The Magical Amber Necklace

Behold, the amber teething necklace:

Call me crazy.  Go 'head.  I'm sure you're not the first!  But I am officially a believer in the mystical powers of the amber teething necklace. 

A few weeks back Jack was having an awful time with teething!  It was as if the Teething Fairy (not to be confused with the Tooth Fairy.  The Teething Fairy is like her evil cousin.  She doesn't bring money, just tears) herself had come and plucked up our happy son and replaced him with a big ball of fuss. 

I laugh at my naive self of a few short months ago, momma of a baby with 7 teeth and smugly thinking that the Teething Fairy just didn't know where to find us!  Ho ho!  Even though Jack successfully managed to bring forth 7 teeth with no warning until they popped through into his happily smiling mouth, we just hadn't experienced the REAL teething.  Apparently for us this didn't come until he started to work on his molars.  And once he did, whoa buddy it was a different story! 

He had the full range of possible teething symptoms - fever, clear, snotty nose, fussiness, multiple wake ups overnight, diapers that were... well, just trust me on this, there were a lot of them and they weren't pleasant!, and to top it all off he had a lack of appetite and was refusing EVERYTHING, but jarred baby food.  I'm guessing this is because jarred baby food seems to be pureed to within an inch of it's life and it was probably easier to eat than anything he had to think about chewing. 

Needless to say, after a week of this Mark and I were at our wits end.  We just didn't know what to do!  We tried all sorts of things to help Jack feel better, but at least one point during the day found us with an inconsolable baby.  We couldn't get him to chew on anything for relief, teething tablets seemed to do nothing, and even though we aren't huge fans of over the counter pain relievers we did dose him when he was clearly in pain and couldn't be comforted, but even then the relief only seemed to last a very short time. 

At the end of this hellacious week I suggested to Mark that we track down an amber teething necklace.  I had heard a lot of great things about them and brought it up to him before, but, as he is with nearly all my ideas at first, he was quite skeptical.  This time he was so in want of relief for Jack that he'd try anything!  So, we took a trip to our local natural family store (VERY cool place by the way, check it out if you're local!) and sought out an amber teething necklace.  $24 later we had necklace in hand and put it on Jack to try out the powah! 

The necklace is made of Baltic Amber beads.  Amber contains a property called Succinic Acid, a natural analgesic which helps reduce pain and inflammation.  When the beads come into contact with skin it warms the beads and absorbs this property.  There is more information and a full list of it's benefits HERE. 

So, how'd it work?

I'm elated to say that (seemingly) this necklace has helped immensely!  Now, I'm fully aware that any benefit could be a total coincidence, but we put the necklace on Jack in the early afternoon.  By that evening he was feeling noticeably better.  That night, he slept through the night!  This is huge considering he had been getting up 2-3 times overnight all during the week leading up to that day AND he wasn't sleeping through the night on a normal night at that time to begin with!  HUGE, I tell ya!  The following day he was back to his normal, happy self and I was truly grateful.  Best money I've spent as of late!

He's been wearing it for about 4 weeks or so now and we've had no teething trouble since then.  Also, for those who are wondering, he keeps it on 24/7 and he isn't aware that it's on him.  We usually keep it tucked down in his shirt so that it has full contact with his skin.  He hasn't messed with it at all and it's so short that he wouldn't be able to get it near his mouth even if he tried.  The beads are also tied individually so if it happened to break there wouldn't be a bunch of little choking hazards rolling around.

So, it's true.  I'm a full convert to the power of amber.  I will 100% recommend this to anyone experiencing teething trouble or any other sort of persistent pain.  If you're constantly having to dose your child with over the counter pain reliever to help with teething pain definitely check out an amber necklace.  It's a much safer, gentler alternative! 

Note: I was not provided with a free necklace or compensated in any way for this review.  I merely want to give a shout out to this amazing product and inform weary mothers that there's an effective option out there that I hope works as well for them and their babies as it has for us!