Daily Mail August 2007
by Siobhan Gaffney

A mother-of -two has created the world’s first pre-sterilised soother….which should make life a little simpler for parents. Ann Marie Durkin from Longford invented the product, called Steri-Soother™, after realising it did not exist on the market.

So the enterprising mother set about developing her own while on maternity leave and now hte soothers are available in nearly 500 chemists nationwide. As every parent knows, says Ann Marie, babies want their soother any time, any place and anywhere. For the first time ever, she says, mums and dads can simply open the new pack and let baby be soothed without the 15-minute hassle of sterilising.

This new invention, she says is a ‘must-pack for the overnight hospital bag before baby arrives and is an ideal time- saver to have when out and about.’ Ann Marie hopes the new soother will give parents one less thing to worry about. And with two toddlers of her own, Ann Marie knows what she’s talking about.

‘The idea came to me when I was in hospital having my second child. There was so much work involved with a new baby i just thought a ready-sterilised soother would make life less stressful’ said Ann Marie.

Both Ann Marie’s children, two-year-old Sam and eight-month-old Benjamin were premature babies so the sterilisation of soothers is very important to her.

‘It is almost two years since I had Sam. He was crying and I had to give him a soother. We bought him one and was about to give it to him when a nurse told us we had to sterilise the soother. So we had to wait 15 minutes while the soother was being sterilised before giving it to Sam,’ said Ann Marie.

While she was on maternity leave from her job as education coordinator for Co. Longford, Ann Marie researched her idea of a pre-sterilised soother and to her surprise no such product existed.

‘It’s such a simple idea, I couldn’t believe it hadn’t already been invented. I contacted the patent office and found out that it didn’t exist anywhere in the world,’ said Ann Marie.

The soothers are manufactured in Germany then packaged and sterilised in Galway and Mayo. Almost 500 Irish pharmacies now have them in stock. Ann Marie has now turned her back on her old job to work full-time on her Steri-Soother™ project along with other enterprising ideas. ‘I have three other ideas at the moment. One of which I have secured the UK and Ireland contract for,’ she revealed.

But the product, she says, is top secret at the moment…