Why Frozen Teethers Are a Bad Idea

I was standing in front of the open refrigerator at 3:14 AM wearing a t-shirt I’d spilled coffee on twelve hours earlier, holding my oldest son Tucker while he screamed bloody murder. He was about five months old, drooling like a mastiff, and his gums looked like tiny red angry mountain ranges. In a desperate move, I reached into the back of the freezer and pulled out one of those liquid-filled plastic teething rings I got at my baby shower, shoved it in his mouth, and fully expected instant, magical silence.

Instead, he shrieked louder, and when I tried to pull the ring away, it stuck to his bottom lip like that kid on the flagpole in A Christmas Story. Y'all, I panicked. I had to use warm water from the sink to unstick it, leaving him with a tiny, red ice burn on his face and me feeling like the absolute worst mother in the history of the state of Texas.

I’m just gonna be real with you: a lot of the teething advice we get handed down is absolute garbage. We’re so desperate for sleep that we’ll try anything to stop the crying, but that night taught me a hard lesson. When I finally dragged both of us to our doctor, Dr. Evans, she took one look at Tucker’s lip and sighed, telling me that freezing teethers is actually a fantastic way to give your baby frostbite and damage their delicate gum tissue.

Why the fridge is your friend (and the freezer is the enemy)

I grew up hearing that you just freeze everything. Freeze a wet washcloth, freeze the plastic rings, freeze a waffle. But Dr. Evans explained it to me like this: a baby’s mouth isn't tough enough to handle sub-zero temperatures, and extreme cold actually slows down the healing of those inflamed gums instead of helping them. Plus, those cheap plastic rings get rock hard when they're frozen solid, which completely defeats the purpose because a baby needs something with a little give to push back against the pressure in their jaw.

If you can just manage to toss the teether in the regular refrigerator for twenty minutes before handing it over instead of freezing it into a weapon of mass destruction, you'll get the cooling relief without the impromptu trip to urgent care.

And speaking of weapons, let's talk about what those teethers are actually made of. After the Great Freezer Incident of 2019, I threw away every liquid-filled plastic thing in my house. I was terrified of what was floating around inside them, and frankly, halfway through chewing on one, the seam split and leaked sticky blue goo all over the carpet. I decided I wasn't putting anything in my kid's mouth that I couldn't pronounce the ingredients of, which is how I stumbled into the world of pure silicone.

Discovering the magic of food-grade silicone

When I started buying safer baby stuff, a friend told me to check out Kianao. I remember looking at the packaging of my first order and seeing the phrase beißring silikon, which I honestly thought was some kind of fancy European medical term until I realized it just translates to a silicone teething ring. But whatever you call it, getting a 100% food-grade silicone teether changed my life.

Silicone isn't plastic. From what I understand, it’s made from sand or silica or something natural like that, but the main point is that it doesn't have BPA, phthalates, or any of those sketchy chemical plasticizers that make cheap toys soft. It’s naturally rubbery, which is exactly what a baby wants when they're trying to break a tooth through.

The best part? Bacteria hates it. It doesn't have pores, so mold can't grow inside it like it does in those squirt toys that haunt my nightmares. And because I'm cheap, I love that a good silicone teether will last through all three of my kids without degrading or getting gross, which easily justifies paying twenty bucks for one good one instead of buying a $5 piece of plastic every month.

Oh, and amber teething necklaces are a choking hazard and they don't work, so just save your money on those entirely.

The great spit-cleaning debate

Here's where I've to respectfully disagree with my own mother, bless her heart. Whenever I drop a toy or a teether in a parking lot or on the floor of the grocery store, my mom's immediate reaction is, "Just pop it in your mouth to clean it off before you give it back to him!"

I used to do this. I thought it was building their immune system. Then my dentist told me that licking your baby's teether is literally the fastest way to transfer the specific cavity-causing bacteria from your adult mouth into their brand-new, virgin baby mouth. Apparently, babies aren't born with the bacteria that causes tooth decay—they get it from us. When we "clean" a pacifier or a teether with our own spit, we're basically setting them up for a mouth full of fillings by the time they hit kindergarten.

So, don't lick the teether. This is another reason I'm aggressively pro-silicone. When the baby throws it in the dirt at the park, I can literally take it home, throw it in a pot of boiling water for five minutes, or just toss it on the top rack of the dishwasher next to my coffee mugs. Try doing that with a plastic ring and you'll end up with a melted puddle of toxic sludge on your heating element.

Shop Kianao’s collection of safe, easy-to-clean feeding and teething essentials if you're as tired of hand-washing things as I'm.

