Vendor Biography

THE GUMMEE GLOVE STORY

Hi there!

My name is Jodine Boothby and I invented Gummee Glove, The World’s First Teething Mitten!!!

We now have a full range of teething products to cover the entire teething journey, all designed by the Gummee family here in Cornwall.

In June 2011, my little boy, Jimmy, was 10 weeks old when he started constantly gnawing on his hands. I was a little worried because he seemed a little frustrated and uncomfortable and was making the skin on his hands sore.

I started holding teething toys to his mouth, which seemed to bring him some relief.

I never dreamed he could be teething at such a young age, especially as he didn’t have the motor skills to hold a teether to his mouth yet. Do you know what we found out though? He DID have a tooth. A BACK TOOTH!

We took him to our dentist, who then sought a second opinion from another dentist, who said it was definitely a back tooth. He advised us that sometimes the teeth/bone can grow faster than the gum, but usually, the gum grows over the tooth and the tooth will then re-emerge at a later time. This is exactly what happened. So we had a reason for the constant hand chewing, but not a solution and I hated giving him medication at such a young age.

Of course, I did not mind holding traditional teething toys to his mouth, but you know what it’s like in those early days – you have so little time, a 5-minute shower can feel like a weekend at a luxury spa!

Sometimes I just NEEDED to be out of the breast milk, sweat-soaked t-shirt & have a shower and brush my teeth, knowing my little boy was happy for five minutes!

 One day, while changing Jimmy’s nappy, I looked up and noticed that he had pulled the end of his sock loose on his hand (I could not find effective ‘stay-on’ scratch mitts, hence socks on his hands) and he appeared to be really happy, chewing & slobbering over the end of this sock.

This was my light bulb moment. I was straight on Google, looking for teething mitten. They did not exist. Now they do!