Teething Miracle or Crunchy Mom Hype?

If you’ve ever had a baby you’ve heard all about teething accecories. Teething rings, chewing pacifiers, mesh feeders, vibrating teething rings, cold rings to stick in the fridge, teething tablets, drops, numbing gels and then the old stand by for ther terrible night: tylenol and motrin. You just can’t get teeth without teething. The question is: does teething have to cause this much pain and this many sleepless nights? Some say yes and others say they’ve never had any trouble with teething pain. Just lucky? Of the many, many, many moms I’ve spoken to the ‘lucky ones’ who haven’t had a problem with teething all have one thing in common. Amber teething necklaces.

What does a necklace have to do with teething? Well, it is said that when at body temperature the amber releases natural oils that absorb into the skin. The ambers oil is said to have analgesic properties that relieve teething pain and the irritability that comes with the pain. Who wouldn’t love that? That’s not all amber does. I have also heard that it contains succinic acid which again is absorbed into the blood through the skin and can help with diaper rash, fevers, allergies, eczema, throat, stomach, spleen, kidney, bladder, liver and gallbladder problems. Since it’s also a natural analgesic it also helps with inflammation and joint pain. All that in a little necklace.

I honestly have not met one mom who has tried a teething necklace and not said that it’s absolutley fantastic. I was skeptical and afraid that Annabelle would just tear her necklace right off. She is a very curious little baby and every time I attempt to put a bow in her hair it lasts about 3 seconds before she pulls it off. I thought for sure she’d pull on a necklace and choke herself. And to be totally honest, I think babies wearing necklaces look a little silly (sorry but it’s true). So I bought her a teething bracelet to put around her ankle and ofcourse she played with it and took it right off so I’d only use it at night when she was wearing a sleep sack and couldnt get to it. Apparently just using it every once in a while is useless since it takes a while for the ambers naturals oils to be absorbed by the body and make a difference. So my attempt was a big waste of time.

A few days ago I took Annabelle to the chiropractor and finally broke down and bought a necklace. Annabelle had been in a lot of pain from teething, her gums were swollen and she was chewing on everything! She hadn’t wanted to eat for days, she just wanted to nurse and I tried everything to ease her pain, it was time to give in and finally try the silly looking necklace. She didn’t pull on it (that in itself is a miracle). Apparently if they are skin temperature (which they are once they’re on the skin for a while unless they are kept in a warm place) babies don’t even feel them at all. Makes sense right? You won’t feel something on you if it’s the exact same temperature as your skin. I was told it would take a day or 2 to see the effects since the amber oils have to be absorbed by the body. So we shall see how my teething necklace experiment goes. Hopefully we’re done with the long nights of teething pain. I can say that so far since I’ve put the necklace on Annabelle her level of fusiness has dropped drmatically. I’ll let you know what happens over time!

I got mine from the Chiropractic Wellness Cafe in Crowley but you can buy them online. A few tips I learned from Anna who is the massage therpaist there: Raw Amber is more effective than polished and the lighter the stone the better. Also make sure that each piece of amber is individually knotted, that way if it ever does break you won’t have pieces of amber flying all over the place.

Do you or someone you know use a teething necklace? Have you loved it or has it not worked? Share your stories and where you bought them! I can’t reccomend any online stores since I didn’t purchase mine online. I know some you you reading this use Amber teething necklaces, share where you got them!!