Megan sleeps with her weighted blanket i think it is arround 5 pounds. She can and has kicked it off in the night. But let me tell you we went from being up 3 to 5 times every night tooooo sleeping through the night 90 percent of the time with the blanket.. I am so amazed I never expected that kind of result, as close to a miracle as i have ever seen.. Does your child receive occupational therapy? It might be a good idea to run the idea by the ot first. My son is 3yrs old and for the past month he has decided that he will only sleep if he has his weighted blanket on. He is already on a Sensory Diet with vest and a 3 pound toy snake he wears on his shoulder. I'm not consered about deep pressure, I have that covered. I'm conserned that he is sleeping under a 6 pound weight and he gets so over heated. Does anyone else have this problem?Good Idea making a new one..... I have heard many people say they have tried SEVERAL different styles before they found the one that worked best for them. Maybe the one he has now can be used during the cooler seasons.
At the moment he is not getting anything(We just moved from Belgium, Army). Our last O.T. said if he fell asleep with it was fine but try to remove it shortly after. Sometimes that works other times he wakes up right away. Owell, we will get it figured out.
Hope everyone has a GREAT day!!!!
~Brooke~
Brooke,.... Weighted blankets can and often are used for sleep. I have not heard of anyone getting over heated from it any more than they would from any other blanket. How are the weights distributed? My son's blanket has weight strips running diagonally across the blanket spaced about every 6 inches apart. He does get warm and slip out from under the blanket because its summer... I keep a fan on for him.... I am also looking at having another blanket made from some lightweight cotton material.Sorry it took so long to reply. The weight is even throughout the quilt. They are inside the quilt and cannot be removed. I made it with plastic poly pellets but it also has two layers of batting in it which is why he gets warm. I am getting ready to make him a new one and am going to do it a bit different this time.
~Brooke~
thanks for the information michelle and brooke cant wait to see if it helps him sleep through the niteThere is a seller on eBay that makes some in various styles for about plus s/h and insurance (which adds up to be about , for a total of about ). A friend of mine has two - one for each of her boys and she let us borrow one for my son, since they don't use them much in the summer. Well, first of all it has Spiderman on it - so it is WAY cool. The first three nights my son slept an extra hour longer than he normally does and I didn't hear him thrashing as much in his sleep. He has been in mostly better moods and did just awesome at school - it was his first week. Now, I should say that he normally does sleep through the night and has since he was 10 weeks old (we are very lucky, I know!). But, when he gave up naps at 3 1/4 years, he has been much more grumpy and I know he needed more sleep. We put him to bed at 7:00 each night. It usually takes him a little while to fall asleep and he wakes up between 6:00 and 6:15 every morning - REGARDLESS OF WHAT TIME WE PUT HIM TO BED! We have been strongly criticized by just about everyone about how early we put him to bed. So, we always reply - well, we have put him to bed as late as 11:00 (when we attended a wedding) and he STILL wakes up at 6:15. So, let's see... do we want to put him to bed really early and have him get enough sleep or put him to bed the same time as everyone else does and have him be cranky all day? Hmmm....
Anyway, he has been sleeping in until almost 7:00 and one morning it was past 7:00. I think he is finally starting to get enough sleep. That being said, our A/C went out and it is hotter than hades (upper 80s, lower 90s and lots of humidity). It was still about 68 degrees in the middle of the night. We chose to try to get through this weekend as we live in Minnesota and surely there won't be much more hot weather and it is 00 for a new A/C system. Well, last night since it was so hot, my son woke up at 1:00 and then again at 5:30. He may also have had a nightmare, I'm not sure. So, we were back to being cranky again today. Tonight, he is sleeping down on our lowest level with daddy so that he stays cool and so that he can use the weighted blanket.
We love this blanket and I am going to purchase one - probably tomorrow! It really seems to calm him down. It has only 3 pounds of weight in it and is fully machine washable. The weight is spread throughout and is microbeads. My son is about 40 pounds and 42 inches and the OT thought that was a good weight for him. The blanket is not full-size, I think it's 32x42. We will obviously have to move up and get a bigger one as he gets older, but this will definitely work for now.
Hope this helps!
My son has to have his when he goes to sleep. It is an even weight throughout the quilt and filled with the plastic poly pellets/ micro beads. He even loves to lay on top of it. I made his and he is 29 pounds and the quilt is six pounds which seems to be the perfect weight for him. I made his a shaggy quilt so he can also rub the fringe to help him relax. It's worked great!!!
I do advise talking with an O.T. first about the proper weight to use before buying/making any weighted blanket or vest.
~Brooke~
Weighted blanket??? Is this supposed to help them when they start sleeping in a "big boys" bed? AJ is still in the crib, but it won't be too much longer now to where we will hafta get him a new bed. Where can I buy a "weighted" blanket? How much do they cost? I can't believe how much I am learning just from this board alone! I would be soooo lost without the support and information I find here. Thank you ALL, again, for sharing information from your experiences AND what you find online!http://www.beyondplay.com/CATALOG/SEN3.HTM
http://www.calmcomforts.com/blanket/blankets.htm
http://www.theraproducts.com/index/page-catalog/main-8161/su b-8289/
http://www.saltoftheearthweightedgear.com/fabricspage.html
http://www.weightedblanket.net/
http://www.myweightedblankets.com/pricing___orders
Cookiecookie3
Oh boy can I relate to the getting overheated or as I like say sweaty as my son(10) sleeps with 3 blankets on his head and one comforter every night and I have to go in before I go to bed and take off all the blankets except I leave the comforter on him for weight.
Kelly
Thank you Michelle for posting the links!!!
You can also make one for about -. I use plastic poly pellets to put in my son's. You can find them at any fabric store and Wal-mart carries them from time to time.
~Brooke~
i used a weighted vest for dakota during the day and was to ld by out ot to do 2hr on and 2hr off and it works pretty good to get him to attendt to tasks but to remove if he becomes sleepy. my question is do you let them sleep all nite with the weighted blanket i would be afraid it would slow down their respirations(breathing) more. i am probably looking to make a 3-4lb wt since dakota weighs about 31lbs and was told to make it 10% of his body wt. i think i will use it to help him fall asleep and then remove it , i am afraind to leave on all nite. any suggestions would be helpful. thanksSherry there are weighted sleep blankets that are to sleep with. My son sleeps with his on him all night long its what (i feel) was helping him stay asleep. His OT said as long as it isnt too heavy that he cant move from under it that it would be fine.
hello
I probably am way off course here -- but, I'm helping a friend who recently asked for helpl. She has a 4 year old who has mild/moderate autism with no other medical issues. She says that he has had sleep disturbances for the past two years, but lately it's moved from bursts of good and bad nights to bad nights every night. I went looking for information that might help her -- although she's pretty active with her local autism society chapter - and I saw this forum about weighted blankets -- is this something you all would suggest I pass along to her as a suggestion? She's just about ready to pull her hair out from lack of sleep.
what is the blanket for?