This story was originally published on July 23, 2019 in NYT Parenting.

The first thing Danielle Morin saw when she arrived to pick up her 18-month-old son, Deacon, from his at-home day care were the fire trucks. “I sent him to day care just like any other day,” Morin said. “I did not know the nightmare that was ahead.”

When she approached the Fontana, Calif., nursery that day in 2016, the firefighters and day care workers informed her that her son had been found unconscious and was rushed to the hospital. As Morin made her way to the emergency room, she learned that while Deacon was napping, he’d been strangled by a string of smooth, golden-brown beads he’d been wearing around his neck to relieve teething pain.

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“The day care proceeded to tell me it was because of his necklace that got wrapped around his neck during his nap and that it was my fault,” Morin said. Deacon was pronounced dead in the hospital five days later.

When amber teething necklaces first started popping up in parenting circles about a decade ago, they were most popular among homeopathic and New Age-leaning types. But now, thanks in part to their appeal among some celebrities and their widespread availability, this decidedly crunchy fad has seeped into the mainstream. Children’s stores, boutiques, big box stores like Walmart and online retailers like Etsy and Amazon sell various versions of the jewelry.