Navigating Hard Munchables Through Different Stages
Stage 1: Five to Six Months (Pre-Teeth)
At this stage, your baby has no teeth but strong, firm gums. The jaw is in an early active growth phase — the bone is responsive, the muscles are forming their first coordinated patterns, and the brain connections that will control chewing are being established.
What this stage requires is a munchable firm enough to challenge the gums and jaw muscles, but safe to explore without teeth. Supervision is especially important in these early sessions — your baby’s grip can be imprecise and coordination tend to be more limited. Start with you holding one end, your baby mouthing the other.
Stage 2: Six to Eight Months (First Teeth Arriving)
From around six months, most babies begin teething in earnest — typically lower central incisors first (NHS, 2023). The gums become inflamed and sensitive, and your baby will seek firm objects to press on. The counter-pressure from a firm object on inflamed gum tissue provides temporary relief.
At this stage, the jaw muscles are strengthening and your baby is becoming more deliberately coordinated. Sessions typically become longer and more actively gnawing-focused than at Stage 1. The munchable still needs to be grippable and firm, but you will notice your baby applying more sustained jaw pressure with each week.
Stage 3: Eight to Ten Months (Multiple Teeth, Stronger Jaw)
By eight to ten months, most babies have multiple teeth and can apply much greater jaw force than at five months. A 2024 study tracking jaw muscle forces across the first four years found that chewing force increases rapidly between six months and two years — making the load the jaw can produce in this stage meaningfully greater than in Stage 1 (Liang et al., 2024).
At this stage, weaning is well underway and your baby is encountering a wider range of textures. Hard munchables in this period serve two roles: continued jaw development through resistive challenge, and familiarisation with increasingly firm food textures. Research suggests that repeated positive exposure to firm textures in this period contributes to greater texture variety and acceptance in toddlerhood (Harris & Mason, 2017).
See Post 9 for guidance on progressing to harder textures: Building Up to Harder Textures.
Stage 4: Ten to Twelve Months (Established Chewing)
By ten to twelve months, many babies have a set of upper and lower incisors and are beginning molar eruption. The chewing pattern — which by twelve months resembles the organised jaw movement seen in adult chewing — is now well established (Green et al., 1997). Hard munchables continue to provide developmental stimulus and soothing during active teething phases.
In this stage, your baby may be ready to move to harder food textures alongside the munchable — raw vegetable sticks held by a parent, for example, or firmer whole foods as part of weaning. The munchable no longer needs to be doing all the work alone.
What Stays the Same Across All Stages
Regardless of age, three things remain constant: always supervise, always ensure the product is appropriate for the age and developmental stage, and always start sessions when your baby is alert and content rather than tired.
How Bickiepegs Support Each Stage
Bickiepegs are designed for the full range of pre-teeth and early teething use. They begin firm at Stage 1 and remain appropriate through Stage 2 and into Stage 3. For older babies applying substantially more jaw force, sessions may be shorter because the product softens faster under greater pressure — a reasonable indicator that your baby has progressed in jaw strength.
No added sugar, no added salt, no artificial flavourings or preservatives — so they remain a clean option throughout the first year and beyond.
Frequently Asked Questions
My baby is seven months and has no teeth yet. Should I still be offering hard munchables?
Yes. Teeth arrival varies widely — some babies cut their first tooth at four months, others not until twelve months, and both are within the normal range (NHS, 2023). Tooth arrival is not the relevant marker. Active jaw development during this period is the reason to start, and that process does not wait for teeth.
At what stage should I stop using hard munchables?
There is no fixed stopping point. Most parents transition naturally as their baby moves to a wider range of finger foods and table foods in the second year. If your baby is regularly eating firmer solid foods, they are already getting the jaw stimulus hard munchables were providing.
References
Liang et al. (2024) — Functional adaptation of the infant craniofacial system to mechanical loadings arising from masticatory forces — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11286155/. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Green et al. (1997) — Development of Chewing in Children From 12 to 48 Months — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3976418/. Journal of Neurophysiology.
Harris & Mason (2017) — Are There Sensitive Periods for Food Acceptance in Infancy? — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5438435/. Current Nutrition Reports.
RCH Melbourne (2023) — Physical, Sensory and Oral Motor Development — https://www.rch.org.au/feedingdifficulties/development/physical-sensory-oral-motor-development/.
NHS (2023) — Your Baby's Teeth — https://www.nhs.uk/baby/babys-development/teething/babys-teeth/.
