Gumigem Bubba Bag Teething Toys Review

Holly has a new handbag!  OK, so she is just 16 months old but she has a handbag all of her own.  A Bubba Bag.  I'm a big fan of Gumigem teething jewellery and the Bubba Bag is a new venture for Gumigem - a handbag full of baby teething toys.

The Bubba Bag is a neoprene flexible bag that is 5 toys in one.  The bag itself brings a whole lot of fun, especially for a toddler!  Inside, there are 5 silicone toys designed especially for teething babies.

• A set of chunky car keys which can reach all the way back to your child's molars.
• A toy credit card with raised numbers which offer a nice texture against the gums.
• A small purse with a pretend bobbly fastener to chew on.
• A tiny toy mobile phone with different textures and shapes to feel and gnaw.

All of the toys are suitable from birth, with the exception of the keys which are suitable from 10 months upwards.  The toys are all absolutely perfect for Holly right now because, not only are we going through a really really tough period of teething which have brought night times of misery to us all, but when Holly is feeling more cheerful during the day, she has recently discovered an element of role play and likes to dress up and pretend to do the things I do around the house such as making tea or answering the phone.  The role play element of the Bubba Bag is brilliant.

The toys are all CE certified and made from non-toxic and washable materials so they are suitable for your child to munch on to their heart's content.  I would like to see a few different textures on the silicone toys for younger mouths - perhaps some larger areas of small bumps or some silicone brush effects - many of the surfaces are quite smooth.

While I think the idea of the Bubba Bag is absolute genius (and Holly seems to agree), there are a few areas that I'd like to see developed as the Gumigem range grows and evolves... The neoprene bag doesn't feel... well.. finished.  It feels a bit raw and doesn't ooze quality like I would expect from Gumigem.  I also felt that the colours of the gadgets and the bag were all a bit muted and could do with being more striking and fun.

I think the fact that each of the toys has a small hole that allows you to attach it to a buggy clip or dummy clip is a really clever idea.  I felt that the purse toy was a slight anomalie in the bag because the size is very different to the real thing and it seems small compared to the credit card, phone and keys.  The keys are the biggest hit with Holly because they are the biggest and chunkiest of the lot.

I think that the Bubba Bag is a great idea but it needs a little bit of refining to make it a market-changing idea in the world of teething toys.

Born Free Teether and Bottle Review

Born Free Teether

Holly is at the age where EVERYTHING goes into her mouth. Her teeth have been troubling her for about 4 weeks and yet no new teeth have come through so all she wants to do all day is munch on things. Holly has been trying out the Born Free Teether and has very much enjoyed chomping and chewing it.

I like this teether because it doesn't pretend to be anything else. Its not in the shape of anything or disguised as a toy. The soft, medical grade silicone is very tactile and Holly likes to pull it and squeeze it as well as bite it. There are lots of different textures but the area she enjoys biting most is at each end which has 4 different bumpy textures. I have taken to rubbing a bit of baby toothpaste into the bumps so that she can chew on it and also get the benefit of toothbrushing too. The teether is also designed to add extra soothing if you chill it in the fridge but we haven't tried this yet.

Born Free Bottle

I have also tried Holly on one of the very pretty Born Free decorated bottles. Although I think I prefer this bottle for me over many of the others we have tried, Holly didn't respond so well to the teat (she just chomped it and even after several attempts didn't really work out that she was supposed to drink from it!). I like this Born Free`bottle not only for the pretty woodland design but mostly because it is large, wide and shaped such that it is incredibly comfortable in my hand when I am holding it for Holly. My only disappointment with the Born Free bottle (other than the fact Holly wasn't interested) was that I found it hard to mix formula inside the bottle. On my first few attempts, shaking the bottle caused milk to spurt out into the lid... it took quite a bit of practice to work out that I needed to screw the lid on sooooooo tight that only Mr. B. with his strong man arms could undo it again!

All of Born Free's bottles, cups and teethers are BPA-free and most of them feature their Active Flow technology which involves a clever little valve below the teat or spout which reduces air pressure inside the bottle to prevent a vacuum building up. This is really important for babies who suffer from colic or wind.

Teether Reviews

I consider teethers and teething toys to be a demonstration of how different two baby girls in the same family can be - Lara would never let a teether past her lips and yet Holly now swears by teethers for relief from those pesky gnawing pains.

