Teething jewellery is big business. One swoop around a baby & toddler exhibition and you see dozens of brands competing for floor space. Ask any mother with a baby and it’s easy to see why they’re so popular. I can’t count the number of pendants and bracelets my two children have broken trying to gnaw their way through the silver. Jewellery dangles, it catches the light, and it’s perfectly positioned for a quick chomp when you’re cradling them to your chest.
Teething jewellery is typically made from silicone or wood, designed to be non-toxic and able to withstand plenty of tugging and gnawing. Design-wise many brands offer the same stale pendants and colourways and there isn’t much for mum to get excited about. This, of course, is until they stumble upon Mama Jewels…
I looked around the baby group and realised that most of the mums, like me had stopped wearing jewellery, when I asked why they said ‘Our children keep breaking our jewellery so we just had to stop wearing it’ That was the moment I decided to use my jewellery design skills to create a necklace that a baby can’t break, can be washed, and is completely non-toxic for when babies chomp on it, but still looks gorgeous. Mama Jewels was born! Amanda Waring, Founder Mama Jewels
From left to right: Earth Mama Light wood teething necklace £14.95 / Manuhiki Nursing Teething necklace UK dark wood £22.95 / Eskina Wooden Teething necklace – Candy £15.95 / Francene olivine silicone teething necklace £15.95 / Jenny wood and crochet teething necklace – Berries £21.95 / Tea rose pink silicone teething necklace £15.95 / Anthropologist Mint green wood teething nursing necklace £19.95 / Anthropologist Red wood teething nursing necklace £19.95 / Breton Blue Wooden baby proof necklace £22.95
If it hadn’t been Mama Jewels I wouldn’t have consented to a teething jewellery review. I find the 70s circular pendants really quite boring and uninspiring and can’t imagine Heidi being that impressed either. But Mama Jewels really is different, with dozens of beautiful designs that the untrained eye wouldn’t even realise were built with babies in mind.
Add to this Papa Jewels and Mini Jewels (with baby-safe chains and no-break guarantee) and baby is literally spoilt for choice for a spot of relief from the agony of teething pain.
To be honest, I can’t imagine an adult equivalent to teething. Even if we were to experience a similar pain, the fact your baby doesn’t understand why their senses are in overdrive makes for a particularly distressing time. Not only will babies often writhe around, refuse food and scream, teething also manifests itself in psychical symptoms such as diarrhoea and vomiting. Aside from administering teething gels, cold toys and Calpol, mum and dad are left twiddling their thumbs watching their baby suffer.
Teething jewellery might seem like just another teether device, but they’re so much more. Due to the proximity of the jewellery to mum (or indeed dad) they allow baby to self-soothe whilst being held. This means during periods of extreme distress, it’s far easier to settle your little one.
I have the Anthropologist necklace in purple and brown hues and absolutely LOVE it. It goes with the majority of my outfits and Heidi is in heaven as she selects a bead to chew. There are wooden hive-like beads that are ribbed for extra texture, smooth pebble beads, and octagonal shaped beads too. This means plenty of interest for both mum and baby. Better yet, it has a leather thong chain for practicing finer bites.
Heidi chews on it at every opportunity and it’s certainly taken a battering. She now has all four front teeth (top and bottom) and she’s downright dangerous with them. Trust me, if you put your finger in her mouth, you might ever get it back out again! Yet my necklace still looks as good as new. This is quite some feat when you consider the state of her teething toys downstairs - let’s just say it’s very easy to spot her favorites!
My necklace is a very reasonable £19.95 and worth every penny, I plan on buying a few more colourways purely to complement other outfits but can honestly say I choose well when asked to pick one for review. It’s beautiful.
I’m not alone in my praise for Mama Jewels with them also grabbing headlines in Baby & Me, Gurgle Magazine, Baby London, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph and appearing on a This Morning feature. Not limited to nursing and teething jewellery, they also make some silver keepsakes items, baby-proof jewellery and sweet breastfeeding reminder bracelets so mum knows which breast is next.
