Relief for imminent teeth (Tommee Tippee Icy Bite Keys)

Member Name: pingucb

Product:	Tommee Tippee Icy Bite Keys
Date:	23/10/08 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Calming effect on fractious baby, cooling gel centre, easy for baby to hold

Disadvantages: Difficult for baby to manipulate

I've been told that some babies can get through teething with no fuss whatsoever, but unfortunately our daughter doesn't appear to be one of them. For several weeks now our lovely little girl has spent part of every day, usually in the early evening, crying inconsolably, 'chewing' on everything she can get hold of and dribbling like a leaky tap. Dentinox was (and still is) useful, but unfortunately has only a temporary effect and didn't resolve her desire to chew. She was helped for a while by a hard plastic teether that was designed for babies whose teeth hadn't appeared yet, but just recently we found that even this wasn't able to calm her down.

The Icy Bite Keys consist of a brightly coloured, hard plastic 'key ring' with three 'keys' which have softer, almost rubbery plastic ends. It's designed to be placed in the fridge to cool, as biting on the cool plastic should give relief to sore little gums. According to the manufacturer, the rubbery bit of the key contains a gel, which stays cool longer than other, water-filled teethers on the market. In practice, we've never used one of the water filled teethers, but this gel one does stay cool for some time and although I've not timed it, I would say it feels just as cool after about 20-30 minutes as when it first came out of the fridge. The keys can be washed with warm soapy water, or are also suitable for sterilization if desired.

The Tommee Tippee Icy Bite Keys are a Stage 2 teether, designed for use when teeth are starting to appear. As our daughter had no visible indication of imminent teeth, I was initially sceptical about buying it. It didn't look that different to what she already had in terms of the surface to bite on, and I couldn't see how this would help her when her existing teether was no longer working. I similarly wasn't convinced that a cooled surface would have much of a different effect to biting on standard plastic. As it was just £3.99 from Mothercare, I decided it was worth a try, especially if there was a chance it would calm our daughter down in the evenings.

In practice, the keys have made a huge difference - after just a few days of using them in the evenings, our daughter started showing great excitement whenever she saw the keys, as she seemingly knew that they would give her some relief. She will happily sit and 'chew' on the keys for 20-30 minutes, when nothing else has been able to calm her down. The downside of this, is that one of us has to hold them near her mouth for her, as she's not yet able to hold the keys and put them in her mouth independently. Although she can hold the keys or keyring section easily, and wave them around, she doesn't have the dexterity to put them in her mouth correctly. Left to her own devices, she tends to end up chewing on the keyring part, which doesn't contain the cooling and relieving gel, and she quickly gets annoyed. It would require quite fine motor control (much finer than any 1 year old, let alone a 5 month old) to consistently separate one of the three keys and guide it into the mouth, so it's not really a sensible teether for fully independent use. In contrast, our daughter could put her Stage 1 teether to her own mouth quite easily, as the whole surface was designed for chewing.

Since using the teether, our daughter's first teeth have started to become visible just below the gums and we're expecting the first one to erupt any day now. The packaging for this product suggests use only after teeth have started to appear. However, in our experience, it's been useful sometime before that stage. Having initially been sceptical about whether this product would offer anything different to a hard plastic teether, I'm now convinced of the benefits of the cooling gel to give relief to sore gums. However, I disagree that this is a product purely for use once teeth have erupted, as it has proved useful for our daughter in the time preceding this first tooth appearance.

Overall I would recommend this product as a good option for a teething baby that wants to chew, but isn't satisfied by simple solid plastic. It has the benefit of also being an interesting toy, so should continue to hold our daughter's interest even when she's outgrown it as an aid to teething. However, the manufacturer's recommendation to use it after first teeth have erupted should be taken as a guideline only, as this product may be useful before this stage.

POSITIVES
Relatively inexpensive when compared to the benefits
Holds interest of small babies
Easy for babies to hold onto
Cools and stays cool

NEGATIVES
Difficult for babies to manipulate into their mouth correctly
Have to remember to put it back in the fridge
Useful before the stage recommended on the packaging

Summary: A gret teether for babies who are just geting first teeth and the run up to this.