Because Lara had tried and hated a couple of different teethers when she was a baby, I didn't have anything appropriate in the house when Holly started teething. We were lucky enough to be asked to review each of the following teethers and so I thought I would share our experiences with them all.

Tommee Tippee Trio Teether

Tommee Tippee Trio Teether

The Tommee Tippee Trio Teether is one of my favourites because Holly can easily grab on to it herself. It features three chunky 'tags' which dangle from a thick loop that is ideal for little hands. Each tag has a number on it so I can count to her.

Each of the three teethers a slightly different surface (although two of them seem quite similar to me!). One of the tags is water-filled and provides a different sensation when Holly chews on it - this is her favourite one to munch. You can put the teether into the fridge and this water-filled teether provides even more of a soothing effect. The tags also have little bumps and ridges for your baby to explore with their mouth.

This teether is available from Amazon or Toys R Us for around £4 to £5.

Lansinoh mOmma Gino Teether

mOmma by Lansinoh Gino Teether

We love this Gino chick-shaped teether from mOmma (part of the Lansinoh family). The teether is water-filled which means that when you place it in the fridge, it provides cooling relief for raw gums.

The reason why I like it is that the little handles which form the chick's hands (err.. wings) are great for Holly to fit into her tiny mouth. The teether is all BPA-free including the hard head of the chick which Holly gets great pleasure from sucking and dribbling on.

Holly seems to like it because the hole in the middle allows her to get her hand through and make a good grip on it. She holds on to this teether longer than most. The water-filled section has lots of raised bumps for her to feel with her mouth.

The mOmma teether is also available as a penguin or a walrus and costs less than a fiver - you can buy them at amazon.

Tommee Tippee Water-Filled Teethers

Water-Filled Teethers

Tommee Tippee sell a number of different water-filled teethers and we tried out this pair of stars from the Essentials range. Because they are water-filled, they provide a slight element of chew rather than just a rigid gnashing! We put them in the fridge and then offer them to Holly when they are cool and I can only imagine how weird and refreshing it feels to have them rubbed on her gums.

Holly finds it hard to grip these teethers despite the hole through the middle.  These teethers are available from ASDA for £3.59.

Organic Monkey Cheek Rub Oil For Teething Review

It's funny, people often talk about teething remedies for tiny babies but I've actually found the toddler teeth harder as a mum and so, even though Lara is well over 2, I'm still looking at teething remedies such as the Cheeky Money Cheek Rub from Organic Monkey.

Twice since her second birthday Lara has cut a new tooth. I believe that the past fortnight's current bout of teething is for her final baby tooth. Phew. Toddler teething has been nightmarish with a total change of mood and a grumpy toddler who is now able to express her pain and discomfort. We haven't been able to use the amber necklace for some time (Lara isn't allowed to wear it to nursery), and Lara just chomps my fingers if I attempt to apply any sort of chemical gel to her gums. And so, I was really grateful to get the opportunity to try Organic Monkey's blend of organic and fairtrade natural ingredients with essential oils as a natural form of teething relief.

The oil doesn't smell enormously strong so it isn't off-putting for tiny children. There is no one distinct ingredient that I can identify in the oil but I guess that the Chamomile is the strongest scent. Other ingredients include lavender and spearmint oils blended with arnica, sweet almond, olive and sunflower oils, all of which are 100% organic. The blend of ingredients is designed to help relieve pain.

Unlike a chemical gel, you apply the oil to the outside of the cheek so that it is not ingested. As such, your child doesn't get such an immediate sense of relief or numbing of pain. However, I do think that you get a good level of relief for an all-natural product. Over the past couple of weeks of us using the cheek rub, Lara has not yet had a restless night. This is a first. Every single other bout of teething since she was born has resulted in nights where she has woken either hourly or bi-hourly screaming.

Within about half an hour of applying the cheek rub, there is a noticeable reduction in the redness of Lara's cheeks. I'm much happier using the Organic Monkey cheek rub oil on Lara than some of the big name gels and I just wish I'd had a chance to compare its effect on very early baby teeth too.

