Mary Kostka shows how to make a weighted blanket with silicone beads and fabric, sewn into a 6-inch grid. Fill it to no more than 10% of a child's body weight, drape it over shoulders or lay it flat for deep pressure. Not for infants, and kids need to be able to remove it.
Aloha, magnificent moms and dads. This is Mary with Ohana OT and in this video I'm excited to share with you the weighted blanket. This is just one of the most wonderful tools for helping kids feel calm. And you know, it can help bring them down or just help help them prevent from getting escalated. It just feels like a nice hug. So these weighted blankets are available commercially or you can make your own. I'll explain how to make one. And the great thing about them is you can put them in the washer and the dryer and they are filled with craft beads, silicone craft beads that are, they're small little clear beads that are designed for usually putting like in stuffed animals, that sort of thing. So if you're going to make your own, you can use any material you want. You can use a really soft material. You can use a heavy material like a denim if you want it to be even heavier. You can use like even a sheet type of material if you want it just to be kind of light and smooth, whatever fabric the child likes. And you don't want it to be any more than 10% of the child's body weight. And I wouldn't put them on, put this on little babies. You want them to be able to take the blanket off themselves. So you want it to be, you know, probably like at least a one year old or older. And you can see that they didn't do on this one, they didn't put any beans on the outer edge. The beans are kind of expensive. So you just want them where they're going to be on the body. And then you can see it's about 6 inch squares. And the way you do it is you just sew your bottom line and then your vertical lines and then you're going to fill however much you decide to put in there, the same in each one and then just sew it across and then fill the next rows and then sew it across. So that's how you would make one yourself or you know, have somebody that sews make one for you. The really great thing is that the prices are starting to come down because they're becoming more mainstream. So Target actually carries them now and they even are promoting them for adults and for, you know, college students and just to help everybody de stress. So it's really great that they're becoming more popular because that is helping them become little more affordable. One of the things you can do is you can just kind of have it wrapped around them like on their shoulders. And that's the deep pressure on the shoulders especially is usually what's more calming or when they're laying down, just to put it on them that way. All right, well, that is some info about weighted blankets. Hope that's helpful. Have a great day.
Hi again. I am so glad that you took the time to watch this video and I'm really proud of you because I know you're busy and it takes time to sit down and focus and learn something new and just really proud of you. Give yourself a pat on the back. You're going to see this after each video because I just want. I just want to reinforce you and just let you know I'm proud of you. And change isn't easy. Some of these things, you hear the idea and then implementing it. You know, we're all habitual, so it's not always easy to do. So just do your best to make little baby steps forward and make little changes that are positive and keep watching. See you in the next video.
Aloha.
