This article was originally published in December 2025 to the shop.autisticinnovator.com store blog. It was inspired by a week long rage I felt when I learned dangerous products and lies were being sold to us, so I turned my rage into educating us all with this article.
Updated May 12, 2026 – New how to tell if a chew is silicone or not section added.
June 3, 2026 – The Autistic Innovator® is officially a registered trademark in the chew necklace category.
I want to give you a safety warning, so you know what types of chew necklaces to avoid.
Not all chew necklaces, chewelry, and handheld chews are created equal, and some have a great safety risk with a high risk for choking, and I want to make sure you know what types of chewelry to avoid so you stay safe.
Beaded Chew Necklaces & Chewelry:
The silicone beads that make up a beaded chew necklace (also known as beaded chewelry) are actually baby teething beads, and are NOT meant for chewing.
Baby teethers are much softer to be gentle on baby gums, but an adult and older kid has a much stronger jaw and these silicone teethers will break extremely fast under pressure.
The beads are a high risk for splitting in half, falling off the necklace string, and causing choking, and choking can lead to bad things I don’t want happening to you. You must stay safe.
These silicone baby teething beads are dangerous for babies too.
The American Academy of Pediatrics warned the FDA found teething beads pose significant danger to infants and toddlers.
If these beads aren’t even safe for the babies they were created for, they are most definitely not safe for you!
The clasps on the necklace strings can break and the beads can lead to many choking hazards while you are chewing.
If someone is alone chewing on the silicone beads and chokes, the end result would be tragic and entirely preventable.
Stay away from these types of necklaces, and do not give them to babies, children, teenagers, and adults. It is a significant risk to your life. Stay safe!
Beaded Chew Necklaces and Beaded Chewelry may look pretty and look like a regular necklace, but it is not safe for you at all.
Hollow Tube Chew Necklaces & Handheld Hollow Tube Stick Chews:
Any type of chew that is hollow inside is extremely unsafe. Hollow chews are most often called Tube Chews.
There is no resistance in the middle, and the hollow tube pendant and hollow tube handheld chew will break extremely quickly creating a high risk for choking.
When biting down hard on a hollow tube chew, the chunks, pieces, and silicone flakes that break off are a significant risk to your safety.
If you are chewing a chew pendant or handheld chew, and flakes of silicone or other materials start coming off the pendant and handheld chew, or it starts cracking, immediately stop chewing it and throw it away.
It is incredibly important that you stay safe.
Fabric Chew Necklaces & Chewelry:
When I learned these braided fabric chew necklaces and fabric chewelry existed, I was shocked something so dangerous would be sold as a chewing necklace, especially because these dangerous fabric chews are often sold as chewing necklaces for autism.
Fabric easily shreds, especially under the the strength of a human bite force, and this will quickly cause shreds of string and fabric to come off while chewing. This is a massive choking hazard, because the fibers could be breathed in accidentally and get stuck in the throat.
These Fabric Chews are also unsanitary. With silicone chew pendants, you can easily clean and dry it because it’s water repellent, but with fabric, if it gets wet it will mildew quickly. Fabric chews can also quickly become a cesspool of bacteria.
If a chew product does not explicitly say it’s made with 100% silicone, do not chew on it! Silicone is the only safe material to chew.
Proper chew products need to be larger and solid silicone. When something is pure silicone, it will have a more rigid structure to provide enough resistance for a chewer’s bite strength force. Even if a pendant is thin and flexible (like the Leaf Chew Necklace & my proprietary Heart Chew Necklace), there is still the strength of silicone resistance when chewing on the pendant.
So please, for your own safety and wellbeing, do not chew on hollow handheld chews, hollow chew pendants, beaded chew necklaces & chewelry, fabric chew necklaces, and any other chew product not made with 100% silicone.
Why My Age Warning Is Crucial:
I find that 6 year old age limit is necessary for chewelry, even though I know many manufacturers of products with small parts, toys, and chew necklaces & chewelry list an age warning of not safe for children younger than 3 years old (which aligns with minimum government non-choking risk standards for general toys). I believe that at 5 years old, a child is still at high risk of swallowing broken pieces, and the necklace string itself can pose a risk if not used under constant adult supervision. If a chew necklace begins to crack or shed pieces of silicone, a 5 year old child might not know to stop chewing it because it has become dangerous to continue chewing broken chew necklaces, handheld chews, chew sticks, chew toys, and chewelry. The risk of a parent being unable to stop the 5 year old (and younger) child in time is too high. My 6 year old age limit is set for your child’s maximum safety and peace of mind.
My Personal Safety Testing Commitment:
I have personally tested and chewed on every chew necklace in this collection. This hands-on testing enables me to give you a precise account of the chew feel and resistance, ensuring I only offer products of the highest quality.
As an autistic person, I don’t just listen to the community; I live in it. My safety standards aren’t inspired by others. They are built from my own sensory needs and the physics-based importance of protecting everyone in our community.