‘Cheeky Monkey’ Organic Cheek Rub Oil for Teething comes in a really smart glass bottle and costs £7.50. It is available from Organic Monkey along with their other gorgeous organic and fairtrade products such as scalp oil, massage balm and nappy balm.

Teething Pain - Tips and Experience from REAL Mums

My Cybermummy sponsor, Boots are currently running some great promotions on teething products in store, and by way of support, I thought I would run a blogger's carnival to share the worries, tips and experiences of real mums who have dealt with the horrors of teething pain.

I myself have been through the troubles of teething with little Lara. In March last year I blogged about teething pain breaking my heart. And then, After trying a number of different approaches to pain relief, I blogged about the results of our attempts to relieve teething pain. Yesterday I blogged about how severe the teething pain is for Lara now that she is a toddler and the back teeth are coming through.

Carly of Mummys's Shoes has a very mellow blog about her 1-year-old not yet having teeth and then, about arrival of the first tooth.

Hannah at Muddling Along Mummy has surprised herself by sticking with breastfeeding through the discomfort of teething.

At Diary of a First child there are some accurate observations of teething at around 2 months. And, in a separate blog post there are some details of a range of different natural teething remedies.

Emma from Me, the Man and Baby records some of the main signs of teething, and several different types of pain relief at the Born Free blog and reminds us that there IS light at the end of the tunnel.

There are also some really useful diagrams and guides to teething at TwoBecomeFour and some feedback on bickiepegs as a solution to the problem of teething.

At Little Green Blog you can find details of 4 natural remedies for teething.

Jenny at Gingerbread House wrote a post that really struck a chord with me - nobody prepares you for the horrors of teething, until you're a parent, you really can't comprehend how much of a struggle it is.

Emma at Mission to Motherhood has a great blog about her reluctance to use Calpol for the first time to combat teething pain.

Thanks for joining in everyone

Emma x

Toddler Teething : A Whole New World of Pain

Lara is teething again. Lara got her first 16 teeth between around 5 months and 13 months. Since late summer, the teething pain has gone and Lara has been (generally) a very mellow little girl. A few weeks ago, the signs of teething returned.

Lara suddenly went off her food. This is always something to worry about with Lara who normally has an insatiable appetite. When she is teething, Lara tends to be more fussy at mealtimes. She had lots of very unpleasant nappies and constantly has her fist in her mouth (or anything else within reaching distance).

I blogged before about how teething pain breaks my heart. Lara changes from a smiling, bouncy little girl into a miserable, whiney clingy little lady. Teething during toddler-hood is so much more draining on her, and on me. Where Lara is now able to entertain herself with books and toys on a normal day, she will instead require constant attention on a teething day. Without 24/7 cuddles and play she starts whining and moaning and generally being grumpy. Even when we sit and play with her, the whining simply subsides rather than goes away.

The nights are restless. Teething seems to bring with it a level of night-terror. Lara will regularly stir with whimpers during the night. Sometimes as often as once every half hour. She is never awake, just crying. Occasionally, the pain or fear is so great that Lara screams. Loudly. I rush to her room and try to wake her from whatever it is she is experiencing, but I simply can't wake her, despite all my best efforts. I simply have to hold her and comfort her through the pain until she settles.

As part of my partnership with Boots Parenting Club for Cybermummy, I'm planning a carnival of teething blog posts tomorrow. If you have a post you would like to share, add it to the comments below or email me jumblyMummy AT gmail DOT com

Boots Parenting Club pharmacist, Angela Chalmers (who has very recently become a mum herself) spoke to me earlier this year about the ways you can help your baby or toddler through the pain of teething. Angela recommended a three-step approach:-

• Firstly, try a teething ring or toy as the gnawing action often gives relief to the gums and can help the teeth to break through. A teething ring that you can put in the fridge offers a cooling relief to tiny teeth.



• Next, try a teething gel which offers topical relief when applied directly to the gums. Teething gels contain small quantities of local anaesthetic. Teething powders such as Ashtons & Parsons (which contain tincture of chamomile) also offer relief to some children.



• If your baby is in real distress, you can offer an Ibuprofen suspension but check that it is suitable for the age of your child and always ensure you give the correct dosage. If you are in any doubt about what medication to offer your child, you can always talk to your local pharmacist for advice.

