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Is chewing on sleeves, pencils or hair recognizable? Are you also fed up with the fact that holes regularly appear in the clothes or the building blocks are chewed to pieces? Are you wondering what you can do and whether a bite chain can offer a solution? This article discusses the most frequently asked questions about bite chains.
Chewing can be compared to thumbing. Young children keep their fingers crossed to calm themselves, to feel comfortable. Chewing, fidgeting, and wiggling have the same effect. As a result, it is not desirable to prohibit thumbing or biting. After all, your child can regulate and relax partly through this. It is better to find out at what times the chewing, thumbing and nail biting occurs. And offer alternatives for this such as a bite chain.
Continue reading Why do children chew on pencils, toys or clothes
You may already understand a bit about the function of chewing. Maybe your child bites his or her sleeve out of tension or sucks on his sleeve out of boredom, because otherwise he or she cannot pay attention in class (dreams away, for example). Knowing this, you may now be considering whether a chewing piece of jewelry is a good choice.
In this article, I will explain the usefulness and importance of using a bite chain.
Since I started selling Chewigem chewing jewelry in the Benelux in 2013, there were few to no other brands. The chew chains from Chewigem were unique because there were only real products for babies in the form of teething toys or teething jewelry for mothers to wear that little ones could fidget and suck on.
However, there are now many more chewing chains on the market and unfortunately not all of them meet European safety standards.
The cheap chew jewelry that is available online often does not sufficiently comply with European legislation regarding safety.
Safe jewelry to bite on, such as the chew chains of the brands Chewigem and Ark Therapeutic , have been extensively tested. They are made of medical grade and food grade silicone. They are free from BPA, PVC, Lead, Phthalate and Latex.
Unfortunately, we see that the above claims are also used by the cheap chew chain, but come directly from China (alibaba and similar sites). These products have most likely not been tested on the actual materials used when imported into Europe.
Chewing chains and chewing materials must meet certain basic dimensions if it is safe to put them in the mouth and not choke on them.
Unfortunately, I still see all too often homemade teething jewelry consisting of beads strung on a cord. Very dangerous, you don’t want to imagine what could happen if the cord is bitten and a bead shoots into the throat. That is why when a piece of jewelry is made of beads, it must be carefully knotted on both sides of the bead. And the safety requirements are becoming stricter, it is expected that even that will not be allowed in a while.
There are many different brands of bite chains on the market. As you have read, not all chewing jewelry meets the required European safety requirements and the claims are dubious.
In our range you will find the following 2 brands that do meet the safety requirements:
Read more about the Chewigem Chew Chains
Read more about the Ark Therapeutic Chewing Jewelry
Chew jewelry for children and adults is available in different strengths. When choosing a chew chain for your child, it is useful to know a little more about the differences between the various chew chains.
Chewigem has designed different bite chains for the various strengths. For example, the Dog Tag is suitable for light chewing needs (so it is least strong) and the Button is suitable for strong chewing needs (so it is firmest).
Ark Therapeutic links the different strengths to each form of chewing chain. They therefore choose to attach the strength to a color for each bite chain. This is sometimes difficult when your child loves blue and the blue one is not available in the strongest variant. On the other hand, if your child loves a certain pattern, then there is always one that is firm or soft enough for your child.
Of course, in the choice of bite chains, there are clear shapes and patterns that are loved by the girls. In this article, we have listed the best girls’ chew jewelry for you.
View the cutest girls’ chew jewelry here
Boys like to wear cool bite chains. Think of a skull or a Dino chewing chain. We have also listed our coolest ones for the boys.
View the best chew jewelry for boys here
For adults who like to chew discreetly, there are several solutions. How about a pencil or pen topper. A case that you slide over your pencil/pen where you can safely rest your teeth.
But there are also trendy bracelets and fashionable design chewing jewelry for women. For people with a mental disability or demented elderly people with a chewing need, you can choose from a striking or a discreet chewing jewelry.
Read more about chew jewelry for adults here
You probably started reading this article because you would like an alternative to your child chewing on unsafe materials. You understand that chewing can help you feel comfortable and intend to buy a chewing chain.
But how to make a good choice? To make the right choice in the wide range of chewing jewelry, it is important to gain insight into the method of chewing and the intensity/frequency of chewing. This is further clarified below.
First of all, it is important to see what kind of chewer your child is. Chew your child with front teeth or molars. Does your child prefer to put the material all the way in the mouth or just a piece?
Chewing with molars -> choose a longer and narrower chewing piece of jewelry that reaches to the back of the mouth, such as the well-known chewing chain or boardblocks.
Chew in the front of the mouth -> choose a wider chew piece such as the chew chainSmiley or the eternity
Is your child a sucker, a chewing gum chewer or a real rodent, who scrapes with the front teeth or pulls pieces loose?
Knager -> then choose a sturdy bite chain with round shapes such as the eternity, the Smiley or the Super Star (this one in the sturdiest version).
Chewing gum Chewer -> Choose a chewing jewelry for medium chewing needs. Your child will like the softer designs, but damage them too quickly.
Sabbelaar -> Choice of all chew jewelry. However, children often like the softer chewing chains the best. So the Chewigem Cat, Chew Chain Dog Tag and Skull and from Ark will suffice all designs for average chewing needs. Although they are less soft and flexible than the aforementioned chewing chains.
With the above advice, you will have a clearer idea of which chewing jewelry may be suitable for your child or yourself.
Also read our tips for choosing a suitable Chewigem chewing jewelry here.
A chew chain offers a safe and cool alternative for children who bite their nails, chew their thumbs/suck on clothes or pens. But in addition to offering a bite chain, there are other alternatives that you can use throughout the day to meet your child’s chewing needs.
How about chewing old-fashioned licorice. It is literally a sweetener. Or let your child drink thicker liquid through a straw or play a blow game.
Read our article with more tips for chewing needs here
A chew chain or teething toy can also be used very well for children and adults who like to fidget.
Read more about tactile stimulus processing here.
When choosing a piece of chewing jewelry that is suitable for fidgeters, a few points are important. The bite chain must be somewhat flexible and still textured for extra stimuli. An example of this is the Cat chewing chain, but the heart biting chainis also nice, as the heart can be pushed in. And also think of the cubes of chewing chain with studs.
Looking at our other chewing materials and teething toys, the following products, among others, offer many fidgeting possibilities:
