Two weeks ago on May 27th I was surfing the web for something that The Boy could use to chew on at school.   He already had something to chew on, his shirt, but I was hoping to come up with something better as a chew-up wet shirt doesn’t look very nice.  A further criteria I had was that I didn’t want something that looked like a baby teething toy.   The old stand-by of chewy tubes just seemed to me to look too much like either a baby teething toy or a special needs therapy tool.

I came across the Chewelry website from Canada.   Their necklaces looked quite cute.  I could definitely see any of the kids in The Boy’s year 1/2 class happy to wear one as a fashion accessory.

Shipping from Canada to Australia was only $3.50.  So I decided to order the black circle necklace.  At CND$17.49 it wasn’t cheap.  My total paypal bill in Australia dollars was AU$24.44 .  The Aussie dollar has dropped even further since I ordered, so I’m glad that I didn’t put it off hoping the dollar would rise.

When I showed The Boy the website and told him that I ordered one, he was somewhat negative.  “But I like the taste of my shirt.”  Ugh, they’re ugly!”

But one week later and The Boy was asking me when his new chewy necklace would arrive in the mail.  He was looking forward to trying it out.

So this past Monday it arrived.   It only took 10 days, including weekends, from placing the order to receiving it.  Seeing as it was mailed from Canada I was impressed.   Communication from Pida was excellent.

On inspection, the clasp on the lanyard seems to be a bit weak.  It is designed to be a breakaway clasp.  However we have not had any problems with the necklace coming undone unexpectedly, so I suppose that the weakish clasp is ok.  I am not sure how it will stand up to repeated opening and closing.  Only time will tell.

The only other niggle I have is that in some places the black seems to be a separate layer from the white, and in one or two places seemed to be not well cut off so that there was a very tiny flap of black.   If you look very closely in the above picture you can see this on one or two of the small white circles.  However, despite a full day of chewing on the necklace there has been no evidence of the black separating from the white material.

The Boy has now had the chewy necklace since Monday afternoon.   Together we read the instructions.  It was recommended that it be washed before first use, and thereafter washed on a regular basis.

The Boy insisted that I wash it up straight away.   After doing this I gave it to The Boy.   He was delighted to find that on the reverse side of the necklace there were white dots in the black circle.   He thought that the dots resembled a person, like a star constellation, and that they were “really cool!”

He seemed to enjoy chewing on the necklace absent-mindedly whilst watching tv on Monday afternoon.

The real test came yesterday when he wore the necklace to school.

I am pleased to say that The Boy said he had “a great day” at school.  “I didn’t chew my shirt at all today mummy, I just chewed on my necklace!”   I asked if anyone asked him about his necklace, and he said that one kid did, but The Boy just answered matter-of-factly that it was his chewy necklace.  Nothing more was said about it.

This morning The Boy took his necklace into the bathroom to wash it before putting it on for school.   He is very happy to wear it and use it.   And he looks damn cool wearing it too!

I am interested to know how The Boy goes with the necklace when he is in distress.

The only thing I wish was different with the necklace was that I should have ordered it with the 20cm lanyard rather than the 18cm lanyard.  Although it fits it seems a bit short on The Boy.

Thanks Chewelry for making cool, socially acceptable chewy necklaces.

I also discovered that the necklaces are available from an Australian company Special Needs Toys Australia for AU$19.50.  Shipping to regional VIC for one necklace works out to $5.95, so total shipped price is AU$25.45.