Original Teether

Matchstick Monkey's Original Teether is a food-grade silicone toy shaped like a monkey with a long, textured tail/handle, designed so a caregiver can hold the "body" end and use the textured tip to massage a baby's gums directly — including the back molars that are hardest to reach with a toy a baby just chews on its own. It also doubles as a teething-gel applicator, since the bumpy silicone tip can carry and work gel (such as Dentinox) into the gum line rather than relying on a fingertip or cotton bud.

Compared with Sophie la Girafe, which is a squeaky natural-rubber toy babies mostly self-direct, the Matchstick Monkey is more of a two-person tool in its first months of use — a parent guides it — before it becomes a self-held chew toy as grip develops. That's a different use case to the Nuby mitten, which is worn on the baby's own hand for fully independent, unsupervised gnawing, or the Nuby Ice Gel Teether Ring, which relies on cold-filled gel for numbing relief rather than texture and massage. The silicone is plain (not gel- or water-filled), so there's nothing to leak or puncture, and Matchstick Monkey's marketing highlights an antimicrobial surface treatment (Biocote), though independent verification of any added hygiene benefit over normal cleaning is limited.

At around £10-£11 it sits above Sophie la Girafe and the Nuby options in price, and it lacks the fridge/freezer cooling relief that keys-style gel teethers (like the Nuby ring) provide — some parents find plain silicone alone less effective for the sharpest teething pain without that chilled numbing effect. It's dishwasher-safe and can be sterilised by steam, cold water or microwave, which is more convenient than the Sophie la Girafe rubber toy (hand-wash only, no steriliser or dishwasher). Overall this is best suited to parents who want a toy they can actively use to relieve a specific sore spot, or apply gel with, rather than one purely for independent chewing.