30/09/2025
Bear with me; this is a difficult post to write.
I promised you all I'd be making teats and dummies again this year, and bought 20 litres of latex a few weeks ago to achieve this goal, but the latex is too thick and has bubbles in it and they won't settle and pop out.
I have $420 worth of latex which I can't use at the moment (if ever). Now I've opened the bucket it needs to be used or I just write off $400ish plus the cost of the colouring already mixed in.
I tried to make them before I went away 2 weeks ago, then the bubbles issue came up, so I left them to settle while I was away.
Since returning the issue remains unfixed; I have tried diluting altering the thickness, but it's not working. I make test teats every day and spend hours mixing up the latex but it's still not working.
I don't know what the issue is, or if I've just gone mad and forgotten my recipe, or if the latex is different, but in 15 years I've never had issues like this and I use the same latex and same colouring every year.
The company is looking into the issues with this latex and may refund me, but in order to make more teats I have to buy more latex till they decide if they'll refund the money (and the 20 litre bucket will still go to waste)
It has got to the stage where I dread seeing how the next batch works out; I don't want to get up in the mornings and I'm running out of buckets to dilute and remix.
I'm also stressed by all the orders pouring in, which I can't fill.
So I've decided to not stress myself over this (well, I'm pretending I'm not stressed by it but I really am).
I'm taking a few days away from it all (everything) and then I will decide if I can make teats this year or I need to just reduce stress and give this year a miss, and waste the latex. I hate wasting things so I'm torn in every direction.
So, for all the people who have ordered, I'm sorry, in the short term I can't fill your orders. If the samples turn out OK and the company replaces my latex, I'll think about what I'm going to do next week, but in the interim I'm feeling incredibly pressured and it's too much for me.
Add into it all some serious computer issues over the last month, the fixing of which requires me to learn new software in a hurry (and I'm not good at that).
I need to take a break for my mental wellbeing at this stage and I might just need to not make teats this year.
I'll figure out what I'm going to do next week and IF I'll continue making the teats for the year.
I get it that this might leave some of you in the lurch, for which I regret and apologise.
You should be able to buy teats and dummies from other providers.
Please don't ask questions on this post; I won't see it because I don't get notifications.
I'll put up another post next week with my decision.
Meg
PS, I really wish the teats in the pic were this year's teats, but they're from a year or 2 back.
Let's hope I sort out the latex issues after a few days away from it. M
