Babies first mouth their fingers and then begin to put objects in their mouths as they learn about the world. 👉Mouthing objects starts to happen around 4-5 months and lasts several months! ✋ Holding a variety of objects, including teethers, also helps babies develop their hand skills. They learn how to grasp. They learn how to rotate objects and orient them in different ways to put them in their mouths (In the professional world, this is called discriminative mouthing). (Comment “Teether recs” and I’ll DM you a list of my favorites) Babies explore how things feel through the feelings they feel (called sensory input) when they do this. In response, their mouth muscles move in all different and new ways. These new movements learned help get baby ready to pick up food and feed themselves and move food around in their mouths as they learn to manage lots of different foods. They also learn to make different sounds during this process. This teether/mouthing stage is critical to both eating skill development and speech development. Make sure to closely supervise your baby while you allow them to have these experiences. If your baby is not mouthing, and they’re having difficulty learning to eat, talk with your pediatrician! #newbaby #babytoys #teethers #teething #newmom #newparents #daycare #grandparents #sensoryplay #sensorimotor #babieseating #teethers #teething #teethingtips #babyyalk #firstteeth #firstfoods #babyfood #babyledweaning