Teething Food or Snack? What is the difference?
What a Teething Biscuit Is Supposed to Do
A genuine teething biscuit provides firm resistance against your baby's gums for long enough to make the jaw muscles work. The jaw's development in the first year depends partly on repeated mechanical loading — the stimulus that tells growing bone and muscle that adaptation is needed. Without sustained resistance, that stimulus doesn't arrive. The resistance provided by a hard teething biscuit is not incidental — it is the entire point. A teething product that avoids resistance has, in that key respect, missed the brief.
Why Most Food-based Teething Products Are Actually Snacks
Most food-based teething products on the market were not designed with jaw development in mind. They were designed to be safe, appealing, and convenient — which in practice means dissolving quickly on contact with saliva, and adding sugar or sweeteners to attract babies. From a jaw development perspective, it is counterproductive. From a teething-relief perspective, they do very little as they do not have sustained, firm surfaces for the child to use their teeth on. They offer a sensory experience and are snacks, but they do not provide the sustained jaw resistance that distinguishes a hard munchable from a soft food.
Reading the Label To Distinguish between Snacks and Resistive Hard Munchable
Two things tell you most about whether a product is a genuine hard munchable that helps with oral development or a snack masquerading as one.
Does it dissolve quickly?
If a product description emphasises that it "melts in the mouth" or "dissolves easily," it is describing a snack safety feature. This is the opposite of what you want for jaw development. The product should stay firm for minutes under gum pressure, softening gradually rather than melting.
What are the ingredients?
Many food-based teething products contain added sugars — sometimes obvious (glucose syrup, dextrose), sometimes disguised (rice syrup, fruit juice concentrate, maltodextrin). Added sugar in a product that sits in a baby's mouth for extended periods is a concern: the NHS advises keeping added sugars out of foods for babies because of the risk to emerging teeth (NHS, 2023). Studies have also suggested that increased exposure to sweet flavours may affect their flavour preferences for the future; it is more ideal to keep the sweetness and the sugar level low. A clean product should contain no added sugar, no added salt, and no artificial flavourings or preservatives.
→ For the full criteria on what to look for, see our post on How to Choose a Hard Munchable.
Why This Matters for More Than Jaw Development
Research on infant feeding suggests that texture experience in the first year shapes food preferences beyond infancy. A 2017 paper in Current Nutrition Reports found that repeated exposure to firmer textures in sensitive periods predicts greater dietary variety and texture acceptance later in childhood (Harris & Mason, 2017). Getting your baby used to genuinely firm textures early — rather than only soft, dissolving foods — builds a broader palate for the longer term.
How Bickiepegs Are Different
Bickiepegs were designed as a jaw exercise tool for pre-teeth babies — not as a snack. They are firm and provide the kind of sustained resistance that makes the jaw muscles work. No added sugar, no added salt, no artificial flavourings or preservatives.
They are not the same as rice cakes, puffed snacks, or melty wafers — and that is the point. They are also not the same as most products labelled as teething rusks, teething wafers or other teething foods in mainstream baby aisles.
