Hello, and welcome to In My Bag! My name is Jenn, and this is my product review blog. 
Earlier this summer Chewelry, a Canadian-based company, reached out to me to tell me about Kid Companion, which is chewable jewelry designed for children with special needs and sensory issues to be able to safely wear and chew on. As anyone with a sensory-disrupted child can tell you, a lot of different household items — many of which are non-edible and definitely not safe to be ingested — wind up being used as “chewies”. My four year old son, Ryan, is autistic, and from the time he was ten or so months old has been mouthing, chewing and biting all sorts of objects. Everything from tubes of diaper rash ointment, tubes of toothpaste, toothbrushes, shower curtain rings, paper, stickers, television remotes, spatulas and lip balms have fallen prey to his need to mouth items. Last fall his need to chew/mouth items and associated PICA got so bad that he had several bowel obstructions that required prescription-strength suppositories, laxatives and stool softeners to resolve!
Unlike those and many other of the items that special-needs children tend to gravitate towards, the Kid Companion is completely safe for mouthing. The Kid Companion is a pendant that is suspended from a simple breakaway lanyard (available in both cotton/rayon and undyed cotton). The lanyard allows your child to keep the pendant close at hand, without the risk of it being lost or misplaced. The pendant itself is made out of Thermo-Plastic Elastomer (TPE), which is non-toxic, durable, and dishwasher safe. The material is FDA-approved, and is also of the highest medical grade. Better still, the Kid Companion contains no BPA, PVC, phthalates, latex, or lead — good to know, seeing as how most kids will have their mouths all over these chewable items!
For a child with autism, sensory processing disorders, ADHD or other special needs, the Kid Companion is a wonderful tool. It’s safe and effective, and its malleable material makes it ideal for those children who love to chew on things.
We received two Kid Companions — one circle-shaped, one heart-shaped (both blue), as well as both styles of lanyards. They just arrived yesterday, which is why this is an upcoming review rather than a full-fledged one, but I am very confident that Ryan will take to them right away. Even though he’s four, we still have issues with him chewing on inappropriate objects (more recently he has been going after my cell phone and our PS3 controllers, eek!), so I’m looking forward to providing him with something that is made to be chewed on.
As you can see, Ryan is definitely off to a good start:
Thanks Jenn, Glad you received our Kid Companions and I am looking forward to finding out how your son will like them. Love the way you describe. Lorna