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Amber Beads, WTF?


peterbound

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So, two of my sisters have toddlers. One is freaking overly obsessed with all the whacky new age bullshit that seems to be floating around in mom's forums.  Beads, BoB's, antivax, you name it, she's doing it.  The other, is a little more grounded.  The hippy one's kid is a fucking terror, 3 years old, still got a pacifier, still on the teat, still shitting his pants, and still wears these fucking amber beads.  She is trying to convince my other sister, the sane one, that she needs to invest in that shit.  I can't find any data, study, or paper to validate the claims the amber industry puts out with these things.  Chakra alignment?  What the fuck?  Anyone have any experience with this type of nonsense?  Dylan was not exposed to that stuff, either because we were too young to know any better, or because it wasn't around, but I don't want my sane sister to walk down this road of judgey insane mothers that seem to populate the world today. 

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If the amber beads make the child feel happy, especially when not with the mom, then (IMO) they serve their purpose.  My son used to take a smokey quartz crystal to daycare with him (because it was mine and made him think of me, and he really did not like where he was.  He stopped carrying it when he went to a daycare he loved)

I like a lot of the new age stuff, but in a "feel good" way, not a religious one. kind of like a placebo effect, really, so as long as it is not substituted for real medicine, I see nothing wrong with it.

But I have to agree 100% with polishgenius, the antivax thing is way more scary!

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Never heard of these.  Sounds like that's a good thing. 

But like Lany, if my children find it easier to go into a place with something from home,  so be it. The first week of Kindergarten was a little tough for Little Jax until we agreed he could have something from home in his backpack. It never leaves the backpack, but he's flourished since.

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As much as I am laughing about the opening post, we should probably turn this thread into "let's expose Peterbound's privilege and hate him for it".  You know what I am talking about.  He gets the opportunity to be the coolest fucking uncle on the face of the earth:  The firefighter uncle.  This is the best kind of uncle, period.  Whenever I visit my family, I take my kids to the firehouse when my brother is working.  And let me tell you, my kids get so hopped up on this experience, it's like they went to Disneyworld or something.

They sit in firetrucks, spray the hose, turn on sirens, all that fun and awesome shit.  He even takes the little bastards down the fire pole with him.  They get so into it that there is nothing on earth I can do that comes close.  Last year I took his kid into work with me.  I thought I might be the cool uncle if I could have her do neat stuff.  So I have her help me with a surgery and you know what happened??  She fucking passed out.  I made her drop like a sack of potatoes, big bruise on her head and everything.

What else can your sister do to compete with a damned firefighter uncle??  You make up some mystical magical bullshit, that's what you do.  

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Amber is aged tree sap. You can proceed to make educated guess as to its healing and calming properties, i.e., none. But, if there's a placebo effect like Lany described, there's no harm in using it per se, other than encouraging superstition, perhaps.

Might as well smear the kid in fresh amber from maple trees, i.e. maple syrup. I mean, fresh organic things are better than aged processed material, amiright?

No, leave amber to mad scientists planning to revive dinosaurs, I say.

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Amber is aged tree sap. You can proceed to make educated guess as to its healing and calming properties, i.e., none. But, if there's a placebo effect like Lany described, there's no harm in using it per se, other than encouraging superstition, perhaps.

And, you know, the choking hazard.

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You'll never find any data because it's such obvious bullshit.

 

That said, I'd be far more concerned about the antivax than the amber beads.

I guess at least people aren't claiming magical properties, but it looks like the science is untested both from an efficacy and safety perspective. 

OP: Why not use your own family as a low power controlled trial. What is the teething experience of the sister's kids who don't wear the beads like compared to the teething experience of the sister's kids who do wear the beads? If there is a material difference in the teething experience to the benefit of the kids who did wear beads then one possible reason could be the beads. Though there are also many other more likely reasons, the main one being individual variation. Hence the little experiment being very low power.

