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Jennifer Kissane went investigating her son’s teething toy, Sophie the Giraffe, amid claims the product contains mould. It didn’t end well for Sophie…
ALL mommies have more than likely read or heard the recent warnings across social media and in the print media about Sophie the Giraffe, the popular teething toy for babies.
Sophie the Giraffe is a very popular toy, world wide for teething infants, that rose to fame due to being marketed as eco- friendly.
Sophie the Giraffe in happier times.
Sophie the giraffe is unfortunately in the media at present, with the warning that mould has been found inside these toys.
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It may not be particularly harmful but is alarming when found in the toy, that your baby is of course putting into their mouths! (please consult a medical professional for advice if you need).
I, like many households, have this toy and I was getting a little anxious looking at it and not knowing if it was OK to give to the baby, so I began to investigate.
I read one article that said they could smell the mould.
I couldn’t smell anything at all and I have sterilised the toys along with everything else so I was feeling that would have killed anything anyway, so perhaps our Sophie was OK.
Curiosity got the better of me, (safely spurred on by the fact that I have a spare Sophie), so I cut off the head, and there it was – dark patches of mould.
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Mould found inside the head of Jennifer’s Sophie…
I then cut through the rest of the toy and it too is full of mould. Not something you want to see, at the best of times, but definitely not in your babies teething toy!
…and more found inside.
Sophie has met a sad end I’m afraid, but I’m glad to have found it now rather than later.
No doubt the manufacturers of Sophie the Giraffe, Vuilli, will be inundated. The manufacturers can be found at http://www.vulli.fr/en/
• Jennifer Kissane is mommy to Fionn aged six months and stepmom to Jordan aged 13
Sadly, many eco-friendly products harbour harmful microbe growth of various kinds, as they don’t contain the substances otherwise used to kill them. Don’t forget, this was why makers began using non-eco-friendly additives and/or treatments in the first place! So a lot of eco-friendly stuff needs to be checked for spores, moulds, bacteria and so on. Unfortunately we will hardly be allowed to cut things open before we buy them — and not all microbes are as visible as black mould. Dilemma! I suppose googling for safety tests is the best we can do. And checking who did the tests and who put their reports online.