Mum-Mum.

About a month ago, my baby started really actively teething and has been chewing on absolutely everything he can fit into his mouth, but I have yet to find a teething toy that he likes enough to repeatedly use. He loves to chew on his teddy's foot, his sippy cup spout, and the end of my tooth brush, but if I give him a toy designed specifically for teething, he just drops it and forgets it. 

I thought it might be time to test his hand coordination and start him on finger foods. First I bought him a container of Gerber Puffs, the banana flavor. They are really small and white, and even though he really likes to eat them, he can't see them very well on his highchair tray, and they are too small for his fingers to manipulate into his mouth. So, I ended up just feeding them to him myself, which defeated the whole purpose of buying them. (They've since become doggy treats.) Gerber also makes Puffs in a long tube shape, but the flavors seemed off (cheese, garden vegetable, yuck) so I didn't bother trying those. Then, I saw these Baby Mum-Mum crackers, on the top shelf, in a box that could obviously use a new design. I saw that they were much bigger than the Gerber treats, but still the same melt-in-your-mouth rice texture so I thought, what the heck. The dog never gets tired of treats...

As soon as we got home from the store, I gave him one (they come in packages of two) and he loved it! I handed it to him and he popped it right in his mouth. They are sturdy enough to let him get a few hard chomps in each bite before it turns to mush, so it really helps his sore gums, plus he gets to practice self-feeding. They taste sort of like salty styrofoam, (I always try everything my baby eats) but he really seems to like it. I've been serving them along with meals if he is fussy (Would you like some styrofoam to complement your mush?) and it really seems to help calm him down enough to finish eating his food. And yes, of course the dog likes them too.