Baby Toys to Encourage Oral Development

At the root of breastfeeding support is an understanding of how important your baby’s oral development is. If your baby’s oral anatomy and oral development are uncomplicated, there is a strong chance your baby will easily take to the breast, and breastfeeding will be a positive and rewarding experience for you.

One of the primary ways children develop new skills is through play, and oral skills are no exception to this rule! Oftentimes, we recommend particular toys to meet certain objectives in a care plan depending on your baby’s needs, but overall, all babies can benefit from playing with toys that encourage strong oral skills. In almost 7 years of supporting families, I have never thought, “Hmmm, that child’s oral skills are too advanced.” Oral development is always a good thing!

Toys that Encourage Tongue Extension

These three toys are perhaps my personal favorites, as well as the toys I recommend to my clients. They have thin structures that easily allow your baby to grasp and hold the toys and to independently move them to their mouth as early as just a few weeks of age. Once at the mouth, your baby will start to explore the toys, but the toy doesn’t easily end up further back in their mouth, and instead, encourages them to move their tongue forward. This encourages tongue extension and helps your baby become more comfortable maintaining the tongue extension they need to effectively latch at the breast or the bottle.

Toys that Encourage Chewing and Tongue Lateralization

These three toys encourage your baby to chew on the sides of their mouths and to use the lateral movement of their tongue to move the toy side to side. They are fairly shallow toys that are unlikely to trigger the gag reflex of even a sensitive little one. The carrot teether has the added benefit of having many textures for your baby to latch on to to help encourage oral tolerance to a wider variety of stimuli.

'

Teething Tubes

Teething Tubes are hollow, silicone, chewy tubes that encourage tongue movement, allow your baby to explore their gag sensation depending on how deeply they allow the toy in their mouth, and alleviate teething pain by stimulating the gums. These are typically dishwasher safe and come in multi-pacs which can be very helpful when you have a busy infant at this stage!

Nuk Brushes

If your baby is not moving their tongue in all directions with ease, we may see issues as they transition from exclusively liquid feeding with breastmilk or infant formula to solid foods. Why? Because moving food in your mouth to safely swallow the food requires coordinated tongue movement. If your baby isn’t sure how to move their tongue, even if they can move their tongue, problems arise. The Nuk Brush is fantastic for allowing your baby to explore the texture, and later, using it to dip in a puree if your baby is of an age to have solid foods. This toy also helps provide pain relief for teething babies, and may be recommended if we are seeing teething related biting at the breast in an older baby.

Z-Vibe for Oral Exploration and Desensitization

The Z-Vibe is an oral sensory tool commonly used in speech therapy that can be very helpful for addressing breastfeeding and oral development concerns at home. The Z-Vibe provides novel stimulation and allows your baby to both experience and control the stimulation. For older baby’s who have recently undergone or are preparing to undergo a tongue-tie revision, this tool can really help them learn how to explore their mouth with their tongue. This exploration helps to encourage an increased range of motion and tolerance to stimuli that translates to better feeding.

So how do I know what toys my baby needs?

The majority of baby’s thrive with whatever toys we give them, and they would enjoy any of the toys on this list!

When it comes to using toys for targeted oral development support, that’s where a professional assessment comes in. We work to understand exactly what your baby’s oral skills are at this moment in time, how it’s impacting your baby’s ability to meet your feeding goals, and what steps make sense to support improvement.

I want to learn more about tongue-ties!

We’ve got you covered - feel free to check out our page dedicated to tongue-ties, OR tune in to our YouTube channel for some awesome 60 second shorts discussing tongue-ties!

If you are concerned about your baby’s oral development, or want to make sure you get the most benefit possible from a tongue-tie revision, reach out today for support!