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Why does wood make the best baby teether?  Research might surprise you.

Why does wood make the best baby teether? Research might surprise you.

As a Mom, I know what it’s like to worry.  Is she eating enough? Is that facial expression normal?  Was that a sneeze? What is she putting in her mouth?  While you can’t control everything your baby is exposed to, you can make a simple choice to give them a natural option to help with teething. 

We all want to give our baby the best.  That’s why Aspen and Maple makes it easy and affordable for parents to buy safe and quality wood teethers.  Our wood teethers, made of sanded down beech wood, are naturally safe for your baby to put in their mouth.  

In fact, scientists have found beech wood to be one of the top three woods that have the highest decrease rate in “bacterial titre”.  In a study by Koch et al in 2002 comparing bacterial survival on wood, plastic, and steel, they found bacteria survived longest on plastic followed by stainless steel.

That’s why we still use wood cutting boards.  This University of Wisconsin study shows that wooden boards consistently outperformed the plastic in terms of fighting off dangerous bacteria like Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria.

 

“The scientists found that three minutes after contaminating a board that 99.9 percent of the bacteria on wooden boards had died, while none of the bacteria died on plastic. Bacterial numbers actually increased on plastic cutting boards held overnight at room temperature, but the scientists could not recover any bacteria from wooden boards treated the same way.”

 

Not only is a wood teether antibacterial, it’s also 100% natural.  You will have peace of mind knowing you’re not exposing your child to synthetic materials and chemicals that might be found in plastic, rubber, and silicone teethers.

As a What to Expect member, I was astonished to read their blog post about a recent study revealing Some "Non-Toxic" Teethers Still Contain BPA and Other Harmful Chemicals

In this study, scientists looked at 59 teethers in three categories: solid, gel-filled and water-filled. Researchers chose 23 different teething toy brands, most of which are sold in the U.S. The vast majority of the teethers were labeled as “BPA-free.”

The results:

  • BPA in almost 90 percent of samples
  • Among all the samples, researchers found 20 types of harmful chemicals, including:

    • Parabens, chemical preservatives used to prevent bacterial growth
    • Bisphenols, by-products of the plastic production process
    • Antibacterial and antimicrobial substances
    • Levels were highest in the gel teethers, which released up to 2,000 nanograms of parabens

When you buy wood teethers, you ACTUALLY don’t have to worry about BPA, phthalates, or PVC. 

Make your teether choice one less worry you’ll have as a parent and Shop our teether collection today.