Mother Uses Son’s Teething As Business Inspiration
A mother of two from Dundee has successfully launched a business, inspired by her experiences of teething; Jenny McLaughlan decided to develop a new product when her son, Miller, started to chew everything in sight when he was teething.
Jenny, 37, left a job in pharmaceutical sales to launch the new product, which is designed to provide children with a safe teething toy. Jenny decided to launch the business when her son Miller started to chomp on everything around him. Jenny said that it was a nightmare and she would never leave the house without a teething ring on her when Miller was teething. After her experiences, she decided that it would be beneficial to design a new product, which looked good and enabled children to bite down on a toy without any risks to their health or safety.
Jenny developed Gumigem, a teething toy, which looks like jewellery, and she now counts a host of celebrities, including Sienna Miller and Colleen Rooney, among her clients.
She knew that it was a gamble to leave her job, but the flexibility of running her own business allows her to spend more time with her kids and demand for the product is increasing at a rapid pace.
Gumigem is a range of teething toys, which are worn in the same way as pieces of jewellery, such as pendants and bracelets; they are made from non-toxic silicone and they can be sterilised or washed in a dishwasher.
The product has been a huge success and Jenny and her husband, Stuart, have both left their jobs to focus all their time and effort on the venture. The teething jewels have become a firm favourite with celebrity mums and the products have recently been approved by leading Scottish dentist, David MacPherson.
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