It starts with a belly casting kit. As a mom-to-be, you can't seem to help yourself. You want to preserve every moment of that miracle. So, after your baby is born, you move on to plaster handprints and bronzed baby shoes.
But nostalgic parents just took preserving these milestones to a totally different level with baby teeth jewelry. That's right: wearing a mold of your child's lost tooth around your neck.
According to ABC News, Jackie Kaufman sells these creations on her Etsy store, Rock My World, and she's had about 100 orders so far. Necklaces are $64.99 and $74.99.
Once your kid loses her tooth, you just send that pearly white to Kaufman, and she makes a sterling-silver mold. She can make multiple molds of the same tooth if you want to give one to dad, grandma, etc. You'll get the tooth back along with the necklace, according to her page.
Over at Etsy page Tiny Tooth Pendants, Lisa Abbate in California uses your baby's actual tooth to create a piece of jewelry – and these pieces sell for $20 to $65.
These ladies are just two of the artists who have started selling these accessories, which just might be the kookiest thing since breast-milk jewelry – which you can also purchase from several vendors on Etsy.
The blogosphere is buzzing – with disgust and confusion, mostly – over this new trend in baby keepsakes.
On BabyCenter.com, commenter Jak says, "I love my kids and proudly wear their birthstones, but I don't want to actually wear a discarded piece of their bodies. This is less weird than placenta jewelry, but it's in the same general category. When my DD gets her period, I won't be bronzing her first dirty tampon either."
And commenter Emily S agrees: "I understand wanting to preserve memories of your baby and having physical mementos of their childhood. But this idea is equally macabre and disgusting," she says on Yahoo.com.
We just want to know one thing: What does the Tooth Fairy have to say about this?
