'The Healing Power of the Baltic Amber'

I am totally in agreement with my friend Leslie about the teething world of our boys. Everyone has been saying for months now that any discomfort, unhappy face, unusual look that Heath has had must be teething. When we had his six month check up the Pediatrician said 'doesn't look like anything is there yet- you'll know when he is teething.'

Well after returning from our California Christmas vacation Heath stepped it up a notch by screaming in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. Sleep patterns went from the nice 5-8hr stretches to 90 min- 3 hours tops at a time. We were exhausted, he was exhausted and nobody was friendly at the wee hours of the night.

After giving Heath Children's Tylenol for a couple nights in a row I was feeling determined to find some other option then keeping my kid drugged until he has a full mouth of teeth. A friend had previously recommended amber teething necklaces to us so I went on a research day again looking up reviews. This is what I found:

1. People either had used them and loved them, or

2. Had not tried them because they thought it sounded too crazy

Another sleepless night and I went straight to the internet to buy Heath his first 'bling.' The necklace arrived a week ago Thursday and little man has been sleeping like a gem ever since. *Note- they recommend only having the child wear it when they are supervised, he doesn't keep it on overnight in his crib. But he is all of a sudden more pleasant during the day and we have given him Tylenol once in a week- and that was because he had a noticeable fever. Now Heath is still less than himself and going through 8 month old attachment tantrums, but the pain displayed from teething has not been there like before.

I have had a hard time telling people about this necklace with a straight face because your first question is "oh so they chew on it?" Um, no. "So how does it work then if it is a teething necklace?" Well it...uh... is the...um... healing power of the Baltic amber. Yeah I know I sound like a hippie and yes this is added onto the fact that we cloth diaper. But when you have been there as a parent- you know- desperate times call for putting away pretenses and trying anything that will work, especially long trusted European practices. We bought ours at Cloth Diaper Outlet, the caramel one after reading that the lighter the amber the more succinic acid it contains, which is part of the pain relief benefit.

In case you were wondering, they make them for adults too. Inspired by Finn website came highly recommended across reviews I read and they have a good explanation of what about the amber makes this a 'healing' stone here.

Even if you can't buy into the benefits of a natural stone- you can at least agree that Heath is looking like a stud with his new bling!