Benefits of Weighted Blanket for kids with needs

A Special thank you to Weighted Creations for supplying weighted blanket and lap pad  product for review purposes. All opinions are 100% my own. 

Have you heard of a weighted blanket? For a parent of a kid with special needs; it can be a heaven send. A blessing you never would have imagined. So lets talk about why.

Imagine you have had a rough day. You come home and finally after more hours struggling with the kids, getting homework done, dealing with fighting, complaints about dinner, struggle with kids to get to bed, and finally they are all quiet in their rooms. You take this time to curl up in a big cozy blanket and just sit and relax. Imagine the tension and stress leaving your body. Imagine your mind clearing and you are able to think once more. Imagine having that momentary recharge to where you are better able to handle the next task on your list.

That is just a slight glimmer of a look into how a weighted blanket can help kids with needs. It helps to calm nerves, stress, anxiety and help the child process emotions, anxieties, and the bombardment to their senses.

Benefits of a Weighted Blanket

The benefit of a weighted blanket has been noted to be useful in the treatment in both kids and adults for

• Depression
• PTSD
• ADHD
• Autism
• Sensory processing Disorders
• ADD
• Alzheimer’s
• Anxiety Disorder
• Aspergers Syndrome
• Bi-Polar Disorder
• Epilepsy
• FAS
• Insomnia
• Cerebral Palsy
• Dementia
• Down’s Syndrome
• Parkenson’s Disease
• Pervasive Development Disorder
• Restless Leg Syndrome
• Rett Syndrome
• Sensory integration
• Tourette’s Syndrome
• And lots more!

For Children, using a weighted blanket can help them understand their relationship to the world. How their movements work, their body positions. It also offers calming affects and helps the child process information and handle their emotions. Sometimes it can even stimulate sensory input that a child needs to handle situations or environments. You can learn more by visiting neeweightedproducts or even OT-Innovations.

Another interesting tidbit is that you get a different weight of blanket or lap pad based on the weight of your child. To get an idea of how heavy you need your weighted products to be visit especialneeds.com.

My experience with a weighted blanket

As a parent to a child with special needs; I have come to truly appreciate our weighted creations. Miss Jade has been unique since she was born. We were always told to not worry because children all develop at different stages. But come 18 months old and she only had a 3 word vocabulary and was severely behind in other areas, I knew we had to do something. That is when we began this long journey.

Fast Forward a few years. Miss Jade is now 4 going on 5 years old. And we are finally reaching a point where both her therapists and parents a like agree there is something more than just typical delays. Otherwise we would have more progress and Jade should be caught up by now. We’ve been doing some research and conducted a sensory profile. Although we don’t have an “official” diagnosis yet; it is believed she has sensory processing issues,  and a possibility of a few other issues.

But I will save that post until after we get the official diagnosis. It is now just in the process of getting the proper referral to the right doctor so insurance will pay for the testing. Oh the joys right?

Much of my comfort the last few weeks has come from Miss Jade’s therapists and also my friend Jeri. She has been a great resource of knowledge as she manages three children with sensory processing disorders and special needs. She is the one who introduced to me the idea of using a weighted blanket.

Jeri also just recently started her own hand crafted business called Weighted Creations. In her own research to find weighted blankets, weighted vests and weighted lap pads for her own children; she found the prices to be astronomical. So she learned how to create them herself. And she wanted to offer the option to other families in need at a much more affordable price.

Thanks to Jeri’s kindness Miss Jade now has an adorable Tinkerbell Weighted Blanket and equally adorable Sea Horse Lap Pad.

Miss Jade has an issue with textures. And an obsession with fabrics. Jeri’s selections were absolutely perfect! The faux minky is the exact material Jade is obsessed with. And she immediately took to her new blanket and Sea Horse Lap Pad.

So much so that she has refused to allow any other stuffed animal or doll to reside with her in her bed. She used to insist on sleeping with 3 stuffed animals and dolls each night. There had to be at least three. If they were not present; she would not sleep.

Now She is able to sleep in a deeper sleep with her weighted blanket on top and cuddled up with her weighted lap pad. She used to be a tremendously light sleeper and anything would wake her up. Now she sleeps deeper and is much happier and better able to manage trials in her daily life.

As a means of comfort; Miss Jade can also be found to carry her weighted blanket around the house. And insists on it being present when she is having down time or watching a movie. We find it ironic she reaches for the blanket instead of the lap pad for carrying around the house. But she’s always been unique and dances to her own tune.

Jeri is truly wonderful to help us out. She runs a newly created blog called Weighted Creations that discusses life raising three children with needs. She also just launched her Etsy store where you can purchase your own Weighted Creations blankets, Weighted Creations vests, and Weighted Creations Lap Pads. She has a unique twist to the lap pads and you can get then in basic lap pad style or in the adorable dinosaur.

After she special created Jade’s sea horse she decided it wasn’t something she wanted to mass produce. That darn tail. lol. So I guess we lucked out. But you can still get the Dinosaur in the adorable girl patterns too. You can also chat with Jeri on Weighted Creations on Facebook.

Jeri is offering you,  a very special 15% discount on your orders; just for reading our story. Simply use the discount code dinojade when you send Jeri a message telling her you want a special order. Everything is created via special order through conversing with her so she can get you exactly what your little one needs. But just know the discount code is only good until March 24, 2014.

Also Jeri is offering one of our readers a chance to win your own weighted lap pad for kids! You can choose between regular lap pad or the dinosaur lap pad and you can choose the fabrics too! The weighted lap pad Giveaway is live from March 14- March 28, 2014. Giveaway is open to USA. Plus the first entry is simply to comment on this post, so go ahead and do that now so you don’t have to come back.

How can a weighted blanket benefit your child?

Do you know someone who could use a Weighted Creation?