Our daughter, affectionately known in Internetland as “Baby J”, has amassed quite the collection of teethers. She has some beautiful handcrafted wooden teethers in cool shapes (like California and a dolphin). She has some of the gel-filled ones that you stick in the fridge to get cold. And she has (or I have) one of those silicone teething necklaces that is all the rage right now. Yes, she even has the ever-popular Sophie the Giraffe. If you have read any of my other blog posts (the one about showering with your infant comes to mind), then you can probably guess J’s feelings towards all of these different teethers: she hated them! What can I say? She is a kid with simple tastes.
Since she can only say a few words right now, I have no way of knowing exactly what it is that she dislikes about each of them, but in observing her trying to use them, I think they are all too big and/or bulky for her to put in her mouth. And some, like the wooden ones, are also too hard.
So Erik and I had basically given up on giving J teethers except for the occasional cube of ice (which she seemed to like except for it’s freezing cold temperature). And then, one day I was working at a soup kitchen with some of my church friends, and we began to talk about teething babies. One of them said that she used to have a friend who did the strangest thing. So I went home and tried it. J gave it a big ‘ol tooth smile of approval. Do you wanna know what it was? What this friend of a friend used to give her kids?
Celery!
Yep, just common celery. And it works great! It fits into J’s mouth with ease. She can chew on it for a really long time, and I think it probably has the right amount of give to it.
And this mama gives it a thumbs up too! Not only is it all-natural, but it is super affordable as well. 50 cents for a teether? And for a whole bunch of them? You bet!
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Interesting! I wish I would have found this sooner.
One Awesome Momma
Never thought of celery! This is a great tip.
Ahh that’s so sweet! My eldest loved her Sophie and my youngest loved my fingers or any piece of my clothing (so long as it was still attached to me)! I’d never have thought to try celery.
Celery as a teether does sounds like a good idea. I wonder though, couldn’t it be a choking hazard if they managed to break off a piece?
We practiceBaby Led Weaning too, so I am not really worried about it.
My kiddos LOVED gnawing on celery too 🙂
This is genius! I absolutely love this idea!! Thanks for sharing!
I love it! Cute picture of the celery child. Ours is teething all over the place at the moment.