Angela admits that coping with teething is very much trial and error. What works for one child, may not work for others, even within the same family! In my experience, you need to try a wide range of products and brands to find what is right for your child and give them all the support they need to get through the pain. Stay mellow - it will get easier (I'm told)!

Call For Posts – Teething Carnival

This is a call for entries to a carnival I will be hosting on Tuesday 22nd of February. I'm looking for your posts about the troubles of teething.

Maybe you have a story to share about the emotional and physical drain on you or your children during bouts of teething. Perhaps you have some tips on how to ease the pain for your little ones, or some guidance to offer on how to spot the signs of teething.

If you would like to share your teething blog post, either leave me a comment below with the link to your post or email me the link to jumblyMummy[@]gmail[.]com (by the end of Friday 18th February).

Looking forward to reading all your great offerings.

Emma.

A (Toothless) Smile

I will never tire of Lara's smile. Fact.

I have chosen this photo for this week's Gallery where the theme is A Smile.

This photo was taken in December 2009 as Lara was approaching 6 months old. I love it. That smile to me shows the point in Lara's life where she started becoming Lara, rather than a baby - she developed a cheeky attitude and knew how to have fun.

I also love this picture because it is the very last photo I have of Lara without any teeth. That gummy grin hides the pain of teething! I know there were two front teeth coming at that point (when I zoom in on the photo, I can just about see them) so for me, this photo represents the end of an era.

Staying Mellow About... Tooth-brushing

What are we doing wrong? We have been cleaning Lara's teeth twice a day every day for the past five months - ever since that first tiny sliver of white broke through the gum. After the recent Panorama episode that highlighted the risks of tooth decay in formula-fed children, I was keen to ensure that Lara got used to having her teeth brushed very early in life.

To start with, Lara REALLY enjoyed it. There were giggles, a wide-open mouth and she even enjoyed taking the brush from me and going 'brush, brush, brush' all on her own. That lasted for... oooh... a whole four days.

Ever since then, Lara has HATED tooth-brushing time with a vengeance. Every time the toothbrush comes near, she seems eager to give it a go. But as soon as the brush enters her mouth she screws up her face and rejects the brush. She will purse her lips, grab your wrists and physically prevent the toothbrush from approaching her mouth.

When Lara is teething, she is, understandably, even more aggressive when it comes to tooth-brushing time.

After the daily tooth-brush struggle, we offer Lara a cup of water (a grown-up cup, not a trainer cup) and she seems to look forward to this part. More often than not, this is a very messy affair.

I stay mellow about tooth-brushing only by telling myself that if we keep at it, it will, eventually, become easier. At present however, there doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel.

So, what is the secret when it comes to tooth-brushing?

Teething Trials – The Results!

A few weeks ago, you may remember that Lara was suffering from teething pain so severe that I was genuinely worried about her. At the time, I received a whole host of tips for how to try and help her through the hard times. The pain and suffering kept going for so long that I had time to try out nearly all of the remedies suggested. So here, for future reference, are the results of our teething trials.

I would like to point out now (in 'Grow your own drugs' stylee) that this was not a scientific experiment and that there are a million and one different variables that can account for the results we've seen and that every child is different, so what works for one, will not work for another. OK, that's the serious bit over.

Teethers & Teething Dummies: Lara doesn't recognise teething toys as things she can put in her mouth. Food goes in the mouth, toys are for playing with. When her teething was at her worst, she didn't want anything in her mouth, not even food, so chilled carrots weren't even an option.

Teething Gel: We have tried Calgel (Lara likes the flavour and sensation but it just doesn't seem to get any relief from it) and we were also given some Boots own brand gel (slightly more effective but she doesn't enjoy the minty flavour).

Teething Powders: We have now tried both Nelson's Teetha powders and Ashton & Parsons powders. They both contain homeopathic remedies which are designed to target many of the symptoms of teething. They always calm Lara down for about 5 minutes (I guess through fascination rather than anything else) but once the novelty wears off, that is the extent of the relief.

Calpol / Calprofen: There is no denying that the paracetemol / ibuprofen medicines we tried on Lara did help to relieve the teething pain. We had been using Calpol to help Lara get just enough relief to fall asleep but the teething was so bad that Calpol wasn't effective enough. Following advice I received in my blog comments, I tried Calprofen instead.

