped or hurt? Drop a comment below! And if this article helped you or you know anyone it could help click the share button, sharing is caring!