What I wanted to say is that Sophie is designed like a dog toy for the same
reason it's designed for dogs, which is that it feels good in the mouth to have
a firm but soft toy with a giving surface. We have hard teethers and while Theo
likes those as well it doesn't provide the same texture and springy feeling of
rubber. He keeps returning again and again to Sophie. The feeling of a firm but
springy chewing toy is different than a hard teether or stuffed animal. There
are other rubber and rubber-like (silicone, for example) teethers on the market,
but as far as that goes, it really depends on what you'd prefer to have in your
child's mouth. Since Theo clearly prefers this type of teether, I feel better
letting him chew on something that I know is safe and non-toxic and made in a
country with very stringent requirements for children's toys. The lead
incidences recently really opened my eyes to something I never thought was a
danger, and it was even found in toys from major American toy manufacturers.
With Sophie I know where she's made and what she's made of, and that there are
no toxic chemicals. Yes, she is expensive, but I'd much rather have that in his
mouth than a toy where I don't know really how it was made and if it passed the
same standards. We only learned about the lead problem after the fact.
With regard to actual dog toys, I implore people to think twice about
allowing your baby to chew on one. There are minimal (or basically no) standards
for what goes into a dog toy, and some packages explicitly say they are not for
human consumption. Additionally, the rubber is much thinner and a child with
teeth could easily chew off a piece and choke (Sophie is very thick rubber and
when I gnawed on it myself, I didn't make a dent). I'm not saying that everyone
needs to buy Sophie, but I really would recommend that people NOT buy an actual
dog toy.
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