Why Are So Many Baby Teethers Made From Silicone?
If you’ve ever looked at a shelf full of baby teethers, you’ve probably noticed one thing a lot of them have in common: many of them are made from silicone.
There’s a good reason for that.
Silicone has a combination of properties that make it useful for products babies are going to hold, chew and usually put in their little mouths. It’s flexible, durable and can be moulded into lots of different shapes and textures.
But there is an important distinction here.
Silicone itself isn’t a guarantee that a teether is safe. The material is one part of the picture. The exact silicone formulation, how the product is made and how the finished teether is tested all matter too.
So, why is silicone such a popular choice in the first place?
Silicone is soft and flexible
One of the obvious advantages of silicone is that it can have some give to it.
That’s pretty useful when you’re making something designed to be chewed on by the little ones. Instead of being rock hard, silicone can have some flexibility to it, so it can be squeezed, compressed when bitten and generally subjected to whatever a baby decides to throw at it, while holding its shape.
It can be moulded into lots of different shapes and textures.
Silicone is also useful because it can be moulded into quite detailed shapes.
For a baby product, that gives designers a fair bit of freedom. A teether doesn't have to be one flat piece with nowhere obvious to hold it. It can have loops, handles, textured sections or other shapes that make it easier for little hands to grip. This actually matters more than it might sound.
The material is only part of it. A teether also needs to be a shape a baby can actually pick up, hold and manoeuvre. Small hands are still figuring out how to grip, hold and move objects, so the shape of a teether can be just as relevant as the material it's made from.
Making it easy for them to grab, hold and explore means they can get on with the important job of figuring out what to do with it.
Silicone is durable
It’s fair to say that babies aren't exactly gentle with their belongings.
A teether is likely to be dropped, thrown, chewed, squeezed and covered in whatever happens to be on the floor that day. Silicone is well suited to products that need to cope with regular handling without becoming easily damaged.
That doesn't mean silicone teethers last forever, or that they can't be damaged. They should still be checked regularly and replaced if they become damaged or start to deteriorate. But as a material, silicone can be a more practical choice for something that's going to get a lot of use.
It's also useful for everyday cleaning
Another reason silicone is popular for baby products is that it can be relatively straightforward to clean. Depending on the specific product and the manufacturer's instructions, silicone items may be suitable for things like dishwasher cleaning or sterilisation.
That's useful because a teether is going straight into a baby's mouth. Being able to clean it properly and regularly is part of making it practical for everyday use.
It’s important to check the instructions for the individual product. Not every silicone product will have the same care instructions, and “made from silicone” doesn't automatically mean it can go in the dishwasher or steriliser.
But not all silicone is the same
This is where things can get a little more complicated.
You’ll often see baby products described as being made from “food-grade”, “food-safe” or “high-quality” silicone. Those terms can sound reassuring, but that alone doesn’t tell you everything about the finished product.
The exact formulation matters, as does how the product has been made and what testing has been carried out on both the material and the finished item.
If you want to go a little deeper into what terms such as LFGB, BfR and EN71 actually mean, we’ve written a separate guide to baby-teether safety testing.
So, is silicone a good material for a baby teether?
It can be a very practical choice, which is why you see it used so often.
It can offer flexibility, durability and plenty of freedom when it comes to creating shapes and textures, while some silicone products can also be straightforward to clean.
But the word “silicone” on its own doesn't answer every question about a teether.
What matters is the particular material being used, how the product has been made and whether the finished product has been appropriately tested for its intended use.
Why we chose silicone for Cheers Baby Co. teethers
Silicone made sense to us because we wanted to make teethers that were practical for everyday use, while still giving us the freedom to play around with shapes, textures and colours.
The silicone used in our teethers has been tested in line with relevant LFGB/BfR recommendations and applicable FDA requirements, and our finished teethers have been independently tested to EN71 Parts 1, 2 and 3.
So yes, there’s a reason silicone turns up in so many baby teethers. Used well, it gives you a practical, flexible material that can be shaped around how babies actually hold, chew and
But choosing silicone is only the starting point. What matters just as much is the quality of the material, how the product has been designed and made, and the testing carried out on the finished teether.
That combination is what matters to us.
Cheers,
Heather
Founder, Cheers Baby Co.