What does it mean to “gum the spoon”?

Question

I recently found out about a new term. It's "gum the spoon". What does it mean?

By the various contexts I found, I conjecture that it means to add saliva onto the spoon or to hold the spoon in one's mouth for prolong time.

Google is no help, and it only provides examples, not explanations, of this phrase.

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Boon-Squirt-Dispensing-Spoon-Orange/product-reviews/B000WEHO76?pageNumber=11

My daughter is one of those feeders who is easily distracted and loves to gum the spoon, "feed" herself, or play with her food.

Source: http://community.babycenter.com/post/a31922513/baby_wont_eat_from_spoon_only_wants_bottle?cpg=2

Mine is something awful and he wants to gum anything and everything to death and he just wants to gum the spoon and the nipple of his bottle and finds the sucking from his bottle soothing when his gums are hurting especially bad.

More uses: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNU_enUS337US337&es_sm=122&q=%22gum+the+spoon%22&oq=%22gum+the+spoon%22&gs_l=serp.3...3219.5431.0.6368.2.2.0.0.0.0.107.193.1j1.2.0.starcytweb...0...1.1.61.serp..2.0.0.gxLdShoH-QE

Answer 1

Babies are orally fixated, as well they should be. They also have few or no teeth, and to aid the eruption of their milk teeth they chew, or gum, hard objects. This allows the buried teeth to cut their way through the gum tissue. This process is known as "cutting" their teeth. Since they are using the gum tissue to chew, the process is known as "gumming" whatever objects they can bring to their mouths: spoons, pacifiers, their fingers, or anything else that comes into their grasp.

You can read more about the process.

Answer 2

Gum is a verb:

Chew (something) with toothless gums:

Gum the spoon refers to chewing on the spoon with toothless gums.

OED