When To Clean Your Baby's Teethers

Caring for your teething baby can take a lot of patience. Some babies get through this phase with little to no trouble, while others stay perma-pissed from the pain in their mouth. To help your little one out, you probably have an arsenal of teethers on hand. But even the most fastidious parent may wonder about when to clean baby's teethers, because sometimes it's easier to just wipe them off and go. After all, they're only going to get drooled all over again in no time.

As your baby continues to grow and mature, so too will her teeth. According to WebMD, most babies start the teething process around 6 months of age. Dealing with teeth breaking through the gums for the first time is, understandably, a bit painful for some babies. To help your little one cope with this soreness, it's common to use teethers. There are about a zillion types of teethers on the market, from freezable rings to chewable jewelry, so you and your baby can experiment to find the perfect soother.

As far as how often you need to clean baby teethers, well, that's largely up to you. According to WebMD, it's a good idea to clean teething rings after each use. In practice, of course, things may be a little different, and plenty of parents are OK with cleaning teething toys whenever they get around to it. However, with recent concerns about mold in the popular Sophie the Giraffe teething toys, some caretakers are a little more cautious about cleaning teething toys on the regular.

With that in mind, there is a lot you can do to keep your kid's teethers clean. If you're out and about, you can use a pacifier wipe to quickly clean your kid's teether. And as noted in Scary Mommy, most teethers can be cleaned at home with a vinegar solution, boiling water, or the dishwasher. A word of caution, though: some of the water-filled teethers can't be boiled, so you may want to use a bottle sterilizer instead. In general, though, most teethers can be quickly tidied up so your baby has a fresh surface to coat in drool.