Legal Disclaimer:
I do not have the legal right to claim safety, how indestructible it is, or suggest it as a sensory treatment, because all chew products need to be clinically tested in order for me to be able to claim a chew is safe.
I want you to get a full education in this article.
My Experience:
I can tell you my personal experiences thoroughly testing these chew necklaces.
All of the chew necklaces in this collection, including the Heart Chew Necklace I designed specifically for hard chewers, went through hours of my hard chewing so I’d know exactly how durable the necklace is, and what type of person the chew necklace is good for.
Transparency in Sourcing & Quality:
Quality Manufacturing: All my chew necklaces available in this collection, except for my Heart Chew Necklace, were designed by high-quality silicone manufacturers in China. The companies I partner with have very high safety standards and the specialized facilities needed to produce high-quality chew necklaces and chewelry.
The China Difference: Many people automatically view products from China as unsafe, but China is precisely where the highest quality, most specialized silicone manufacturing for chew necklaces is currently done.
My Heart Chew Necklace: My ‘Heart Chew Necklace’ was designed by me and manufactured in China using extremely strict safety standards. The final product is amazing, and I am very proud to put The Autistic Innovator name on it.
My Goal: My point of disclosing this is to give you full awareness of the products and demonstrate my dedication to your wellbeing through complete honesty.
The Truth About Durability and Structural Design:
There is no such thing as a blanket ‘safe chew necklace’ for everyone. What chew necklace and handheld chew may be safe for a medium or light chewer, that same chew can become a dangerous choking hazard to a hard chewer.
Good quality silicone matters, but the structural design of the chew matters more. Silicone can only last so long, so it all will wear down eventually, but the structural differences of each chew pendant is entirely what changes whether it can only handle a light chewer, withstand medium chewing, or last as long as possible for a hard chewer.
It is possible for silicone chew necklaces to withstand extreme chewers if the chew pendant has the right structure. My proprietary Heart Chew Necklace I personally designed, has gone through an extreme stress test by someone who is among the hardest of chewers, and after 3 days of brutal testing, the pendant looked like it was never chewed on. No signs of wear.
So keep the chew necklace structural integrity in mind when looking for a chew necklace that could be safer for you or your child 6+ years old.
For more information on the Structural Differences in Chew Necklace and how to identify durability yourself, check out The Truth About Chew Necklace Structure.
The Truth About Chew Necklace & Chewelry Care
While many say chew necklaces are top-rack dishwasher safe, my Material Integrity Audits show this is a dangerous marketing myth.
Dishwashers use extreme heat and abrasive detergents that lead to Material Fatigue. This process creates invisible micro-cracks in the silicone, destroying the Structural Integrity of the pendant. A chew that has been through the dishwasher may look clean, but its Bite-Force Resistance has been compromised. For a heavy chewer, this makes the tool brittle and prone to crumbling, which creates an immediate choking hazard.
The Gold Standard for Cleaning: To protect the life of your Chewelry & Chew Necklaces and ensure your safety, only hand-wash with mild soap and warm water. This preserves the silicone’s natural flexibility and ensures it remains solid and safe for high-intensity use. Avoid using harsh soaps, and opt for mild soaps only, or you can end up with a mouth full of soap residue. Silicone is water resistant, so even just rinsing your chew with clean water and dry with a clean towel can work as well.
The Truth About Chew Necklace Manufacturing:
When I began looking for a reliable manufacturer to make my Heart Chew Necklace design, I first searched for a chew necklace manufacturer in the United States.
What I uncovered at the time was the United States only had 7 silicone manufacturers. One imported their silicone from Germany, so out of the 6 that make their silicone in the United States, all but one only manufacture silicone for machine and auto parts. One manufacturer makes silicone for medical devices. I found chew necklace silicone is not made in the United States, so I looked for a manufacturer in China.
In order to produce silicone chew necklaces, it requires specialized manufacturing facilities that only China has. Chew necklaces are produced with injection molding, and requires stainless steel molds, high pressure, and extreme heat to get the silicone to form a chew necklace pendant.
This makes the silicone is solid all the way through. If an autistic and neurodivergent adult, teen, or 6+ years old child bites it with full force, the material is designed to resist tear.
The China facilities that produce chew pendants must remain sterile to keep the silicone clean and pure when making chew products.
It is impossible for chew products to be handmade and handcrafted.
China has been perfecting the art of manufacturing chew necklaces for decades.
The necklace strings used on all chew necklaces are also only manufactured in China.
When manufacturing the Heart Chew Necklace I designed, I was insistent the necklace string must be adjustable. It was difficult to source adjustable strings, but the manufacturer made it happen.
The Truth About the Chewelry Industry & 3D Printing
I couldn’t understand how there were so many chew necklaces flooding Google Shopping and Google searches that are impossible to make with silicone.
These chew necklaces also appear on the market incredibly fast, and that is literally impossible to do with silicone. It took half a year to make my Heart Chew Necklace starting from my hand drawn design, all the way to manufacturing and packaging, and shipping time.
