Teething Rings

Living in a small Brooklyn apartment, I’m extremely lucky to have some access to a decent wood shop. Monday night is shop night and I was in need of a stocking stuffer or two for my 9m old. He’s starting to get nice and drooly/cranky, so I wanted to get him something to sink his gums into.

Most DIY teethers that I saw on the internets were just a wooden ring and fabric. I liked the fabric tie, but thought it would be fun to play off the fact that it looks like ears. Here’s what I came up with (in full instagrammy glory).

I’m pleased with how they turned out for such a quick project. But it definitely falls into the ‘this would be so much better/faster/easier/cooler with a Glowforge’ category.

Next year. Oh, next year.

34 Likes

Nice! I’ve been wondering about teething rings since that study on pacifiers came out recently (49 plastic pacifiers were tested, and every one, no matter what they said on the label, had BPA and pthalates in it). This is a nice solution that looks safe. What wood did you use?

5 Likes

Splinters or slivers? That would be my worry.

4 Likes

Those are so very cute! :smiley:

3 Likes

This is a very important question. Many woods can be toxic, like my favorite walnut, which I believe has trace amounts of arsenic in it. Great for a table, not some much for a baby to chew on. The best for this type of thing is Maple as it has a tight, shorter grain. Cherry can also be nice.

I went with red oak for these because it happened to be what I had on hand of the right size and won’t kill my child. I actually don’t really like oak because or its long grain, but it is hard and there really is no worry of splinters for a baby, @zerbyte75. Not until he gets some serious canines, at least. And I read somewhere that it has anti-microbial properties, or something that sounds good like that.

I then coated it in bees wax, ran it over a flame to melt the wax into the wood and gave it a bit of polish.

17 Likes

Great, wish I had known about the bpa earlier :frowning:

And they save wear and tear on the dining table legs, coffee table legs, nightstand… LOL :grin:

2 Likes