Home › Resources › Teething and eating: why food refusal happens

Teething and eating: why food refusal happens

What is actually happening, what genuinely helps, and how to get through a teething patch without either of you losing the plot.

By Karen · Kiddo Kitchen · 7 min read

Theo (3 years old) had been eating beautifully for weeks, reliably finishing his meals, accepting new foods, sitting in his highchair without too much protest. Then one Monday morning he pushed away his porridge after two spoonfuls, looked at me like I had personally offended him, and spent the rest of the day chewing furiously on the corner of his bib. By Wednesday there were two small white bumps visible on his lower gum. By the following Monday he was eating normally again. Teething and eating are connected in ways that are not always obvious in the moment. The whole teething patch lasted less than two weeks, but in the middle of it I had completely forgotten that teething was probably the explanation and spent three days convinced I had done something wrong.

This is the article I wish I had read that Monday morning. Teething and eating go together messily, briefly, and repeatedly across the first three years of life. Here is what is actually going on and what to do about it.

How teething and eating collide

According to Raising Children Network, teething causes discomfort in some babies as teeth push through the gum. The gums become inflamed and tender, and the pressure of chewing or even of a spoon pressing against the gum surface can make eating genuinely uncomfortable. This is why food refusal during teething often looks different from ordinary fussiness: your baby is not rejecting food out of preference or toddler principle, they are reacting to real physical discomfort.

A few things tend to happen at the same time. Spoon aversion appears. The sensation of a spoon making contact with tender gums before the food even arrives can be enough to trigger a refusal. Texture preferences shift, often toward softer and cooler foods, because firm textures that require chewing put pressure on the sore spot. Drooling increases significantly. And appetite can drop noticeably for the few days around each tooth breakthrough, then recover once the tooth is through and the gum settles.

The good news is that it is temporary. The difficult news is that with 20 baby teeth arriving somewhere between six months and three years old, you will be navigating this on and off for quite a while. For most Australian families, that means roughly two and a half years of intermittent teething patches, none of them lasting more than a couple of weeks at a time.

When teething starts and what to expect

Raising Children Network notes that first teeth usually appear between six and ten months, though some babies get their first tooth as early as three months and others not until around twelve months. All 20 baby teeth typically arrive by the time a child is three years old. The lower front teeth tend to come first, followed by the upper front teeth, then the first molars, canines, and second molars.

The molars are the ones that tend to cause the most eating disruption, because they have a larger surface area pushing through and they are in the part of the mouth most involved in chewing. Luca (6.5 years old) barely blinked at his front teeth but went off food twice in a single month when his first molars came through. Theo was the opposite: dramatic about every single tooth, but back to eating within days each time. Here in Brisbane, with two boys at different stages, I have been through most of this at least twice.

Every teething patch ends. The middle of one is awful, the end of one is forgotten, and the next one always feels like the first one again. That is normal.

What actually helps

Here is what I have actually found useful, and what the research backs up.

Something cool to chew on before meals

This is the single most useful practical step. Letting your baby work on something cool before food arrives can temporarily numb the gum surface and make the meal that follows much more manageable. The Chill'n'Chew Duo is designed for exactly this. The soft silicone feeder has a beaded handle that is gentle on inflamed gums and easy for tiny hands to grip on their own. The matching freezer tray lets you freeze small portions of breastmilk or fruit and vegetable purees, which slot perfectly into the feeder's pouch. As your baby chews, a little flavour comes through the small openings, which keeps them engaged for far longer than a plain teething ring usually does, while the cold soothes the gum before the meal even starts. We use it in our house as a five-minute warm-up before sitting Theo down to eat.

Soft and frozen is fine. Hard and frozen is the problem. The Chill'n'Chew Duo is built around that distinction.

What to feed your baby when teething

This is not the time to introduce new textures or push through a texture progression. Go back to whatever your baby manages most easily and serve it slightly cooler than usual. Cold yoghurt, chilled fruit puree, smooth porridge, well-mashed banana and soft avocado all require minimal chewing and the cooler temperature provides some gum relief. If your batch cooking has produced anything in the freezer, a partially thawed portion served at fridge temperature is ideal.

Shorter, lower-pressure mealtimes

A teething baby who is pushed to eat past the point where discomfort is setting in will become a baby who associates the highchair with an unpleasant experience. Offer food, follow their lead, and end the meal without drama if they are not interested. A few days of reduced intake is not a nutritional crisis. Pushing through it can create mealtime anxiety that lasts well past the tooth.

Letting them use their hands

If spoon aversion is the main issue, taking the spoon out of the equation entirely can help. Soft finger foods your baby can pick up and manage themselves remove the pressure against the gum. The MashMunch Spoons are useful here too. They are made of soft silicone with a textured "dip" end that doubles as a gentle teething tool, so they can be chewed on directly when your baby is not interested in being fed. The shallow, flat shape means minimal pressure against the gum even when food is involved, which is exactly what a teething baby needs when they are willing to accept a spoon but finding it uncomfortable.

What does not help

Forcing the issue. A baby in genuine gum discomfort who is being pushed to eat more than they want is going to associate the highchair and mealtimes with that experience. The short-term goal of getting some food in is not worth the longer-term cost of a baby who is anxious or resistant at mealtimes.

Teething gels and tablets. Raising Children Network notes that teething gels are not usually recommended because they are unlikely to provide meaningful pain relief and can have harmful side effects due to the difficulty of controlling the dose. If your baby seems genuinely in significant pain, talk to your GP or child health nurse about appropriate pain relief options.

Hard rigid teething rings frozen solid. There is a real distinction worth understanding here. A hard plastic ring frozen until it is rock-solid can become firm enough to bruise sore gums, which is why most paediatric advice cautions against it. Soft silicone holding a frozen food portion is a completely different thing. It stays pliable, gives way against the gum rather than pushing back into it, and the slow flavour release keeps a baby chewing gently rather than biting hard. That is exactly the distinction the Chill'n'Chew Duo was designed around. Hard frozen is the problem. Soft frozen, with food, is the relief.

Panicking about a few days of reduced eating. A baby who is drinking normally, producing wet nappies, and seems otherwise like themselves is fine. Appetite will return. Keep offering food without pressure and let the tooth do what it needs to do.

When to check in with your GP

Most teething food refusal resolves within a few days and does not need medical attention. But it is worth a call to your GP or child health nurse if your baby's eating is significantly reduced for more than a week, if they seem genuinely unwell beyond normal teething grumpiness, if they have a fever that concerns you, or if you are worried for any reason. Teething is often blamed for symptoms that are actually caused by something else. Minor infections and developmental changes can look very similar, so it is always reasonable to get a professional opinion if something does not feel right.

Make teething patches easier on both of you

The Chill'n'Chew Duo pairs a soft silicone feeder with a matching freezer tray. Freeze a portion of breastmilk or puree, pop it in the pouch, and you have a gum-soothing teething aid your baby can hold themselves. 30-day risk-free trial. Same-day dispatch on orders before 11am.

Shop the Chill'n'Chew Duo