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SN children

Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on special needs.

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Original poster

How does a weighted blanket work?

16 replies

rebl · 06/04/2011 13:32

We've been using one with ds now for nearly a month and its working pretty well. Its not the be all and end all but its certainly had a significant positive effect. Can anyone explain the science?

OP posts:

TheNinjaGooseIsOnAMission · 06/04/2011 13:40

as far as I know it's about sensory feedback and knowing where all the bits of your body are, crap explanation there! This may be a little more helpful! It's similar to deep pressure vests and wobble cushions, much the same theory I think.

how's the new school going?

Chundle · 06/04/2011 13:49

Sort of through deep pressure like how you feel relaxed after having a massage sort of thing. my dd2 is 20 months she uses one and has a weighted vest and it wold fab it really keeps her grounds and slows her up and allows he to concentrate the change in her is amazingg. OT told me that through the deep pressure applied with a weighted vest it helps her know where her body is in relation to space

IndigoBell · 06/04/2011 15:28

I think if your child has very bad proprioceptive sense, then they literally dont' know where they are (where there hands and feet etc are)

(For example my DS asked me to squeeze his hands cause he'd forgotten where they were :( )

So they keep moving to know where they are - eg to find out if they are still lying safely on the bed of if they are about to fall off.

The weighted blanked puts enough pressure on them for their brain to know where they are - and therefore they don't need to keep wiggling to find that out...

(Well that's my guess.)

amberlight · 06/04/2011 16:55

It also helps cancel out sensory overload.

Generalising for some of us...Think of a bit of your skin that's itching...and how you feel when you scratch it. Relief! You're cancelling out the itchy feeling by using much more pressure on that bit of skin.
Works in a similar way with us and sensory overload from hearing/sight/smell/taste/balance/hot/cold/touch etc. It's like having a thousand 'itches' all at once, all day every day. The blanket sort of smothers them and reduces it to just one feeling instead of an overwhelming number of them.

tabulahrasa · 06/04/2011 17:04

the whole deep pressure thing is roughly (I think, lol) - to do with how touch is experienced when there's sensory issues, so light touch is unpleasant, stroking tickling, but deeper stuff is relaxing and calming, rubbing, swaddling and the weighted blanket is effectively swaddling for bigger people isn't it? lol

wraith · 06/04/2011 17:13

yup wieght = pressure= sensory control. it also has psycological aspects in feeling safe secure

while i dont have a weighted blanket :( (iwant one) i do sleep under a pile of quilts providing much the same effect

and ambers description is ecactly how id describe it

amberlight · 06/04/2011 17:18

I do the pile-of-duvets thing too but it's so hard to sleep in summer when I have to cope with just one.

smileANDwave2000 · 06/04/2011 17:21

i founs quite a heavy sofa throw my ds likes but trouble is he sweats a lot as the weathers getting warmer so dont know what ill do now like todays pretty warm and he ends up soaking wet hidden uner the duvet and heavy cover as he likes to hide his head under there too

lisad123isasnuttyasaboxoffrogs · 06/04/2011 21:04

If anyone wants a weighted blanket made, I have just started making them and happy to make some fir you ladies here. I'm not doing it to make money, you will pay for materials and my time that's it (lot cheaper than other makers)
Feel free to pm me

Original poster

rebl · 06/04/2011 22:08

Thats all really interesting. Thank you. I will go and read the link in the morning. Been dealing with school stuff this evening and for once not my ds.

Ninja New school is going really well thank you for asking. He's so happy. We have his API being implimented and he's starting to really come round to school being and good place to be and he's even got some proper friends . I've never seen him play with his peers like I've watched in the last couple of weeks. School are working really hard on the social development and its really starting to show . He's even started not hitting / spitting when another child upsets him and going and telling the teacher. Proper support does the most amazing things!

OP posts:

colditz · 07/04/2011 15:07

Ds1 does a pile of duvets ... but I've been advised against using a weighted clanket, in part because of his asthma, and mostly becaus the OT says it will lose effect over night, like wearing a watch, and then may be more disoprdered in the day (which I DON'T want!!!)

Original poster

rebl · 07/04/2011 17:21

colditz I take it off him when I go to bed and put his duvet on. I was warned about the effect being lost overnight and so decided the best option was to not let him have it on overnight.

OP posts:

wraith · 07/04/2011 20:30

having weighed my collection of quilts

its about 6-8 kilos over my body

it does seem lighter as the night goes on but its still comforting

wraith · 07/04/2011 20:32

amber even in the heat of summer i still keep my pile of qiuilts or i cant sleep

amberlight · 07/04/2011 21:20

I try to, but all the hot flushes I get with the menopause and the chemotherapy make it really hard to sleep when hot at the moment...

wraith · 07/04/2011 21:46

sorry to hear that :( hope things improve..

not that ive been sleeping this week worst toothache ever.

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