I often do comparisons in my parenting journey as so many things have evolved.
One of those things is dummy chains ….
Way back in 1992, when I bought my first dummy chain from Snookums, it was a flat round plastic circle in pink. It had a pink plastic link chain and a clip to attach to the ring of the dummy. You fastened it with a pin.
The boys dummy chains weren’t much different, only I now found blue and yellow shapes and some fastened with a plastic clip.
For Kerri, as I felt the plastic hurt the baby as they slept, I made my own by tying the dummy to pink ribbon and fastening it on with a safety pin.
In 2012 I did my first dummy chain giveaway on Fun Mamma SA ,and thought it genius that soft materials were now being used with a clip.
My youngest child, Kerri, was by now at school so I never used the product.
A dummy chain for Hamish
When time came to buy for Hamish, the choices were overwhelming.
From soft ribbon chains to natural and silicone beads.
Hamish was so kindly sent a silicone dummy chain that had his name as a gift.
He was about 8 months old at the time and would give up his dummy a few months later.
I would fasten the dummy chain on him and was super impressed as it kept him busy and looked so attractive. Plus it was soft so he couldn’t hurt himself ….
Or so I thought!
We had been playing in the bed and I was folding washing. To keep Hamish busy I handed him his dummy chain as I had countless times before.
With new teeth sprouting he was using the silicone as a teether. This seemed perfect. No need to always carry around a teething toy I could just sterilise the silicone dummy chain and know he was safely chomping on the beads and shapes.
This particular day I wasn’t concentrating as I folded washing and he grabbed the metal clasp part of the dummy chain and put it in his mouth.
All I heard was the sound of my child gagging.
My reflexes were thankfully a lot faster than I thought they were because I can remember seeing everything in a slow motion dream like state.
I yanked the chain out his mouth, releasing air back into his airway.
The chain clasps are the same size as a large Grape!
He had somehow managed to suck this in and it was lodged in his throat.
If I had not been Infront of him, and a lot of mothers are busy -leaving their babies in cots or playpens with their dummy straps…. If I had not been in front of him he would have choked.
I’ve been so reluctant to write this post as I know it was a beautiful, well made product.
It was also a complete accident and one that I could have avoided by giving him something else to chew.
I also know most moms keep the dummy chain clipped on but at 8 months he could unclip it himself and there are still children who are 3 years old using a dummy …. They still don’t possess the ability to remove items lodged in their throat.
Hamish wasn’t hurt although we both got a huge fright and I threw out all dummy chains that day.
If you are a new mom or a mom using a dummy chain please be vigilant. Educate your carers to watch that it is always pinned to your child.
