A teething necklace for mom saved my sanity and my shirts

It was a Tuesday in early November. I was sitting in the corner booth at Red Roasters wearing a ridiculous emerald green silk blouse that I had absolutely no business wearing to a coffee shop with a six-month-old. Maya was strapped to my chest in her carrier, and she had a fistful of my hair in her left hand, and her actual mouth clamped directly onto my collarbone. Like, a literal vampire.

My husband, Dave, walked over with our coffees—a large black cold brew for him because he's a psychopath who drinks ice in winter, and a massive oat milk latte for me because I hadn't slept since 2018. He took one look at my face, which was contorted in pure agony as Maya gnawed through my shirt and into my flesh, and calmly set the drinks down.

"Why don't you just get one of those teething necklaces?" he asked, taking a sip of his stupid cold brew.

I stared at him. The sheer rage that bubbled up inside me was terrifying. I wanted to throw my hot latte across the table. Instead, I took a deep breath and launched into a highly caffeinated, sleep-deprived lecture right there in the middle of the cafe.

The amber bead delusion

I basically lost my mind on him. I was like, Dave, are you kidding me? Have you not read a single thing about those amber necklaces? The ones you put around a baby's neck? Because they're basically a medieval torture device masquerading as holistic medicine. Oh god, I was so mad.

I reminded him about our pediatrician, Dr. Aris. When our older kid, Leo, was teething, I went down a desperate late-night Google rabbit hole and asked Dr. Aris about Baltic amber. Some mom on Instagram had sworn that the amber beads heat up against the baby's skin and release some magical pain-relieving acid. Succinic acid, I think? I barely passed high school chemistry so I don't really know how body heat is supposed to melt fossilized tree resin, but anyway, the point is Dr. Aris looked at me like I had three heads.

He told me there's literally zero scientific proof that amber does anything for gum pain. None. He said the FDA put out these massive warnings a few years ago because babies were getting strangled in their cribs or choking when the flimsy little strings broke and the beads went everywhere. He was so intense about it. He basically told me that if he ever saw Leo wearing jewelry, he would personally confiscate it.

So there I was at Red Roasters, lecturing Dave about strangulation hazards and FDA warnings while our daughter actively tried to bite a hole through my sternum. Which is just great. Perfect parenting moment.

Dave just blinked at me. "Sarah," he said slowly. "I didn't mean a necklace for Maya to wear. I meant a teething necklace for mom. Like, for you to wear. So she stops eating your silk shirt."

Oh.

The day I realized wearable teethers existed

I had no idea what he was talking about, which is embarrassing because I literally write about parenting for a living. But apparently, mom-worn teething jewelry is a whole thing. It's basically a chunky necklace made of food-grade silicone and natural wood that you wear around your own neck while you're holding or nursing the baby.

The baby gets to grab it, pull it, and chew on it, and your hair and collarbones get to remain intact.

It made so much sense I actually felt stupid. Babies are violently tactile when they're teething. They want to pinch and pull and gnaw on whatever is closest to their little raptor claws. When I'm holding Maya, the closest thing is me. If I put a safe, textured object right in the strike zone, she'll go for that instead.

Before this revelation, we just had a chaotic graveyard of loose teethers scattered all over the house and the bottom of my diaper bag. Most of them were covered in lint.

I did have a couple of loose teethers that I actually loved, though. Like, my absolute favorite was this Llama Teether because it was flat enough to slide into the tiny front pocket of my diaper bag without making it bulge. It has this little heart-shaped cutout in the middle that Maya was obsessed with sticking her thumbs through. It was 100% silicone so I could just run it under the hot tap at a restaurant when she inevitably chucked it onto the dirty floor. Honestly, that llama survived some things.

We also had one of those Wood & Silicone Pacifier Clips, which was just okay for us. Don't get me wrong, it's beautifully made, but Maya was never a big pacifier kid. She just spit them out immediately. But she actually ended up just holding the clip and gnawing on the smooth beechwood beads while we were in the stroller. It kept her entertained, but I definitely had to watch her to make sure she wasn't just chewing on the metal clip part. Babies are so weird.

If you're currently drowning in drool and desperate for things that won't look like brightly colored plastic trash in your living room, Kianao has a really beautiful collection of teething toys and wooden play gyms that are genuinely sustainable. You can check out their teething collection here if you need to buy yourself five minutes of peace.

The freezer mistake I'll never live down

So anyway, once I discovered the whole mom-worn necklace concept, I bought one immediately. And because I thought I was a genius hacker mom, I decided to throw the silicone necklace into the freezer before I wore it.

Don't do this. Seriously, don't do it.

I took it out of the freezer, put it around my neck (which was shockingly freezing on my own skin, by the way), and let Maya go to town. She took one aggressive bite of the frozen silicone bead, let out a blood-curdling shriek, and completely melted down.