What I really buy (and what's just okay)

You can go crazy buying teething toys. I had a whole basket of them for Tucker, and most of them were useless. By the time my third came along, I had exactly two that we genuinely used.

The Holy Grail: The 100% Silicone Animal Teethers from Kianao. These are my absolute favorite because there are zero cracks, crevices, or hidden holes. It’s just one solid piece of food-grade silicone. It’s shaped perfectly so my youngest could seriously grip the middle without dropping it every four seconds, and the little textured nubs on the animal's ears were the only thing that helped when his molars were coming in. I bought three of these. One for the car, one for the crib, one for the diaper bag.
The "Aesthetic But Annoying" One: I also bought one of those beautiful silicone and wood teething rings. Don't get me wrong, it looks gorgeous in nursery photos, and the babies do love the contrast between the hard wood and the soft silicone. But I'm too sleep-deprived for mixed materials. You can't boil wood. You can't put wood in the dishwasher. If you leave it soaking in the sink because you forgot about it (which I did), the wood swells up, cracks, and then you've to throw it away because it might splinter in their mouth. If you're better at doing dishes than I'm, go for it. If you're drowning in laundry, stick to the solid silicone.

The jaw muscle science I barely understand

I used to think teethers were literally just to numb the pain, but Dr. Evans gave me this whole speech about oral motor development that kind of blew my mind. I guess when a baby is chewing on a firm silicone ring, they're genuinely working out their jaw, lips, and tongue.

She said all that aggressive gnawing helps move the baby's gag reflex further back in their mouth so that when you finally introduce solid foods, they don't immediately choke on a piece of avocado. It also apparently helps develop the muscles they need to start babbling and eventually talking. I’m pretty sure she said something about "tongue lateralization," but honestly, I was just happy knowing that the thirty minutes my kid spent chewing on a silicone star was technically educational and not just a distraction.

The "Antibacterial" scam you need to avoid

Before I wrap this up, I've to rant about something I saw at a big-box baby store last month. I was looking at teethers for a baby shower gift and noticed a bunch of them advertising "antibacterial silver technology." They charge like ten dollars extra for this.

Don't fall for this. I went down a huge rabbit hole reading reports from environmental agencies, and they all say the same thing: adding chemical antibacterial agents to baby products is unnecessary and might seriously be contributing to antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Pure food-grade silicone doesn't need chemical coatings to be safe. It doesn't harbor bacteria naturally. Just wash the dang thing with regular dish soap and warm water. You don't need silver ions in your baby's mouth, you just need a functioning sink.

Teething is survival mode. It just is. You're going to be tired, they're going to be cranky, and there will be more drool than you ever thought a human body could produce. But getting the right tools makes it slightly less miserable.

Grab a safe, solid silicone teether from Kianao before the molars start breaking through. Trust me.

My Messy Teething FAQs

Can I put a silicone teether in the freezer if it doesn't have liquid in it?

No, seriously, stop trying to freeze things! Even pure silicone gets dangerously cold in the freezer and can stick to their wet little lips or cause frostnip on their gums. Just put it in the regular refrigerator. It gets plenty cold enough in there to soothe them without causing an ice burn.

How often do I really need to sterilize these things?

Listen, with my first kid, I boiled his teether every single night. With my third kid, I run it through the dishwasher maybe once a week, and the rest of the time I just wash it with warm water and Dawn dish soap in the sink. Unless your kid has thrush or has been sick, regular soap and water daily is totally fine. Just make sure you rinse it really well so they don't taste soap.

When should I throw a silicone teether away?

Silicone is crazy durable, but once those sharp little vampire teeth seriously break through, babies can sometimes bite chunks off. I aggressively yank on my kids' teethers every few weeks to check for tears or weak spots. The second you see a crack or a piece that looks like it's peeling, throw it directly in the trash. It’s not worth the choking risk.

My baby gags on the teether, is that normal?

Yeah, and it looks terrifying, but it's seriously part of them learning where the back of their mouth is! My middle child would shove her silicone giraffe leg so far back I thought she was going to throw up, but our doctor said as long as the teether is large enough that she can't really swallow the whole thing, that gagging is helping desensitize her mouth for eating real food later.

Is it okay if they use it all day?

I let mine gnaw on theirs as much as they want while they're awake and playing on the floor, but I absolutely take it away when they fall asleep. Even safe toys shouldn't be in a crib with a sleeping baby. Once they pass out, pull it out of their grip and go drink some coffee while it's still hot.