NM, I'm so pleased to hear the good report on Ash. You've worked miracles with the schools, getting (and giving) him what he's needed to shine. Regardless of how you make Ash's 'hug' I think you should do it with one hand constantly patting yourself on the back. :)'
Hugs (lightweight and heavy both) Sunny
My daughter is raising two autistic children. She has a weighted blanket for her daughter. I've forwarded your message to her to see what it's made of. I'll post it as soon as she answers. I'm so glad Ash is doing so well, it says a lot for you as a parent! God bless. Michelle G.
Have you considered doing the blanket with a duvet cover over the vinyl? That way you could make it out of anything and just make a "pillowcase" cover that could be washed as needed. It could be cushy if necessary out of flannel or anything else you like.
Mom used to use doubleknit fabric and made quilts that wore like cast iron and weighed about that much! That was hard on a washing machine though. Denim is about the same way. We also had an old crazy quilt that included lots of corduroy and it weighed a ton. Good luck with this worthy project! Moni
Now see there you go speaking greek again!
The only thing I can equate what you are suggesting to is an air mattress partly filled with water. That suggestion inspires FEAR in the heart of any parent of a kid with oral stim issues! Plus I figure it would take him perhaps as long as two seconds to find the valve and start messing with it to see what it does. Lessee, since a pint's a pound the world around, that would be ten pints of water which equals 1 gallon leave off the quart to make up for the vinyl. One gallon of water equals either a whole lot of clean up or a new mattress, and then there would be my funeral expenses to consider....
I think it would be far to expensive to seriously contemplate.
NightMist
What about shot? It's made of steel now not lead. You can buy it at the shops that sell reloading supplies to the folks who reload their own shot gun shells. My neighbor is a competitive shooter, clay pigeons not live ones.
There was a thread a few years ago about making a weighted vest for an autistic child. Maybe you could find some helpful information there:
Most of the autistic kids I've met would have gone a lot further than that, attempting to eat the airbed as an appetizer for sinking their teeth into the bedframe and their own hands. (My experience has mostly been with really extreme cases).
I know not all are like that, and I didn't know where on the spectrum Ash was. Some would be okay with it if you glued the valve shut.
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He is not as bad as some, yet worse than others. He does have the oral stim thing going on. The heel of his left hand is heavily callused, and his cuticles and nails are bitten to nubbins. You will hear "Ash! Don't eat your feet!" if you spend a day at our house. I think I am going to try chewelry again now that he is spending the school day in an environment where they might actually consistently encourage him to use it. They have expressed concern about him biting his hand and have fished for ways to at least protect the bite zone.
Yeah gluing things shut just doesn't fly with him. If he knows it is supposed to open then he will fix it until it does. He is still trying to work out how to get the lower cabinet doors open on the entertainment center. We screwed them shut because he kept slamming them. He knows it is the screws, but he hasn't managed to work them loose with his fingers yet.
NightMist
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