Calprofen certainly had a much more impressive level of pain relief. For a few hours afterwards, Lara was back to her normal, spritely self. However, it had some unexpected, and undesirable side effects. We couldn't use Calprofen to help Lara fall asleep because it made her WIDE awake. She rushed around like a ferret on speed for several hours after taking it. One night, we just had to leave Lara in her cot come midnight because she was still going strong and we were unable to keep our eyes open any longer. A little bit of investigation told me the reason why – Calprofen has a totally different set of E-numbers in it than Calpol. Both contain additives which are banned on the continent and across the world because of the effect they can have on children's health & behaviour.

I like to keep an open mind about these things, but from now on, the Calprofen will be reserved for emergency pain relief.

Amber Necklace: The very last remedy we tried on Lara was an amber necklace that I was sent by the very lovely Little Sunflowers. There is no way I would have bought one myself- it just seemed a bit too quirky. I put it down to co-incidence that the day we first put the necklace on Lara, tooth number 6 popped through and the pain died down; leaving Lara her normal, cheerful self.

Three weeks down the line, Lara started showing the first signs of teething again. She was a little grumbly and I noticed she was dribbling a lot. I started putting the necklace on during the day. Over the past week Lara has been teething a lot; there are buckets of dribble, a sore bottom, the tell-tale scratching behind the ears, she is slightly restless during the night and if anyone puts their hand anywhere near her mouth, they immediately get their fingers gnawed.

The difference this time around is that Lara is still cheerful. We have not had to resort to any of the medical or herbal solutions to teething this time. Lara is definitely a little unsettled but there is no screaming or crying, no misery in the afternoons and no feeling sorry for herself. The difference is remarkable. The one morning when I didn't use the necklace (we were going to swimming and it was one less thing to worry about), Lara was a total nightmare – screaming, miserable and hard, hard work.

Amber necklaces are generally designed to be safe for children to wear. The amber is said to release natural oils onto the skin that have an analgesic effect which soothes and calms them; the longer they wear it, the more effective it is. I am still not certain enough to say that the necklace is solely responsible for Lara's calmer, relaxed nature during teething but I am beginning to be won over (and so are Lara's childminders). I will keep you updated on our progress.

Teething Pain Is Breaking My Heart

No-one ever warned me how hard this would be. How hard it is to watch my little girl suffer. A baby girl who normally shrieks with laughter when she sees me who now shrieks with pain instead. No-one told me how much it would hurt me to see her pain. I'm struggling.

As you know, I'm normally so mellow about these things. Many of the challenges of parenthood I have taken in my stride but this, I'm not sure I can bear it much longer. When I am at work, struggling to keep my eyes open after a disturbed night, the only way that I can work through the exhaustion is by reminding myself that I still have months, perhaps years (as I was reminded by Baby Genie this weekend), of this ahead of me therefore I have to stay strong – for Lara (and for my job!)



I honestly think that trying to respond to Lara's teething pain has been the part of motherhood for which I have been least prepared. After the first tooth (accompanied by the first cold), I could recognise the pattern... Lara would scream in the middle of the night, often without waking. The skin around her nappy would look a little red (although we haven't had any big problems with rashes or anything). Her cheeks would burn red all day and she would scratch the back of her head, just behind her ears.

Lara now has 5 teeth and all but one of them has brought with it a cold. Right now, she has her side teeth coming through; she has a cold which is making her cough up catarrh; she has totally gone of her food (I think this is just to spite me for having posted about how good she is with food last week) - I have never seen her so miserable. All day we have to struggle to elicit a smile from her. On Saturday she was so ill and so much in pain that in a Calpol-ed stupor she chose to spend the whole day sitting curled up in the crook of my arm, or that of Mr B. on the sofa watching Cbeebies. She looked so sad, so resigned to the pain, so exhausted, so un-Lara-like it was soul-destroying to see. We've tried everything we can to relieve the pain – Teething granules, gel, soothers, cold raw vegetables, teething rings... but nothing seems to work as well as a good munch on her own fist (or my finger). I don't know what else to try. The teeth are coming (I know by the quantities of dribble) I just wish they would hurry up so that I can have my bubbly, giggly, smiley, cheeky Lara back.