Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think amber necklaces are a load of bollocks?

206 replies

PancakeBum · 05/04/2018 15:00

And that if I had severe toothache I'd rather take a fucking painkiller?

Surely even if they ARE releasing these "oils" or whatever they're meant to do to help with teething then you are using an untested substance on your baby? And are they not a choking hazard?!

Or am I just being grumpy because I come from a family of homeopaths who all irritate the life out of me?

OP posts:
Weezol · 05/04/2018 19:50

WTFF? I've been pondering an amber necklace for myself for several years but just can't justify the expense. People buy them for teething babies?

Just when I think I've waded out of the sea of woo, another big wave of woo crashes to shore. I see that I need to return to my woo snorkel and wetsuit.

Where's Ben Goldacre when you need him?

AsAProfessionalFekko · 05/04/2018 19:54

I've been wearing amber beads for years. I wonder if it's had and affect on my teeth?

elefunk · 05/04/2018 20:04

Yes!!! Utter bollocks.

But I think it's rational people at the end of their tether with teething.

Snake oil to the sleep deprived.

Especially when those molars hit...

BustopherJones · 05/04/2018 20:09

I am interested from the point of view that in the case of the people I know who use them, if they’d said they had a headache and I suggested amber, they’d tell me I was crackers. But when it’s their baby it’s different somehow. A lot of advice about babies is a bit unscientific, and that is interesting to unpack.

Unfortunately the damn necklaces still make me angry.

AsAProfessionalFekko · 05/04/2018 20:18

I think it looks cute though! I'm sure they may be safe (throttle and choke hazard).

TreesAgreen · 05/04/2018 20:24

BasilThirty

I've never been tempted but if @speakout says they work I may give them a go. You're one of my favourite posters!

Oh.....I'm embarrassed for you

You see all this, "but maybe just maybe it really does work", even though it's been proven it doesn't.

But apparently we haven't tested it properly, as now people are saying it's something no body know's about, so they can't test it can they?

Well I believe there is a cucumber orbiting very close to the Sun, generations of people have pasted this information down to me.

Tell me it's not true, and tell me why.

peachgreen · 05/04/2018 20:24

I'd never buy one because of the choking hazard but my otherwise very sensible, rational and experienced health visitor recommended them in a very apologetic "I know it's total bollocks but in my experience it really does work" way. I was so surprised!

BustopherJones · 05/04/2018 20:30

I don’t think I could even buy one for myself as jewellery now, in case someone thinks I’m using it for pain relief.

They’re not as bad as crystals next to your computer to absorb the negative ions, though. I’m sure it’s just word association and if they were positive ions people would be bathing in the warm glow of their screens.

AsAProfessionalFekko · 05/04/2018 20:33

I don't think it's a thing for adults as pain relief. I just love the bugs in my beads (very jurassic Park!)

YourWanMajella · 05/04/2018 21:13

It's possible that what's behind it is so far beyond our understanding at this point that we're not even close to articulating what that theory might be. I'm not saying that's the case, I'm saying it's possible

And its possible that one day the tiny people that live in your eyes will pop out and say hi to you before leaving for their home planet. If that is how you treat science then literally anything is possible!

Weezol · 05/04/2018 21:55

Some fucker on the bus was insisting the earth is round the other day.

newtlover · 05/04/2018 22:01

well you may all scoff but I have been wearing an amber ring for years now, and do you know, I have had no pain at all from the nail growing on that finger

TabbyMack · 05/04/2018 22:10

Now that is some serious evidence, right there Newtlover. I take it all back!

Skittlesandbeer · 05/04/2018 22:40

Just had a thought- isn’t it likely there’s some virtue signalling going on with parents who put these amber beads on kids? Some kind of code that tells the world ‘my baby and I are woo people’ because it gains them access to a world of caring fairies and positive energy, et al?

Or perhaps they think it shows that they are being extra solicitous of their kids needs (by spending that little extra time & cash)? No doubt it’s a conversation-starter with other woo people, right? ‘Poor love is teething, is he? Aren’t you a lovely caring mummy’ kind of thing?

Maybe it’s the only acceptable (to some) way to put jewellery on tiny kids, and parents just love the way it looks? Especially if you have a boy, and suspect he (and you) may be harshly judged for putting necklaces on him when he’s older?

I guess I’m just looking at what human factors might be encouraging this practice, that have nothing whatsoever to do with believing amber cures gum pain.

Makes me wonder about what crazy or effective customs other cultures have for teething pain. Anyone know of any?

PickingOak · 05/04/2018 23:01

Anyone know of any?

They use opium in Afghanistan for teething. Grin

To be fair though, I suspect the amber/teething thing probably has some root in an old folk practice of giving tree resin as a painkiller or antibacterial agent. It's just that someone took the idea, applied it to amber and ran with it all the way to the bank.

donquixotedelamancha · 05/04/2018 23:06

Some fucker on the bus was insisting the earth is round the other day.

pfft. You are so closed-minded. Why can't you be open to the possibility that the Earth is flat and carried by a giant turtle? MY science isn't a religion- I don't have to use reason about everything in life.

alltoomuchrightnow · 05/04/2018 23:55

Possibly, Picking. After all.. isn't myrrh a gum or tree resin? That's the best thing I've ever used for mouth ulcers and skin lesions that wouldn't heal, cracks in toes etc. But amber would have to be heated and melted

silverbirches · 06/04/2018 00:05

I've never heard of these necklaces before this thread, and I'm not a scientist by a long shot, but hasn't amber got electrostatic properties?

Perhaps that's what does it.

If not, then give the kid a willow stick to chew on instead. That definitely works Grin

Weezol · 06/04/2018 00:24

Donquix I totally believe in the Disc, but sadly live in England which is also where the bus was. I live in hope.

.

Original poster
PancakeBum · 06/04/2018 06:47

They use opium in Afghanistan for teething.

At least that probably works.

OP posts:
cindersrella · 06/04/2018 06:54

I used them with both of mine who suffered terrible with teething.

Nursery took them off my daughter the one day and she was horrendous. Worse still they hadn't put them in her bag and I had a terrible evening and night with her.. plus they reported she had been grump and going mad with her hands in her mouth.

The next day I put them on her and she seemed much better within an hour or so.

My youngest I don't think they worked as well.

Each to there own. I don't think they are load of bollocks 😀

MrsTylerJoseph · 06/04/2018 07:02

I’m a midwife and I saw one in a baby which was literally hours old.

The mother spoke to me like I was a dimwitted twat the whole day who knew nothing about either childbirth or babies. I’d already got her pegged as a lentil weaver and didn’t even bother starting a conversation about the necklace but I strongly got the impression she was itching for me to mention it..........I knew if I did I would just get a bullshit woo lecture and I’d never change her mind on the subject.

MrsTylerJoseph · 06/04/2018 07:03

On a baby, not in a baby.

TreesAgreen · 06/04/2018 07:06

If not, then give the kid a willow stick to chew on instead

That's given me an idea........
I'll strip some fine willow sticks (keeping the bark for myself of causeWink ) and weave little necklaces. Speard a few FB posts about willows usefulness. Then bingo! I'll be quids in Grin

Lweji · 06/04/2018 07:10

Speard a few FB posts about willows usefulness. Then bingo! I'll be quids in grin

Don't forget to tell people they've been used for centuries. They'll believe it too.