Friday, June 22, 2012

Homemade Baby Teething Biscuits


My daughter began teething at 4 months old.  It was awful: constant drool, increased fussiness, chewing on everything.  She is a sensitive baby, it seems like she feels things more acutely that most other babies.  It took two months for that first tooth to pop through, and it was quickly followed by another.  We had a short reprieve, and then at 8 months, teething began again.  Those two top teeth just haven't broke through yet! Stubborn little things.  So we are doing the tricks we did last time: ice cubes in a mesh feeder, teething toys, wet frozen washcloth, and Tylenol for the bad nights.  However, since she is older and eating solids now, there is a new thing to add to our repertoire:  teething biscuits! 

The teething biscuits in the store looked overly processed, and the recipes I found online called for things like white flour and vegetable oil; all things I wasn't ready to let my daughter ingest yet.  So I came up with my own, healthier recipe for teething biscuits. They turned out great! Best of all, my daughter loves them! She will gnaw on them forever; giving her sore gums some relief, and giving me some time to straighten up the kitchen or start on dinner.  Success!



INGREDIENTS
1 c. infant rice cereal
1 c. wheat flour
1 mashed banana
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp water


DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees; line a baking pan with parchment paper

2. In a medium sized mixing bowl, add in rice cereal, wheat flour, banana, coconut oil, cinnamon, and water

3. Stir until completely combined

4. On a floured surface, roll out the dough until it is 1/2 an inch or so thick


5. Use a cookie cutter to cut into shapes

6. Place biscuits on a pan and bake for 15 minutes


7. Let it cool and store in a freezer bag.  They can also be frozen!



**NOTE:  Always supervise your child when they eat teething biscuits! No teething biscuit recipe exists that can completely prevent every child from biting off too big of a chunk. Ideally, these biscuits should just get goopy and not break off, but if your child has strong teeth (or if your oven bakes slightly differently), this might not hold true.  As is the case for any time your child is eating, closely supervise, and know how to spot and handle a choking infant.

44 comments:

  1. Found this recipe through Pinterest.

    Made these and gave one to my and my 7 month old today. She loved gnawing on it with her one and a half teeth! I subbed 1/3 cup organic applesauce for the banana (used the last of the bananas in my smoothie this morning, oh well!) Turned out nicely.

    I also ended up using a witch hat cookie cutter because it was the best baby-sized cutter I had. :) It looks strange, but she enjoys them--so that's what counts, right? :) Thanks for sharing your recipe!

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    1. Glad to hear that your daughter liked it! I'm going to have to make it with applesauce next time. I'm not a big fan of bananas, so we are more likely to have applesauce laying around!

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  2. Can we replace the coconut oil by canola oil?

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    Replies
    1. Definitely! I just use coconut oil because I'm on a huge coconut oil kick lately!

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  3. how can I intoroduce coconut to baby? Can these biscuits be the introductory food for coconut? THanks for the recipe!

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  4. Coconut allergy is very rare, and therefore can be introduced to babies as soon as they start solid food (6+ months). Not much of this teething biscuit actually gets eaten by the baby, so I think it would be a pretty good way to introduce coconut. I personally introduced coconut by pureeing my vegetables and fruit with coconut oil instead of butter, so she could get some good, healthy fats. Plus it makes everything taste really, really good :)

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  5. I made a variation of these today and they are a hit with my 7 month old son.

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  6. Making these for my daughter with sweetpotato and apple sauce and multigrain baby cereal. She loves them

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  7. coconut oil is so much better for you than a lot of other oils. also you can replace whole wheat flour with brown rice flour for gluten free biscuits. my children have asthma so limiting their gluten intake helps with the "wheezies"

    thanks so much for sharing! i really appreciate being able to have access to quality recipes.

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  8. Melissa, great tips! Thank you for sharing!

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  9. I made these with some leftover sweet potato and butternut squash purees I'd had laying around, and pumpkin pie spice. My 7 month old is munching on them now :) He also loved them last time I made them as per the recipe (except both times I've used grapeseed rather than coconut oil).

    They're awesome to have in the freezer, so I can give him something nice and cool when he's cranky!

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    Replies
    1. Do you use the puree as an added ingredient or instead of something?

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    2. pinkgirlee, I would use it as a substitute for the mashed banana, not in addition too. That would probably make the biscuit too soggy. But then again, I've never tried it, so I'm speaking hypothetically. Hope that helps.

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  10. Jennifer, I just discovered grapeseed oil; I love that it doesn't have a strong flavor. I'm going to have to try it with sweet potato. Great idea!