For 1.5 years my Heart Chew Necklace was the only heart chew on the market, and once it started gaining traction in Google Shopping results, within 1 week the heart chew filters were suddenly flooded with so many heart chews, many stealing my Heart Chew Necklace name.
I thought maybe they are selling AI chew necklaces that don’t exist. It was the only way I could fathom how so many chews could be created in 1 week.
Many in the chew product industry announce entirely new collections of so many chews in only 1 to 4 weeks.
What I couldn’t figure out is all these chew brands say they manufacture in the USA, but their designs are designed by China. In order to make those designs with silicone, they can only be made in China, because that is where the stainless steel molds are created, and China silicone manufacturers are not going to sell their stainless steel molds.
I know this for a fact, because my curated chew necklaces come directly from the manufacturers who designed them all.
I finally figured out the chew cartel’s industry secret. They’re using 3D printing to make these AI hallucination chews, or stealing China’s designs by 3D printing what can only be manufactured in China.
3D Printing Materials
3D printing chew necklaces requires non-silicone materials to print them.
The trick is to say things like “chew safe materials” or “food grade materials”. The only safe material is silicone, and silicone made the right way, in sterile specialty silicone manufacturing facilities. Calling a chew made with “materials” is just a way of getting around saying 3D printed materials.
Chew “materials” could be made with Flexible Biocompatible Resins. The resins are engineered to be non-toxic, BPA-free, and flexible to mimic the softness of silicone. To use this material for oral use, it often requires FDA clearance for long term oral use. If the curing is incomplete, it will leave toxic monomers. Resins also degrade under sunlight and exposure to saliva.
There are also Medical-Grade Thermoplastics as possible materials.
Here are the other types of materials used in 3D printing.
- TPU – rubber-like plastic that offers a texture closer to a rubber dog chew toy. Standard TPU is not mouth safe. Medical-grade or food-grade TPU can be used.
- SLA/DLP – Flexible biocompatible resins. It is brittle and a high tendency to crack or shatter. If not perfectly cured, it will leave residual monomers and is toxic if ingested. When these resins fail, they fracture into sharp shards or small particles.
- PEEK – biocompatible polymers. PEEK is extremely durable, but it is hard and rigid, so less likely to be used as a chew material.
- PLA – biodegradable and food-safe. PLA is a brittle material and can degrade in saliva.
- PCL – biodegradable polyester that is flexible and can be molded by hand, and used in medical scaffolds.
- SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) Nylon – Medical-grade PA11 or PA12 is a powder fused by laser to create strong, flexible, orthopedic supports and prosthetics.
- PETG/PLA – PETG is food-safe and tough. PLA is biodegradable and very brittle. Both materials are so hard, they can cause teeth to crack, or the plastic to snap into sharp fragments.
3D printed parts have layer lines where bacteria can hide. When making medical-grade 3D printed parts, it must be polished, vapor-smoothed, or coated with a food-safe sealant to be hygienic.
3D printed resins/plastics tend to catastrophically fail, snap, and shatter into shards.
How to Know If a Chew is Made with Silicone or Not
Silicone is always dull, has a smooth feel even with texture, one solid matte color, and even when a chew is flexible, there is always a resistance when biting down. Silicone is not soft, and it’s not rock hard firm. It’s always just right.
When you see a chew that has shine to it, that is not silicone. The shine means it’s made from plastic. More specifically 3D printed plastic.
Chew products that are metallic colored, that is paint. Metallic chews are chewing directly on toxic paint.
I haven’t figured out what the wrinkly chew materials are yet, but I know that it’s impossible for silicone to be wrinkly.
Chew design with significant detail is also impossible for silicone. Silicone has limitations. It can only be made with raised tactile texture, and that is it. Fine lines and high details are impossible to manufacture with silicone.
Thin outline chews are impossible to make with silicone. The structure cannot hold.
AI hallucination chew products are a large portion of the industry. These AI hallucinations are often generated by AI to have plastic materials with impossible for silicone textures, and often times colors requiring toxic paint, like metallic paint.
I hope this helps you identify what is made properly with silicone.
About My Chew Collection & FDA Regulations
My chew necklace collection is in fact made with silicone, which I know for certain because I buy all of my chews from silicone manufacturers who make them.
I cannot label my chews food-grade or medical-grade, because that is illegal without FDA approval.
For a medical-grade material claim to be legal, it requires FDA registration, and has to follow medical device material laws.
If someone is claiming FDA-approved material without publicly displaying their FDA registration number, the FDA-approved materials claim is nothing more than a marketing gimmick.
Without a FDA registration and FDA approval to show the company is following FDA regulations for food-grade and medical-grade material, it’s nothing more than an unregulated illegal medical device claim.
FTC laws also regulate medical marketing fraud, and lying about those things can result in massive fines from the FTC.
All of this is not said just to self promote my own Chew Necklace Collection. It is my example to let you know that I am following the laws by not making illegal food-grade and medical-grade materials claims, and no illegal medical marketing claims.