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Amber is aged tree sap. You can proceed to make educated guess as to its healing and calming properties, i.e., none. But, if there's a placebo effect like Lany described, there's no harm in using it per se, other than encouraging superstition, perhaps.

Might as well smear the kid in fresh amber from maple trees, i.e. maple syrup. I mean, fresh organic things are better than aged processed material, amiright?

No, leave amber to mad scientists planning to revive dinosaurs, I say.

Pretty much what we do in Canada

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As much as I am laughing about the opening post, we should probably turn this thread into "let's expose Peterbound's privilege and hate him for it".  You know what I am talking about.  He gets the opportunity to be the coolest fucking uncle on the face of the earth:  The firefighter uncle.  This is the best kind of uncle, period.  Whenever I visit my family, I take my kids to the firehouse when my brother is working.  And let me tell you, my kids get so hopped up on this experience, it's like they went to Disneyworld or something.

They sit in firetrucks, spray the hose, turn on sirens, all that fun and awesome shit.  He even takes the little bastards down the fire pole with him.  They get so into it that there is nothing on earth I can do that comes close.  Last year I took his kid into work with me.  I thought I might be the cool uncle if I could have her do neat stuff.  So I have her help me with a surgery and you know what happened??  She fucking passed out.  I made her drop like a sack of potatoes, big bruise on her head and everything.

What else can your sister do to compete with a damned firefighter uncle??  You make up some mystical magical bullshit, that's what you do.  

Ha, this post made my day.  

 

I do have a pretty neat job, and the kids dig it, but my nephew's dad (the one with the creepy hippy mom) is a Green Beret, so it's kinda hard to compete with that one.  At this point in his life he has no fucking clue what that means though, so I'm still the cool one. 

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If the amber beads make the child feel happy, especially when not with the mom, then (IMO) they serve their purpose.  My son used to take a smokey quartz crystal to daycare with him (because it was mine and made him think of me, and he really did not like where he was.  He stopped carrying it when he went to a daycare he loved)

I like a lot of the new age stuff, but in a "feel good" way, not a religious one. kind of like a placebo effect, really, so as long as it is not substituted for real medicine, I see nothing wrong with it.

But I have to agree 100% with polishgenius, the antivax thing is way more scary!

I get that, I do.  Dylan had a toy panda bear he wouldn't go anywhere without.  I'm not sure the kids have any attachment with these things though, and i'm pretty sure they are being used for whatever magical property they are said to have, not some sort of security blanket. 

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I get that, I do.  Dylan had a toy panda bear he wouldn't go anywhere without.  I'm not sure the kids have any attachment with these things though, and i'm pretty sure they are being used for whatever magical property they are said to have, not some sort of security blanket. 

That's kind of sad, really.  I like to think I am a practical person, and while I do a lot of the "new age" stuff, it is always tempered with reality. (in otherwords, I don't expect magic, just like I don't expect prayers to make wishes come true, but both can make a person feel a little better and a little less hopeless)

 

Still, that antivax shit aught to be what it really upsetting you!

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I am crunchy as fuck. I breastfeed, co-sleep, baby led wean and babywear. A worrying number of my friends se m to believe in this Baltic Amber shit. I bite my tongue a lot. The "theory" is that the Baltic Amber transmits some sort of anti inflammatory painkiller to help the child with teething. My sil "uses" it too. I'm slightly concerned that they are a choking hazard as used on babies but people say they are strongly knotted, so I let it go and say nothing. On balance, it's fairly harmless.

I see nothing wrong with a three year old still nursing. The WHO recommends breastfeeding til at least two. There are no negatives associated with breastfeeding. The child will wean eventually.

 

Anti vax is bullshit and should be trodden on strongly. Yes there is a chance of vaccine injury but there is a much bigger and more worrying chance of contracting a preventable serious disease or passing it on to an immunocompromised person. If you are going to object to anything, that's where you should target.

 

As a parent, you are always going to disagree with some decisions made by others. If it's not actively harmful, try to let it go.

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