Why I Finally Swapped My Gold Chain for a Mother Teething Necklace

We were at a coffee shop in Wicker Park last Tuesday when I saw it. A perfectly nice woman at the next table wrestled a string of Baltic amber beads around her six-month-old's chubby neck. I took a slow sip of my lukewarm chai and tried to turn off the pediatric nurse part of my brain. You know the part. The part that immediately visualizes airway obstructions and hospital code carts. I didn't say anything, because you don't offer unsolicited parenting advice to strangers unless there's active bleeding involved, but my heart rate definitely spiked.

Let's talk about amber for a second. The homeopathic rumor mill claims that a baby's body heat releases succinic acid from the beads, which magically absorbs into their skin and cures mouth pain. My doctor actually laughed when I asked her about this during our four-month well visit. She reminded me that amber only releases those compounds at something like four hundred degrees fahrenheit. If your baby's neck is four hundred degrees, beta, you've significantly bigger problems than emerging incisors.

I've seen a thousand of these trendy necklaces in the clinic over the years. I've also read the grim FDA warnings from back in 2018. The American Academy of Pediatrics says infants should never wear jewelry. Ever. It's a dual threat. You have the strangulation risk if it catches on a crib spindle while they sleep, and the choking hazard if they manage to snap the string and swallow a bead.

So no, I don't put jewelry on my kid. I just don't.

The day my favorite jewelry died

When my daughter's first tooth started cutting, she turned into a feral badger. She drooled through three bibs an hour. She gnawed on my shoulder, my collarbone, and once, memorably, my chin. She also developed this charming habit of pinching my chest and pulling my hair while nursing. The sheer grip strength of an infant is terrifying.

I used to wear a delicate gold chain my grandmother gave me. I wore it every single day. One afternoon, my sweet infant locked her tiny fingers around it and yanked with the force of a thousand suns. The clasp broke instantly. The chain skittered across the hardwood floor. I spent twenty minutes on my hands and knees looking for it while she screamed in her bouncer.

I found the necklace, but I put it in a jewelry box and shoved it to the back of my closet. That was the day I realized my wardrobe needed a severe, baby-proof downgrade.

Enter the wearable chew toy

A teething necklace worn by the mother is basically a chew toy disguised as a questionable statement piece. It sits around your neck. It gives your baby something safe to yank, chew, and manipulate while you carry them around the house or sit trapped under them during a contact nap.

The engineering behind these things is simple, but the details matter. You need beads made of food-grade silicone or untreated wood. You absolutely need a breakaway clasp. If your kid pulls too hard, the clasp just pops open instead of giving you whiplash or breaking the cord into a million choking hazards.

I used to put mine in the fridge for ten minutes before a nursing session. The cold silicone distracted her from pulling my hair and seemed to numb her gums just enough to get through a feed without her biting me. It wasn't glamorous, but it worked.

Listen, survival during this phase is about layering your defenses by rotating through chilled mom-worn silicone jewelry, standalone wooden rings, and frozen wet washcloths instead of expecting one magical product to cure the pain, all while accepting that your personal style will be dictated by chunky breakaway beads for the foreseeable future.

Things they can hold themselves

I wore that necklace every day for six months. But you also need things they can hold themselves when you need to put them down to use the bathroom or stare blankly at a wall for five minutes.

My absolute favorite standalone piece was the Handmade Wood & Silicone Teether Ring. The mix of textures is what makes it functional. The wood is hard enough for them to really grind down on, and the silicone beads give a softer counter-pressure. I dropped ours in a Target parking lot once and genuinely considered just boiling it instead of throwing it away. I didn't, because I understand pavement bacteria and I couldn't live with the guilt, but it broke my heart to trash it. I bought a replacement the same day.

We also had the Panda Teether. It's fine. It's very cute and made of safe silicone, but it's completely flat. My daughter liked it okay, but she preferred things she could wrap her whole fist around. It's good for throwing in a diaper bag because it takes up zero space and wipes down easily, but it was never the holy grail for us.

If she was really melting down, I'd hand her the Bear Teething Rattle. Sometimes the pain of a new tooth just makes them angry, and they need auditory distraction along with the chewing. The crochet texture on the bear gave her a different sensory input when she was bored of silicone, and the rattling sound pulled her out of her crying spirals just long enough for me to catch my breath.

If you're currently trapped under a drooling baby who uses your collarbone as a chew toy, you can browse Kianao's teething collection to find something that might buy you twenty minutes of peace.

The weird science of new teeth

From what I vaguely remember of the dental process from nursing school, teeth don't actually cut through the flesh like a knife. The gum tissue remodels itself and cells die off to create a path for the tooth to emerge. It sounds vaguely horrific, which probably explains why babies cry so much during the process.

My doctor told me the worst of the pain is usually right before the tooth breaches the surface. You can usually feel a hard ridge under the gumline if you stick a clean finger in their mouth. Of course, every baby seems to write their own rulebook on this. Some kids sprout four teeth at once with nothing more than a slight fever, while others act like the world is ending over a single bottom incisor.

I spent weeks staring into my kid's mouth with a flashlight trying to see if anything was happening. Most of the time, I just saw spit.

Eventually it ends

The tooth pops through. The drooling slows down. You put the chewable necklaces in a drawer and go back to wearing your nice jewelry. Then, three weeks later, they start rubbing their cheeks again, and you dig the silicone beads right back out. It's a cycle, yaar. You just get through it.

You adapt to the mess. You buy more bibs. You accept that your baby is going to chew on the dog's toys at least once, and you try not to panic when it happens. You just wash their hands and hand them something safer.

Before we get to the messy questions you're probably googling at two in the morning while your kid gnaws on your thumb, check out Kianao's full range of sustainable baby essentials for the next time your little one decides to sprout a new tooth.

The late night questions

Do teething necklaces actually work?

If you mean the amber ones babies wear, no. They're a choking hazard wrapped in a myth. If you mean the chunky silicone ones worn by the mother, yes, but not by magic. They work because they give the baby a safe, clean surface to grind their swollen gums against while they're being held. It's purely mechanical relief. Plus, it saves your chest and hair from getting pinched.

How do you clean this stuff without ruining it?

If it's entirely silicone, I just throw it in the top rack of the dishwasher or wash it in the sink with dish soap and hot water. If it has wood components, you can't soak it or the wood will warp and splinter. I wipe the wooden parts with a damp cloth and a tiny bit of mild soap, then let it air dry completely. I ruined a beautiful wooden rattle once by leaving it in a basin of soapy water, so learn from my mistakes.

When does this phase seriously end?

My doctor claims most kids have their full set of primary teeth by age three. That feels like a lifetime when you're in the thick of it. The reality is that the pain comes in waves. You will have three weeks of pure misery followed by two months of peace. You just ride the waves and keep the silicone cold.

Can I just let my baby chew on my regular necklaces?

I mean, you can, if you want your jewelry broken and your baby to potentially ingest metal or glass beads. Babies have insane grip strength. They will snap a gold chain without breaking a sweat. Regular jewelry also harbors a ton of bacteria and isn't meant to be in a human mouth. Just buy the ugly silicone mom jewelry and accept your fate for a few months.

Are wooden teethers better than silicone?

They're just different. Wood is harder, which some babies prefer when a tooth is right on the verge of breaking through the gum. Untreated beechwood is also naturally antimicrobial, which is nice. Silicone is softer and can be chilled in the fridge, which helps numb the area. I kept both on hand because my kid's preference changed depending on her mood and the phase of the moon.