There have got to be babies out there who don’t gnaw on everything in sight. I have no first-hand knowledge of this kind of baby, though. Both of mine mouth(ed) everything. Anything. But both have also been easy teethers; maybe there’s a connection?

I remember being at a park with The K Man when he was, oh, 11 months old maybe. I did something the mother of an orally fixated baby should never do: I looked away for 10 seconds. I’m not kidding – it was 10 seconds. And by the time I looked back, I could see he had something in his mouth. I ordered that he give it to mommy and he spit out…an acorn. A full-size acorn.

Leaves, sticks, rocks. It really didn’t matter its origin or choking threat, that baby would try to eat it all. I was changing a poopy diaper once and found one of those little stickers you get on the side of an apple or orange – he’d obviously found a stray one on the floor or something and swallowed it.

Not long ago, Miss Q produced a long piece of what can only be described as “hay” in her diaper.

Imagine my delight, then, when the mompreneur who invented Teethease offered to let me try out her new Rock•ease teething necklace. It looks like a string of rocks, so surely my teething beauty would love it, right?

THE GOOD

Right! Miss Q took one look at the Rock•ease necklace and started happily chomping away. We shared the same initial confusion – the “rocks” are, in fact, soft silicone. Totally deceiving – but a great surprise. There are a heap of amber teethers out there and, though I love the non-toxicity of them, amber is hard. With this, I have no worries that she’ll bite through a rock, or – worse – break a tooth. It’s important to note here, too, that the silicone is FDA-approved, BPA-free medical-grade silicone, also free of PVC, latex, heavy metals and phthalates.

My Teethease’s website also notes that it meets the highest international safety standards, something called “EN-71.” No clue what this is, really, but it sounds very official.

It looks great. So great that I wore it to work with, like, a grown-up outfit. I got some nice compliments and when I asked colleagues to touch it, they were also surprised that it wasn’t actual turquoise. That said, it seems I’m going to have to hand it over to Miss Q – my fashionista-in-the-making; she likes to put it on and crawl around the house showing it off to anyone who’ll pay attention. Interestingly, she never chews on it when she’s wearing it.

Rock•ease makes a great nursing necklace, too. If you’ve never used a nursing necklace and wonder if you need one, I’ll just ask one question: when your baby’s nursing, is s/he easily distracted? If you answer yes, then a nursing necklace could work well for you – it tends to keep baby interested long enough to get a good feed.

It’s got a safety clasp. This is especially important if you’re wearing it as a nursing necklace; chances are good that your baby’s going to yank on it – hard. If he pulls hard enough, the safety clasp comes loose. You want this. ‘Cause reverse strangulation ain’t fun.