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  11. Hi Athens Mama,
    First of all thanks for sharing! I just made a batch and my daughter loved them! I just have a question about the texture. Are they supposed to harden up as a rolled sugar cookie or is it ok if they come out a little soggy? Because mine did. They are dry in the edges and soggy in the inside. Is that right?

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    1. Hi MrsOaks, they should definitely be completely hard and firm, so the baby can gnaw on it and it feels good on their teeth. If it's still soggy, I would cook it until it's completely dry throughout, being careful not to burn at the same time.

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    2. I'll try again then. Thanks a lot! :)

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  12. Could I substitute the rice cereal with grinded up steel cut oats? Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. My 6 month old daughter would love these! Can't wait to try it out :)

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    1. Julie, that is a wonderful idea! I can't promise it'll work, but I think it's worth a shot. Report back if you give it a try.

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  13. What can I substitute for baby cereal? Im not really a fan of it.

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    1. I would try putting some oats in a food processor and puree it until it's a similar consistency as rice cereal. My daughter is now past the stage of teething biscuits, but when I have baby #2 I'm definitely going to try using oats instead of rice cereal. Let me know how it works out for you.

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  14. just made these with our homemade baby cereal ( put oats or rice or whatever in the blender til smooth) i used the oatmeal as thats what my DD loves and they turned out great

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  15. Would all purpose flour work if we were out of whole wheat?

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    1. I don't see why not! I haven't personally tried it, so report back how it works out. :)

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  16. My little guy loves these but i substituted homemade cinnamon applesauce for the oil and cinnamon. I used white flour and it came out fine. We made one batch flavored rice cereal and banana and other with plain cereal and sweet potato seems like a very versatile recipe thank you for sharing

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  17. would these be ok for a five month old... is cinnamon safe?

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    1. I might wait until at 6-7 months old to start these, unless your baby has already been pretty established on starting solids. It's not the cinnamon I'm concerned about (it's a low allergy food), but the fact that your baby will probably be ingesting some of the biscuit while gnawing on it.

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  18. Thank you for your marvelous recipe! Can you please give some sugestions about different fruits? And i am not a big fan of rice cereal. What can i use instead?

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    1. You could try putting oats in the food processor and blending it until it's fine, and using that instead of the rice cereal. You could also try substituting soft cooked sweet potatoes for the bananas. I've never tried either of these substitutions, so I'm not sure if they will work or not. Please report back on how they work out if if you try it!

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  19. Is there a substitute for coconut oil as it would be wasted as no one would use it. Thank you

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    1. You could use olive or grapeseed oil? Really I think any type of cooking oil would work just fine!

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  20. i made these but they got soft the next day. is this ok?

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    1. Gosh it's been so long since I made these, I can't remember if mine ever got soft. Did you store them at room temperature? If they were put in the fridge, that would probably soften them. My advise would be to store at room temp, and if they soften, pop them back in the oven for a bit until they harden up.

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  21. I've passed this recipe on to my daughter and make them regularly for my 10 month old granddaughter. They always turn out great. Thanks :)

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  22. I've passed this recipe on to my daughter and make them regularly for my 10 month old granddaughter. I love that there's no refined sugar in the recipe. Since 10 month olds need more iron than an adult male, this is a great way to get the iron she needs through the baby cereal.

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  23. I cant wait to try this out on my 6 month old daughter, shes started drooling and chewing more over the last two months. If you have any other recipes let me know.
    Gonna start tomorrow and have a mommy&me cooking day.
    Mommy K.

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  24. Any ideas on how to make it higher calorie? My son was born premature at 25wks and is on a high cal diet. We need to give him extra calories whenever possible

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    1. These biscuits really aren't meant to be eaten per se; it's more of something for them to gnaw on. Very little is probably ingested. That being said, when my daughter was a baby she had trouble gaining weight and was put on a high calorie diet as well. I mixed all her baby food with coconut oil, olive oil, or butter, and snuck avocados in as much of her food as possible.

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  25. How long do these keep in the freezer and at room temperature? I've been making these for my daughter and a few friends babies and was thinkin of making a giant batch and bagging 5 or so in seal-a-meal bags for quick ready to go hand outs. Thank you for sharing this recipe! All of our babies love them, and we love the peace of mind they are getting the good stuff withour the preservatives

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    1. Gosh it's been so long since I've made them that I can't remember how long they stay good for. I want to say maybe 3-5 days at room temperature? I would imagine they would be good for 6-ish months in the freezer, but I've never tried freezing them before, so I'm not sure how well they would thaw. Report back and let me know if you try! I feel like giving the babies the teething biscuits partial frozen might feel really good on their sore gums, but I no longer have a baby to try it out on (*sob*). My youngest now has all his teeth!

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