"sodis" is the swiss acronym for filling a soda container with water then leaving it to sun for a few hours to create drinkable water. This awesome idea is aimed at developing worlders; the documentation [link] says it prevents diarrhea

I think a major source of developing world lethal diarrhea might be hand mouth contact as well as teething on soiled objects; grandiosely, there might be as many toddler lives saved with a teething chew object on a lanyard (kind of like soap on a rope) as from the water they drink.

this idea is as minimally complicated as possible but might reduce ground dirt contaminated hand to mouth activity muchly

I think flavored, or flavorable rubber or wood, would be effective.

I was chewing on rubber electrical cords or my shirtsleeves at age seven; it is possible developing worlders give their kids rags to chew on (yummy sleeves) a research project would be determine if natural fiber or polyester is better at minimizing germs; rag on a lanyard might minimize hand to mouth disease transmission

features:

possible absorptive core to minimize surface gooiness

if a lanyard is only with older kids then an around the chest with an armloop version might go with babies as toysrus has baby bikinis like that, just one armloop is sufficient to remove most hazards. The hazard difference between bib or lanyard shape are a puzzle
-- beanangel, Jun 20 2008

make drinkable water with a soda container http://www.sodis.ch...002/T-TheMethod.htm
Several health impact studies have been conducted in SODIS users’ communities. These assessments have shown that the health benefits of SODIS use are significant: diarrhoea incidence of SODIS users was reduced by 20 to 50%! Further health benefits are achieved by combining SODIS projects with hand washing programmes. [beanangel, Jun 20 2008]

So, Treon, what does the soda-bottle- sterilization business have to do with your teething device? Would I be correct in assuming "nothing whatsoever"?

So, turning to the unrelated idea of a teething device tethered to reduce contamination, it's an interesting idea. However, I suspect that the transmission of bugs from ground to teether to mouth is much less than from ground to hands to mouth. I may be wrong though.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 20 2008


"...diarrhoea incidence of SODIS users was reduced by 20 to 50%!"
Compared to what?
-- phoenix, Jun 20 2008


Kind of like putting a child's dummy on a cord around their neck?
-- david_scothern, Jun 23 2008



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