I called the pediatrician's nurse line in a panic because I thought she chipped a tooth or something. The nurse—who has definitely dealt with my specific brand of chaos before—gently explained that freezing silicone teethers makes them rock hard. It's basically like handing a baby an ice cube to bite down on when their gums are already incredibly inflamed and sensitive. It hurts them. It hurts them a lot.

She told me the science behind it's that extreme cold damages the delicate gum tissue and can even cause mild frostbite on their lips if they hold it there too long. I felt like the worst mother on the planet. I was just trying to numb the pain, and instead, I turned her teether into a weapon.

The rule is the refrigerator, not the freezer. You just toss the necklace or the teether in the fridge next to the milk for like fifteen or twenty minutes. It gets nice and cool, which helps reduce the soreness in their gums, but the silicone stays soft and chewy. So yeah, I learned that one the hard way.

Those mesh fruit feeders though? The ones you put frozen berries in? I threw those out entirely after one day because cleaning pulverized banana out of a tiny mesh net is my personal definition of hell.

What to really look for in these things

If you're going to buy a teething necklace for mom to wear, there are basically two things that matter, and if a necklace doesn't have them, it's garbage.

First, it has to have a breakaway clasp. This is non-negotiable. Babies are freakishly strong when they're angry and teething. If Maya grabbed a necklace that didn't snap open easily, she would literally choke me or give me whiplash. The breakaway clasps just pop open when they yank on the beads, which happens about forty times a day. You just snap it back together.

Second, the materials have to be completely non-toxic because it's going to live in your child's mouth. I only looked for 100% food-grade silicone and untreated wood.

Dave seriously bought this Malaysian Tapir Teether for the house around the same time because he's a huge nature nerd and wanted to "teach her about endangered species." Which, babe, she's six months old and trying to eat the rug, she doesn't care about conservation. But honestly? The black and white contrast on the tapir was amazing for her developing eyesight, and she loved chewing on its little snout.

The textures really matter. When you wear a necklace with different sized beads—some wooden, some silicone, some ridged—it keeps them busy. It's basically a fidget spinner for a nursing baby. When I fed Maya, she would always try to pinch my arm fat or pull my hair, but once I started wearing a necklace, her little hands would immediately find the beads. She'd rub the smooth wood and chew on the squishy silicone, and we could finally get through a feeding without me wincing in pain.

So yeah, Dave was right. I hate admitting when he's right, but the mom-worn necklace thing was a game changer. I wore one every single day for about eight months. It looked a little weird with my silk blouses, but at least those blouses survived the year without getting holes chewed through the collars.

If you're in the thick of the drool and the screaming and the sleepless nights right now, just know that it does end. Eventually, the teeth pop through, and they stop trying to eat your collarbones. Until then, you need a distraction. Explore Kianao's full range of safe, sustainable baby essentials and find something that works for your little raptor before your favorite shirts get ruined.

The messy questions I always get asked

Are teething necklaces honestly safe to use?
Okay, this depends entirely on who's wearing it. If you put it on the baby? No. Absolutely not. Never do that. It's a massive choking and strangulation hazard and pediatricians hate them. But if YOU wear it, and the baby just chews on it while it's securely fastened around your neck? Yes, totally safe. Just make sure it has a breakaway clasp so they don't accidentally strangle you when they inevitably yank on it with the force of a thousand suns.

How do you clean these things after they've been chewed on all day?
I'm incredibly lazy about washing dishes, but this is pretty easy. For the silicone ones, I literally just take it off and wash it in the sink with warm water and normal dish soap. Sometimes if Maya has a cold, I'll throw the all-silicone ones in the top rack of the dishwasher. If it has wooden beads though, you can't soak it or the wood gets super weird and splinters. I just wipe the wooden parts with a damp soapy cloth and let it dry on the counter.

Can I put my necklace in the freezer to make it extra cold?
Please learn from my terrible mistake and DO NOT put silicone in the freezer. It turns into a rock and will hurt your baby's incredibly sensitive gums. Just put it in the regular refrigerator for like 20 minutes before you wear it. It gets nice and chilled but stays squishy.

When should I start wearing one?
Honestly, I'd start wearing one around 3 or 4 months, right when they start getting really grabby and trying to put everything in their mouths. Even before the actual teeth cut through, their gums hurt, and they just want something tactile to hold onto while you're feeding them. Plus, it trains them early that "we play with the necklace, not mommy's hair."

What's the deal with Baltic amber? Does it work?
Look, I know some people swear by it, but my pediatrician practically yelled at me when I asked. There's zero science proving that amber does anything for pain, and putting a string of tiny beads around a baby's neck while they sleep is so incredibly dangerous. Stick to the chunky silicone stuff that you wear yourself. It's not worth the anxiety, I promise.